Anthony Waldman House - Before The Stone House: Wild Land Speculation

Before The Stone House: Wild Land Speculation

The Waldman House lies in the southwest block of Leech’s Addition to the City of St. Paul (legally described as the NE1/4 of SE1/4 Section 1, Township 28, Range 23). Leech’s Addition was platted by developer Samuel Leach in 1849 as a perfectly symmetric nine-block square of streets and alleys extending southwest from the earliest-settled core of St. Paul. Leech’s Addition was bounded by Wilkin Street to the east, Douglas Street to the west, Ramsey Street to the north, and Goodrich Street to the south. Notably, Fort Road (today’s West Seventh Street) ended at Ramsey Street and did not extend into Leech’s Addition until 1859, after the stone portion of the Waldman House was built (more on this timing below). Before then, the historic thoroughfare to the Fort Snelling ferry and the Minnesota River valley beyond meandered along the Mississippi bluff line in unplatted land to the south of Goodrich Street, labeled on early maps as “Bluff Street.”

The lot occupied by the Waldman House was just paces away from Bluff Street. The lot spanned the area between block nine’s alley to the north and Goodrich to the south, and faced Forbes Street (renamed Smith Avenue in 1887) to the east. Prior to 1853 this lot was bought and sold as an undifferentiated part of the quarter-section, and later block, by such early and avid land speculators as Henry Sibley, Samuel Leech, James McClellan Boal ("McBoal"), William Forbes and Justus Ramsey. The lot was first individually mentioned in a December 1853 deed when it was sold by Indian trader Louis Roberts along with eleven other lots to local investor William McCarty for $1,500. Eight months later McCarty more than doubled his money by selling six of these lots—-including the stone house lot—-to Toronto investor John Eastwood for $2,000. Eastwood immediately split up his purchase and sold the stone house lot by itself to A. Vance Brown one month later for $350, making a small profit on this parcel and perhaps larger profits on the remaining parcels. Four months later, by deed dated December 8, 1854, Brown then resold the lot to Charles Fuchs (aka Fox) for $420. Taking this single year of sales in total and adjusting for inflation, the value of the lot had increased more than 275% in the single year between Louis Roberts’ sale and Charles Fuchs' ultimate purchase.