History

History of the Building

"Marry me, and I will build you a Castle"

     One Glencoe, MN successful businessman, Joseph J. Brechet, invested his energy and passion into offering a general merchandise business, which supplied the residents with many of their daily needs.

Joseph with brother
Barney in 1870

     He was born in 1860 in Buffalo, New York. His family settled in Glencoe, MN around 1872. By 1888, he had worked his way up to owning his own business. He found himself to be twenty-eight years old and still living at home.

     The story goes, that a relative who lived in Buffalo, New York, arranged for a correspondence between him and Jennie C. Frankenstein, a young woman in that eastern city.

     Letters went back and forth, and Joseph decided to make a visit to the city of his birth. Two weeks later, in February, 1889, Jennie and Joseph were married. They say, he told her he would build her a castle if she would marry him. Joseph brought his bride back to Glencoe to live.

Bertha, Jennie and Jay Carl

      In December, 1889, their daughter, Bertha Marie Julia was born, and in 1893, their son Jay Carl was born.

      Construction on the "Castle for Jennie" started in 1895, and was completed by 1899. Story has it that farmers that were indebted to Brechet at his business, could pay off their debt by bringing field stones to town for his foundation. The stone foundation reaches up to the second story of the three story home.

 Laying the infamous stone foundation

      The home was designed by a Chicago architect hired by Joseph.

     Photo to the left shows the stone foundation going in. You must stop by sometime and take a look at the craftsmanship of the precision cutting of the stones around the doors and windows. It is truly amazing.

     The family lived in a small house on the property while the house was being built.

Early photo of the home at 831 13th Street, completed in 1899

      The Brecht family moved out of the Castle in 1910. They started the Brechet & Richter Co. in Minneapolis where Jay Carl started working. Bertha started college and later was married to John D. Boyd. Jay Carl died at seventeen of tuberculosis, about a year after they moved to Minneapolis.










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