GRIMES HOUSE

The historic Jonathan Taylor Grimes House, 4200 W. 44th St., was previously included in the City's heritage preservation overlay district on Aug. 16, 1976; the property had previously been listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976. The Heritage Preservation Board (HPB) recommended re-designation of the Grimes House as an Edina Heritage Landmark pursuant to City Code §850.20 (as amended). The property was rezoned under the revised preservation ordinance on Feb. 4, 2003.

The Grimes House is described in detail in the National Register registration documents prepared in 1976. The house is also featured in several publications about Edina heritage, including William W. Scott and Jeffrey A. Hess' History and Architecture of Edina, Minnesota (City of Edina, 1981), and Deborah Morse-Kahn's Chapters in the City History: Edina (City of Edina, 1998).

DESCRIPTION
The historic Jonathan Taylor Grimes House is a 1 and 1/2 story frame cottage with a compound plan, clapboard siding, intersecting gable roofs, dormers, a bay window, and a shallow front porch. The house displays Gothic Revival style detailing in the form of its steeply pitched roofs, gabled wall dormers, and lancet second-floor windows. The shallow portico and wide eaves with their scroll-cut brackets are an Italian Villa (Italianate) stylistic detail. David Gebhard and Tom Martinson describe it as a "Gothic Revival cottage with Italianate details" (A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota, p. 122). The original plan of the house was modified by the addition of a two-story rear wing and an attached garage - otherwise, the property is in a good state of preservation.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Grimes House, built in 1869, is a product of mid-nineteenth century American pattern book architecture, probably inspired by Andrew Jackson Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). The oldest house standing in Edina, it is a rare, well preserved example of cottage architecture from the early settlement period. Contextually, it relates to the themes of agriculture and rural life, and it is also historically significant for its association with Jonathan Taylor Grimes (1818-1903), an early settler and pioneer horticulturist. After 1905, the Grimes farm was subdivided and became part of the Morningside community, an early streetcar suburb.

EVALUATION OF LANDMARK ELIGIBILITY
On Sept. 24, 2002, the HPB determined that the Grimes House met the Edina Heritage Landmark eligibility criteria as set forth in city code §850.20 subd. 2, on the basis of its association with important events and its architectural character. The HPB evaluated the significance of the property within the local historic contexts "The Agricultural Landscape (1851 to 1959)" and "Edina Mills: Agriculture and Rural Life (1857 to 1923)," as outlined in the Edina Historic Context Study (1999), and found that it retained historic integrity of those features necessary to convey its historical and architectural preservation values.