This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Dakota County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. Dakota County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, bounded on the northeast side by the Upper Mississippi River and on the northwest by the Minnesota River. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
Dakota County's historic sites convey the county's significant historical trends, including the settlement at Mendota, the homes of well-heeled residents of Hastings, the ethnic gathering places in South Saint Paul, and other sites related to life on the prairie, including religion, education, transportation, commerce, and the business of farming.
There are 38 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the county. A supplementary list includes three additional sites that were formerly listed on the National Register.
The earliest European settlement occurred on what is now Picnic Island, in 1819, where Colonel Henry Leavenworth built a stockade fort called "St. Peter's Cantonment" or "New Hope;" there materials were assembled for the construction of Fort Snelling, to be built on the bluff on the north side of the Minnesota River.[2] Permanent settlement on the island was impossible due to annual flooding.
Mendota
The next significant white settlement occurred in the area known as St. Peters, now Mendota, where Alexis Bailey built some log buildings to trade in furs in 1826. Henry Hastings Sibley built the first stone house in Minnesota there in 1836, overlooking Fort Snelling across the river. Sibley was a partner in the American Fur Company, and considerable fur trade occurred at Mendota, where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers converge. By the time Minnesota achieved statehood in 1858, power and influence had shifted from Mendota, across the rivers to Saint Paul and Minneapolis.[3]
Hastings
By this time and continuing into the 20th century, the hub of activity in the county was in Hastings, the county seat, and a focal point of transportation, communication, and commerce. Hastings is critically located on the Mississippi River at the confluence of the St. Croix River and on the Vermillion River, which provided ample water power. Commercial interests built substantial wealth among the businessmen who dealt in lumber, milling, and railroads as the county residents depended on them to sell their agricultural products and to provide the goods needed for a growing economy and rising standard of living.[4]
South Saint Paul
Into the early twentieth century, the stockyards and meat-packing plants in South Saint Paul became historically significant, as they were the largest stockyards in the world;[5] this is where ranchers in the vast countryside to the west brought their livestock for shipping to the hungry populations of St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans, downstream.[6] These plants were worked by new immigrants from Romania, Serbia, and other Eastern European countries.[7]
Farmhouse built circa 1856 for pioneer Daniel F. Akin (1828–1909), whose daily official weather observations (continued by his descendants) provide an invaluable meteorological record. Also noted for its distinctive stone construction.[11]
Church built 1877–78 and cemetery established in 1865, the last standing reminders of a vigorous "church war" among rival Lutheran denominations in a Norwegian American settlement.[12]
Courthouse built 1869–71 and renovated with a dome in 1912; noted for its Italian Villa architecture and association with Dakota County's government.[15] Now Hastings City Hall.[4]
Intact and well-appointed example—built in 1882—of the small rural schools once common in 19th-century Dakota County. Later repurposed as a community hall.[16]
Best-preserved example—built in 1880—of the masonry commercial buildings constructed on Dakota County's Main Streets in the late 19th century as their first-generation wooden buildings were replaced.[19]
10
Farmers Union Central Exchange Second Headquarters Building
Farmers Union Central Exchange Second Headquarters Building
Church built 1875–1881, designed by early Minnesota architect Charles N. Daniels as one of the state's first uses of Romanesque Revival architecture. Also noted for its association with Hasting's settlement by native-born New Englanders.[22]
Military complex established in 1819 and in use till 1946, instrumental in the development of the Upper Midwest and in the transition of the U.S. Army from a small frontier force into a major army. Primarily in Hennepin County.[23]
4,119-foot (1,255 m) bridge constructed 1925–26, noted for its sophisticated design and original status as the world's longest continuous concrete arch bridge. Extends into Hennepin County.[24]
1858 meeting hall soon converted to a school, nominated as the only remaining example of the Greek Revival buildings constructed at a notable speculative townsite.[26] Moved to the Little Log House Pioneer Village in 2005.[27]
Rare surviving example—built in 1859—of Minnesota's earliest industrial buildings, which manufactured engines and structural parts for steamboats, grain elevators, construction, and early automobiles.[28]
Family farm established in 1893, the last surviving remnant of Eagan's agricultural past, whose 10 contributing properties span the era's peak in the first half of the 20th century. Now a living farm museum.[30]
House built 1868–70 for influential local banker and public official Byron Howes (1833–1886). Also noted as fine example of a towered style of Italianate architecture popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing.[31]
Factory complex built 1914–1946 by one of the nation's largest farm equipment manufacturers. Further emblematic of Hastings' early-20th-century industrial development.[32]
Gothic Revival house built 1862–65 for early settler William G. LeDuc (1823–1917), remembered as a community developer, historian, Minnesota promoter, Civil War brigadier general, and prominent farmer.[35] Now a museum and event venue.[36]
House built in Nininger in 1857 and moved to Hastings in 1866, noted for its successive ownership by two prominent local journalists—A.W. MacDonald and Irving Todd, Sr.—and for MacDonald's role in promoting the speculative townsite.[37]
Fur trading outpost that grew into Minnesota's first civil government seat; home of early leaders like Henry Hastings Sibley (1811–1891). Comprises three early houses and outbuildings constructed 1835–1854 (now the Sibley Historic Site) plus the 1853 Saint Peter's Church.[38]
Rare surviving example of a flag stop railway station, a simple open-fronted shelter built in 1910 on the Dan Patch Line to serve small produce farmers and early commuters.[39]
Landmark river bluff significant as a long-serving Dakota gathering place, ceremonial site, and burial ground, signing site of the 1851 Treaty of Mendota, and backdrop to early Euro-American settlement at Fort Snelling.[41]
One of Minnesota's first commercial flour mills, built 1856–57, whose picturesque ruins left by an 1894 fire became an early tourist destination protected as a city park in 1925.[42]
1836 house of pioneer leader Henry Hastings Sibley (1811–1891), fur trading captain, U.S. Representative, state constitutional convention delegate, first state governor, and general during the Dakota War of 1862.[45] Also a contributing property to the Mendota Historic District, and part of the Sibley Historic Site.[46]
1887 base of operations for the nation's largest meat packing center at the turn of the 20th century. Also noted as South St. Paul's most architecturally significant building.[47]
Rare surviving example of Minnesota's once-common camelback through truss bridges—built in 1909—and one of the state's oldest bridges with rigid rather than pinned connections.[50]
1887 Queen Anne house of local civic leader George Wentworth and a symbol of the area's transition from farmland to residential and industrial suburbs.[51]
^ abNumbers represent an alphabetical ordering by significant words. Various colorings, defined here, differentiate National Historic Landmarks and historic districts from other NRHP buildings, structures, sites or objects.
^The eight-digit number below each date is the number assigned to each location in the National Register Information System database, which can be viewed by clicking the number.
