Back to top

LeDuc Historic Estate

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
LeDuc Historic Estate

Front façade of the LeDuc historic estate in Hastings. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, March 22, 2014. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Finished in the mid-1860s after years of logistical and financial challenges, the LeDuc Historic Estate in Hastings is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style. It is also one of the few surviving homes designed by influential architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing.

Immediately after their marriage in 1851, Mary and William LeDuc travelled west by river from Mount Vernon, Ohio, to the small town of St. Paul, where William started a legal practice and the city’s first bookstore. After some success as a lawyer, political booster, and land speculator, LeDuc staked his livelihood on a quarter share of what was to become the town of Hastings, also receiving a prime spot across from the town’s mill in exchange for legal services. This was to be the site of his family’s new home.

The LeDucs ultimately turned to the home plans of Andrew Jackson Downing, a renowned horticulturist and amateur architect who started the movement for great urban gardens like New York’s Central Park and DC’s National Mall. August Knight and Abraham Radcliff modified Downing’s plans to suit available resources; walls made of local limestone would render the home’s tower even more imposing while providing contrast to the steep gables and elaborate Rhineland Gothic bargeboards.

The home’s parlor would look out through a covered porch onto the front yard, while the library where William and Mary would write correspondence was to be dominated by a massive bay window. There would be a fireplace in every room on the first and second floors except the kitchen, where servants would prepare meals, and a red-stained veranda where the LeDucs could sit on summer afternoons.

Just when they were ready to start building, the Civil War began. In 1862, William packed up his bags for Washington, where he joined the Quartermaster Corps. After months of struggling to manage his home’s construction along with his duties in camp, William returned to Hastings on furlough, hiring Eri Cogshall to turn the so-far convoluted project around in January of 1863. The young carpenter proved an invaluable liaison and site manager, getting the home’s two-foot-thick walls done by September in spite of labor problems. Cogshall proudly wrote to William that he believed the home to be “as good a one as there is in the state.”

Financial setbacks plagued the LeDucs, largely because they insisted on having all the trappings of refinement on a limited budget. The plan called for seven fireplaces with fine marble mantles; Cogshall had to use pinewood—a cheaper material—for all of them. While they shipped in specialty limestone for the windows and doors, Mary had to choose between sending their daughter Millie to school in new shoes and paying next month’s bills.

The LeDucs finally moved into their home late in 1865, and construction continued through the year’s end. When finished, the home had fifteen rooms and fifty-two windows, and was fifty feet tall. William had estimated at the start of construction that the home would cost five thousand dollars in all; it ended up being closer to thirty thousand.

The LeDuc mansion contained many signifiers of wealth in the Gilded Age. The master bedroom had a cord William or Mary could use to ring the servants’ quarters on the third floor. Their larder was almost as well-stocked as their library and was cooled in the summer months with ice from their private icehouse. Along with servants’ quarters, the home’s roughly finished third floor had an art studio and a small room in the tower where William escaped for contemplation and panoramic views. In the summertime, Mary hosted parties in the backyard orchard, and card parties in the parlor were popular in all seasons.

Following William’s death in 1917, his daughters moved to a smaller house in Minneapolis. Their childhood home doubled as a summer home until 1940, when they sold it to Carroll Simmons, who established an antique shop on the ground floor. In 1958, Simmons donated the home to the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS), on the condition that he could run the store until his retirement. When he retired in 1986, the house sat empty for almost two decades. After extensive repairs and renovations, the home reopened for tours in 2005, and was transferred to the City of Hastings by MNHS.

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Brookins, Jean A. “A Historic Mansion: The William G. LeDuc House.” Minnesota History 37, no. 5 (March 1961): 189–203.
http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/37/v37i05p189-203.pdf

Dakota County Historical Society. LeDuc Historic Estate.
https://www.dakotahistory.org/leduc-historic-estate

Diehl, Daniel, and Mark Donnelly. Haunted Houses: Guide to Spooky, Creepy, and Strange Places Across the USA. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2010.
https://books.google.com/books?id=_OB7x4gj0qoC

Downing, Andrew Jackson. Cottage Residences; Or, a Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage Villas, and Their Gardens and Grounds. New York: J. Wiley and Sons, 1873 (5th edition).

Goblirsch, Wendy. “LeDuc Historic Estate.” National Geographic Tourism.
https://mississippiriver.natgeotourism.com/content/leduc-historic-estate/msp59197401ac99a178c

Kreger, Janet L. "Construction of a Wilderness Mansion: The William Gates LeDuc House." Hastings, Minnesota. Manuscript, 1976. William G. LeDuc and family papers, 1760–1967. Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

LeDuc, Mary Bronson. Mary LeDuc to William LeDuc, August 2, 1863. Letter. William G. LeDuc and family papers, 1760–1967. Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

LeDuc, William Gates. Recollections of William G. Le Duc, undated. William G. LeDuc and family papers, 1760–1967. Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Polydoroff, Chris. “Family Outings: Get the Rich History of Hastings’ LeDuc Estate and its House-poor Residents.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 22, 2013.
http://www.twincities.com/2013/06/22/family-outings-get-the-rich-history-hastings-leduc-estate-and-its-house-poor-residents/

Tabern, Robert, and Kandace Tabern. Outside the Rails: A Rail Route Guide from Chicago to St. Paul, MN. N.p.: Outside The Rails Books, 2012.

Werle, Steve. An American Gothic: The Life and Times and Legacy of William Gates LeDuc: 1823–1917. St. Paul: Dakota County Historical Society Press, 2004.

Related Images

LeDuc Historic Estate
LeDuc Historic Estate
LeDuc Historic Estate
LeDuc Historic Estate
Mary Bronson LeDuc
Mary Bronson LeDuc
William Gates LeDuc at home
William Gates LeDuc at home
LeDuc Historic Estate
LeDuc Historic Estate
Porch of the LeDuc Historic estate
Porch of the LeDuc Historic estate
Members of the LeDuc family in front of their estate
Members of the LeDuc family in front of their estate
Photograph of William Gates LeDuc at home
Photograph of William Gates LeDuc at home
Bedroom inside LeDuc Historic Estate
Bedroom inside LeDuc Historic Estate
LeDuc Historic Estate dining room
LeDuc Historic Estate dining room
Staircase inside LeDuc Historic Estate
Staircase inside LeDuc Historic Estate

Turning Point

In 1957, Carroll Simmons opens the LeDuc Estate for public tours in celebration of Hastings’ centennial anniversary.

Chronology

1851

Three years after meeting at a Kenyon College spring picnic, William and Mary are married in March and immediately begin their journey by steamboat to St. Paul, where William will establish a law practice and bookstore.

1852

Andrew Jackson Downing drowns while attempting to save fellow passengers on an ill-fated steamboat voyage down the Hudson River. Downing was in the middle of planning an addition of Washington, DC’s National Mall to accompany the new Smithsonian Museum.

1854

Through his friend Henry Sibley, William purchases a quarter share in Hastings from Alexander Faribault. Because of its prime river location, speculative investors believe it will develop into a metropolis rivaling Chicago.

1857

Just before the financial panic of 1857, LeDuc sells his St. Paul home and businesses and moves the family to Hastings to pursue his business interests there.

1862

William leaves Hastings for Washington, D.C., to join the Quartermaster Corps, believing, like many Northerners, that the war will be over shortly. Mary and the children spend the war years at her parents’ home in Ohio.

1863

William finds out that the firm contracted to build his home has left town after only a few months on the site, accomplishing little except for running through his money. He begrudgingly finds a new contractor, Eri Cogshall.

1865

After months stuck in Washington finalizing the paperwork and records from his time as quartermaster, William returns in August with his family to Hastings as a brevetted brigadier general. The home is mostly complete, but work goes on for months.

1878

The LeDucs host President Rutherford B. Hayes for lunch in the dining room before he visits massive crowds at the Dakota County Courthouse. William LeDuc was Secretary of Agriculture under Hayes.

1904

Mary passes away at home at the age of seventy-five. William is unable to come to Hastings for her funeral, and later hosts séances with his daughter Alice in the home’s parlor in attempts to contact his wife from beyond the grave.

1915

William passes away at home at the age of ninety-four, soon after repaying his debts. A family friend left LeDuc a small fortune in her will, likely feeling guilty that her late first husband had cut William out of a railroad deal decades earlier.

1940

Alice LeDuc sells the family home to Carroll Simmons, who had served as the estate’s caretaker for the last decade after the LeDuc daughters bought a smaller home in Minneapolis. Simmons runs an antique shop out of the first floor and carriage house.

1957

After decades of inquiries, Simmons opens the LeDuc Estate for tours in celebration of Hastings’ centennial anniversary. Using connections from his antique business, Simmons brings in carpets, period artwork, and marble mantles.