Sealed proposals will be received at this office until 12 m., on the 24th day of April, 1888, for the erection and completion of two or more cottages for the Minnesota Soldiers’ Home, in accordance with drawings and specifications, copies of which hand additional information may be had on application at the office of W. B. Dunnell, architect, 408 Nicollet avenue, Minneapolis. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Friday, March 23, 1888, Page 7)
During the afternoon the trustees of the home met and discussed the plans for the new buildings. These buildings will be two cottages, each 50x65 feet and situated on the table land 150 feet above the river at the point where the river intersects with the creek. The grounds are being laid out by H. W. S. Cleveland, the landscape gardener. The cottages will be 2 ½ stories high. The first floor and at the front will be large day rooms, so called, 18x34 feet. Back of these will be the orderlies’ rooms, and across the hall the bath rooms. All the remaining space on the two floors will be used for dormitories. The dining rooms will for the present be in the basements. Each cottage will have room for 80 men. The material for the buildings will be pressed brick with brown stone trimmings and copper cornices. There will be front and rear verandas and a second story balcony. The structures will be as substantial throughout as brick and mortar can make them and virtually fire-proof. Architect W. B. Dunnell hopes that they will be completed by Oct. 1. It is expected that the two buildings with the laying out of the land will cost about $40,000. The contracts have been awarded as follows: Carpenter work Kilroe Bros., $7,775; mason work, Winona Building Company, $18,784; painting and glazing, H. B. Cramer, $1,217; slating and iron work not yet awarded. The buildings will probably be lighted by electricity. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Wednesday, April 25, 1888, Page 5)
It was decided to build two cottages with a capacity for 160 inmates, instead of four cottages with a joint capacity of 200 men, as has been projected. The buildings are to be of pressed brick, with slate roofs and brown stone trimming, and will be very substantial. The contract for the carpenter work was let to Kilrain Bros., whose bid was $7,775. The Winona Building company gets the stone work for $18,780, and the paving and grading is to be done by B. Comte for $1,217. Gryla & Son were awarded the contract for the copper and iron work at $2,560. (Saint Paul Daily Globe, Wednesday, April 25, 1888, Page 4)
Work on the new Soldiers’ Home at Minnehaha has not been proceeding as rapidly as the members of the board of directors thought it should, owing to the failure of contractors to finish work at times agreed upon and delay in delivering brick and other material. Yesterday Capt. Castle and Maj. R. R. Henderson, of the board of directors, Capt. Merritt, of St. Paul, the engineer who laid out the grounds, Warren Dunnell, the architect, and Mr. J. J. McCarty, of St. Paul, went out to the home and inspected the work. They found that the north building is well along, all the plastering is done and the carpenters will begin putting on the inside finish this morning. In about a week the board hopes to have the hot water heating apparatus in position, and then it will be an easy matter to get the plaster dried out ready to receive the paint. Work on the south building is not so far advanced, but the plasterers have begun work there. Every effort will be made to hurry forward the work, and the board expects to be able to invite the members of the legislature, the Governor and other public dignitaries to the formal opening of the home about Jan. 15. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Saturday, November 24, 1888, Page 5)
The new soldiers’ home, consisting of two large handsome buildings, stands of the lower point of this peninsula. The buildings are approached by a circular drive, and if properly developed the grounds will make an ideal park. The buildings are high and roomy, constructed of red brick, and no more appropriate site could have been chosen for them. The view from the eastern side of the park is especially beautiful. Stretched out before the feet of the observer is the Mississippi sweeping noiselessly along, and beyond in panoramic view is a picturesque scene. The visitor will never tire of gazing at this ever-changing picture. In the spring the green, changing with the advancing season through bud and blossom and fruit to the sear and reddened leaves of autumn, and the frost and snows of winter. On pleasant days the old soldiers, of which there are 140 in the home, may be seen standing on the high bank gazing down into the expressionless river below and the shifting scenery beyond. Surely it was wisdom to select this spot for the few old veterans of the ware who are needy in the declining years, to close their lives. From that point they can recall the Shenandoah, Lookout Mountain and many other scenes of the war. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Sunday, April 7, 1889, Page 1)
As a matter of course every citizen in Minnesota knows that the state has generously made provision for the needy veterans of the civil war, but probably there are but few who have any correct idea of the improvements already made and those in contemplation at Minnehaha, the location of the Soldiers’ Home. Last season two cottages were erected, and at present are filled to their utmost capacity, one being used as a hospital. About the 1st of July work on hospital proper was begun, and the work is now far along that the roof is being put on. The plan contemplates a main part 50 by 70, three stories and a basement, with two wings two stories high, each 24 b 70. Only the main part and the west wing will be completed at present, the other wing to be added as the needs of the institution require. The building is situated on the edge of the bluff and fronts the south, overlooking Minnehaha creek. The wings join the main part at an angle, giving the building the shape of an arc of a circle with the concave side facing the south. The structure rests on the solid rock. The foundation is blue limestone and the walls red pressed brick with trimmings of Lake Superior sandstone. The entrance is on the north side and in the main part. On the right of the entrance are the commandant’s and the adjutant’s rooms, and on the left a commodious reception room. The portico is to be finished in hard wood and an ornamental transom in the shape of a half circle set over the double doors opening into the hall. Across the main hall and on the south side of the building are the offices of the surgeon and his assistant. The former is commodious and has an instrument room opening off from it. As this office fronts the south there is plenty of light. Until the administration building is erected the commandant and adjutant will occupy the second floor of the main part for sleeping rooms, and their kitchen will be in the basement. In the third story of this part of the building will be located the kitchen and laundry of the hospital. An elevator large enough to carry a patient on a cot will run from the basement to the third story. In the wing are located two wards, each 22x50, one on each floor. In the extreme west end of the wing and on each floor are commodious and convenient bath rooms, lavatories and water closets and smoking rooms, and rooms for nurses. In the basement will be placed the boilers and engine for the heating and ventilating plant. The floors are made of three inch plank covered with minerale on which is laid maple flooring. The ceilings are 12 feet high and are to be paneled in oak. The partitions are all solid brick, and in connection with the other protections make the building fireproof. The fan system of ventilation is to be used. The building is to be heated by indirect radiation, the hot air coming from the basement through tiled pipes, which enter the rooms at the height of the cots, thereby enabling the patients to regulate the heat for themselves. Fresh air is supplied to the heating ducts by a duct running through the basement and opening into the outside air. All supply and drainage pipes are enclosed in shafts running to the top of the building. This prevents foul gases and odors from diffusing themselves throughout the building. The drainage is into a tunnel cut through the sand rock and leading to the river. On the north side is an open veranda eight feet wide, extending the entire length of the wing, and on the south front is to be a closed veranda 75 feet long, where the convalescents can sun themselves. Both verandas have iron posts and railings. Billiard and card rooms will, in course of time, be placed in the basement. That portion of the building now in process of erection will be ready for occupancy by Nov. 20 and will accommodate 75 patients. The building is arranged on the same plan as the National Soldiers’ Home Hospital at Washington and the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore. The only other building operations now in progress at the home is the erection of an addition to the pump house. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Friday, October 4, 1889, Page 5)