Joseph Brown House Ruins

Joseph Brown House Ruins
Ruins of Joseph R. Brown's house, burned in 1862
Joseph Brown House Ruins is located in Minnesota
Joseph Brown House Ruins
Joseph Brown House Ruins is located in the United States
Joseph Brown House Ruins
LocationSacred Heart Township, Renville County, Minnesota, USA
Nearest citySacred Heart, Minnesota
Coordinates44°41′47″N 95°19′22″W / 44.69639°N 95.32278°W / 44.69639; -95.32278
Built1861
ArchitectLeopold Wohler
NRHP reference No.86002838[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 3, 1986

The Joseph R. Brown State Wayside Rest is a National Scenic Byway Wayside Rest area. It is located on Renville County Highway 15, south of Sacred Heart, Minnesota, United States.

The Wayside Rest displays the granite ruins of Joseph R. Brown's home from 1862. Brown, his multiracial wife and twelve children lived in this home, which was a center of hospitality along the Minnesota River Valley. The three-story home was then considered a mansion compared to typical pioneer homes. It was destroyed during the Dakota War of 1862 on August 19, 1862. His family was spared because of his wife's Dakota heritage.[2][3]

Brown was a politician, inventor, publisher, and Indian Agent.[4]

Joseph Brown house ruins were used to illustrate the WPA's Renville County edition of "Inventory of County Archives of Minnesota"
  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. ^ Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn (1916). The History of Renville County. H.C. Cooper Jr & Co. p. 930.
  3. ^ Joseph R. Brown House Archived 2010-01-02 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Nord, Mary Ann (2003). The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-448-3.