The House

This house was built in 1917 by Bryan and Mary Devine, née Sullivan. The house is a two bedroom Dutch Colonial Revival. The sunroom on the south side was added in 1926 and forced air replaced the radiator heat in 1939. 

Bryan was an Irish immigrant who came over in the late 1800s with his siblings and parents. Mary was born in Springfield, Minnesota, to Canadian parents. Bryan worked many jobs, but at the time this house was built, and for his time living here through retirement, he worked for the rail postal service. 

Aerial photography from 1923 shows the house as one of the first on the block and the property stretching down to 5th street. According to a county plat map from 1928, there were three out buildings in the back yard. One, an garage, still stands. Evidence of the other two have been found in the form of an old foundation and several mounds of debris. In an effort to flatten the mounds, I've pulled up buckets of nails and metal hardware, glass bottle fragments dating to the 1920s, and other bits and bobs. Each spring, the ground pushes up a few more trinkets from the property's past.

The Devine's did not have children and moved to Selby Ave. (across the street from the Louisiana Cafe) in the late 1930s. Mary died in 1946 and Bryan followed in 1948. They are buried at Calvary Cemetery in Saint Paul. 

The Lasar family bought the home from the Devines in the late 1930s and stayed here through two generations until the early 2000s. At that point, the house changed hands several times through a couple flippers and landlords. Thankfully, much of the natural woodwork and charm survived.