Heman L. Ticknor House

A Gothic Revival-style house built in 1867 at 1625 Third Avenue in Anoka served as a residence for four generations of the Heman Ticknor family. In 1996, the home began to operate as a bed and breakfast.

The first generation of Ticknors was among the original settler-colonists of Anoka who arrived and built the river town in the mid-nineteenth century. The family opened a dry goods store in 1855 before converting it into a cigar-manufacturing business in 1860. Building upon this success, Heman Ticknor expanded the businesses to include a drug store, which he opened in 1864.

In 1867, Ticknor built a new home for himself and his new wife, Ann (Sweeney) Greenwald. The floor plan of the structure, built in the Gothic Revival style, was in the shape of a “T,” with the front entrance overlooking the confluence of the Rum and Mississippi Rivers. Its Gothic elements included gables, elaborate bargeboards, and arched windows in the front façade. The coupled installed three fireplaces, one built with locally manufactured brick.

Shortly before Heman Ticknor’s death in 1897, his daughter, Zale, and son-in-law, John Niles, took up residence in the house. Later, they added their own unique architectural updates. John practiced law as an attorney while Zale worked within Anoka’s well-known women’s organization, the Philolectian Society, to establish a city library.

The couple’s plans included dividing the existing structure into three sections. The front section, which faced west, switched places with the rear section, while the center portion remained intact. These subtle but significant changes gave the house a fashionable new Third Avenue South address—highly desirable in 1901. Historians believe that changing the address acted as a major factor in the remodel work. Other architectural changes included the addition of a tower section with Queen Anne and neoclassical elements. A full front porch was added, along with Corinthian columns, a projecting bay window, and a porte cochere, or covered area for vehicles to pull up to the house.

In 1913, the house passed to the next generation: Natalie Niles, daughter of John and Zale, who married Arthur Lee Smith. The couple raised their son, Ticknor Niles Smith, in the house. In 1938, after Ticknor went away to college, the Smiths added one and a half stories to the back of the house. The couple further modified the interior, dividing it into three sections for apartments. In 1977, Ticknor Smith sold the residence out of the family, at which point further renovations and extensive interior remodeling transformed the house into a duplex. In that same year, the house was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. It achieved that recognition in 1980.

By 1996, the famed house had assumed a new role as a bed and breakfast. Once again, it underwent substantial remodeling, this time by its latest owners, Lynne and Terry Rickert, who created four separate rooms to accommodate guests. Exterior renovations did not result in any major changes to the structure.

Editor’s note: This article contains content adapted from a National Register of Historic Places nomination file—a public-domain text.