| Additional Information: | 1990: BRACKETS UNDER EAVES; SHIELD AND RIBBONS IN PORCH GABLE; THREE STORY ENGAGED TOWER ON FRONT
2014-2015: Rising from a stone foundation, this two-and-one-half-story, transitional Queen Anne-Colonial Revival-style house is sheathed with clapboard. The main block of the house is a two-story cube with a steeply pitched, pyramidal hipped roof; dominating the home’s primary (east) elevation is a three-story tower with a tent-like roofline. Fronting the tower and wrapping around to the north is an open porch with columnar supports and a gablet over the entryway that consists of decorative, classical wooden trim. A rounded, one-story bay is located along the home’s south elevation, as is a gabled roof dormer. Wooden, modillion-like brackets accent the roof’s eave, as well as the upper edge of the tower. Windows throughout the house consist of largely paired or singularly arranged, double-hung sash; however, some windows exhibit leaded panes, at least one of which includes colored glass. A one-story, concrete block addition extends from the south side of the house, while a garage is connected via a hyphen-like extension to the west.
This house was built in 1898 for Rasmus and Gurine (Rena) Jenson. Rasmus Jenson was born in Norway in 1847 and immigrated to the United States in 1865. After five years of working as a clerk in Dodge County, Wisconsin, he moved to Prescott, after which he settled in River Falls in 1873 where he established his own dry good business. That same year Rasmus wed Gurine “Rena” Ruud, who was also a native of Norway; together they had five children: Ida, Henry, Emma, William and Albert. Rasmus was among the early aldermen of the city, as well as served as a director of the Farmers & Mutual State Bank, the First National Bank of River Falls, as well as the Bank of Ellsworth. Rasmus died on 18 June 1917; Rena died in January 1930.
Later that same year, the home was sold to Georgia native Dan Moss and his wife Jessie, who remained there until at least 1940. Dan, who died in 1942, was the proprietor of a produce station. The next known owners of the home, as evidenced by signage that still remains on the subject property, were Dr. Ray and Dorthey Pennington. Ray and Dorthey were married on 10 February 1933 in Fairmont, Minnesota; they had three children. Ray attended medical school in Chicago, after which they resided in various locations, until moving to River Falls in 1953. Dr. Pennington retired in 1968. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Tax rolls, 121 N. Fremont Street, indicate that the house was built between 1898 ($100/land + $100/buildings) and 1899 ($100 + $2,500); A citation in the local paper notes that the Jensons expected “to move into their new house next week,” RFJ, 12 January 1899; Easton, History of the St. Croix Valley, 1:610-11; Rasmus Jenson, Obituary, River Falls Journal, 21 June 1917; “Mrs. R.N. Jenson,” Obituary, RFJ, 16 January 1930, 5/4; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930.
Newsbrief (re: Dan Moss purchases RW Jenson House), RFJ, 23 October 1930; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1930, 1940; Dorthey Pennington, Obituary, RFJ, Available online at http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/martin/obits/ penninde.txt, Accessed June 2015. |
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