A St. Cloud landmark
- Sr Perspective
- Mar 28
- 7 min read
Retired SCSU professor has long been a proponent of saving, preserving old buildings like ‘The Castle’
By Bill Vossler
When Bill Morgan, 92, of Sartell, moved from Florida to teach at St. Cloud State University in 1978, he was troubled by the tearing down of wonderful old buildings. “The Saffron House, Carnegie Library, and a series of Victorian homes near the campus were all being destroyed, and that bothered me,” he said. “That meant we were losing our local history.”
One building that was not being destroyed, and remains usable today, is the Dam House, also called “The Castle,” built in 1899.
“I love architecture,” Bill said, “ever since I was a child, growing up in an 11-room white Craftsman house in Pipestone that my father, a local banker, had built in 1919 for my mother and four older siblings.” But his dad wasn’t able to enjoy it. “He died of spinal meningitis while my mother was pregnant with me.”
Bill said his grandparents lived right next door in a Victorian home with a generous wrap-around porch. “My grandfather was a Civil War veteran, and I knew him until he died when I was four. He made a tremendous impact on me, and led me into thinking about architecture and how buildings are made.”
So when Bill moved to St. Cloud and discovered the old buildings being removed, he saw his project in front of him: “To earn tenure at SCSU I decided to do my main research in Architecture and Preservation, so I felt as a teacher and researcher I was here to preserve these old buildings. I did some research and writing and became a proponent of saving these old buildings.”
Though Bill doesn’t believe he directly affected saving the Castle, he said, “I’m more than glad that it has been preserved. I was just fascinated by the building. It was designed by Allen Hussey, St. Cloud’s premier architect during the 19th century, and Dam’s brother-in-law. He created plans for dozens of buildings in the St. Cloud area, and his masterpiece is the Castle, so-named because of its majestic turret windows, which were common in the early 1900s, and its Victorian architecture. It is a perfect example of a Victorian house, and a rare building that remains standing from time in the city, when owners made their mansions look as magnificent as possible. St. Cloud used to have several of those magnificent old buildings with turrets, with what are called ‘candle-snuffer domes,’ which looked like the device to snuff out candles in churches.”
The building also has gray stone sills on a trio of upper level windows, ornamental granite on the entranceway, and a yellow brick front. Second story window frames boast incised carving.
Brick is a really nice material for buildings, Bill said. “At one time St. Cloud had a pretty handsome community with all those brick houses. Right off campus the Peter Fandel house is still a wonderful yellow brick house. It’s still in good shape.”
The man who built “The Castle,” Bill said, was Freeland Dam. “He was a rags-to-riches story, a product of the American dream. When he was apprenticed in a sawmill in Maine, he was very poor, but he became skilled at carpentry and milling. After moving to central Minnesota, he showed his character as for several years, Freeland walked the 75 miles between Maine Prairie and St. Anthony near Minneapolis as he needed supplies, because stagecoach fare cost $7.50 - an exorbitant price at that time, and he didn’t have the money. Someone who worked for him said he was an excellent boss, and if everybody was like Mr. Dam, there would never been any strikes in businesses.”
Dam invented an assembly-line process to build bobsleds, Bill said. “He knocked out one every 18 minutes, which is hard to believe. He had a business in downtown St. Cloud that sold sash doors, counters, lathes and shingles. With all of that, he worked his way up until he became quite wealthy, and could afford to build ‘The Castle.’”
That Dam House, or Castle, was doubtless St. Cloud’s first duplex, Bill said. “Mr. Dam called it a double tenement, two residences separated by a brick wall under one roof. They didn’t have the kind of insulation in those days that we have today. So they probably packed newspapers or some form of insulation between those walls, but that didn’t really do the trick, and wasn’t fairly effective. It wouldn’t be insulation like it would be today. Anybody who had insulation in 1899, which would be extra-expensive, would have been really unusual.”
Bill said, “We call the Castle two big apartments, with nine smaller apartments of one-, two-, or three-bedrooms in them, with about 20 students in them. It’s a real housing hub for the primary audience of students, because it has been a rental unit for so many years, and students who lived there are literally on campus. Some of my students lived there.”
Dam spared no expense installing modern features: indoor bathrooms instead of the usual outdoor two-holers, electric lighting, hot-water heating, and the original ornate radiators still work today.
Dam also built a sawmill near St. Cloud, cut pine from his own land, and used it to build the house.
“The Dam House is Victorian Queen Anne in style, which features a corner turret with that candle-snuffer dome, numerous shingled gables and a wrap-around porch,” Bill said.
“One interesting thing about the house is that it uses yellow bricks made in St. Cloud. One time I drove around, seeing so many houses that used yellow bricks, then drew a circle on a map around downtown, and extended it for a mile, and I figure there were about 300 yellow brick buildings in that circle. There wouldn’t be nearly that many today.”
“Generally when you have a grand house like the Castle in the Midwest more than likely red brick was used, coming up from St. Louis. But it appears it was important to Mr. Dam that the bricks were made here in town, plus at the time he probably didn’t have enough money for the most expensive red bricks.”
Once the house was divided into apartments, drastic interior changes were made, Bill said. “Students can be hard on the building at times. Years ago when I went through the building I saw that it was not in the greatest shape. But much of that was fixed up. Fortunately, a few fragments of its original grandeur still can be seen throughout, including Eastlake-inspired spindlework, stained glass windows, several 10-foot-high oak doorjambs, and an intact fireplace.”
Bill liked the house so well that when he was American Architecture professor at SCSU, he brought his students into the building to look at it. “For years and years I toured with my students, not only the Castle, but walking to see different buildings, and show them off. You can’t miss those Victorian buildings like the Castle, and I did classes indoors there at times. I made a name for myself knocking on doors, and saying, ‘Can I bring my class in to show them your house?’ I had so much fun doing that. Walking around St. Cloud I learned a lot about the community.”
He adds that his class was a popular one. “It interested a lot of students in preservation and helped develop a course for restoring buildings.”
However, Bill said, a lot of stuff in the Castle house has been changed and removed. “I think a lot of the character of the house has been lost. In that case I made it a point to talk to my students about restoring some of those old buildings, like the Castle. It should be restored, but it would be tremendously expensive, and it would have to be done by someone who is knowledgeable about architecture, but also knowledgeable about architecture of the time the house was built.”
“Regarding the Dam House, I think it’s okay for students to live in it, especially if they are being respectful of the building,” he said.
As far as he knows, Bill said, the Castle was never in danger of being torn down. “That it is an impressive building helps a little bit, although I’ve seen a lot of impressive buildings torn down. About six or seven houses in the neighborhood still stand, probably anchored by the houses beside them, including the Castle.”
In early days, the Dams and Husseys lived in the Castle, and so did one of the central Minnesota’s famous people. “Glanville Smith of Cold Spring actually lived there in one of the lower apartments from when he was born in 1901, when the building was basically new, having been built in 1899. He was a real renaissance man, an architect and built some buildings, an artist, musician, journalist, poet, naturalist, historian and writer, penning fiction, journals, and articles for National Geographic on Fiji and other Pacific islands.”
Bill said he is fortunate his wife Judy is also interested in architecture. “We drove all over the country looking at the different kinds of architecture. Just doing central Minnesota is fun. I love rural farm buildings, and I’ve done some research in that area too. Folk architecture. They’re called ‘vernacular buildings’ because the owner built it himself.”
Bill said students love to hear ghost stories and think a building may be haunted. “One building on campus had two stories of two very loud noises about ten years apart. Some other people have said that the Castle is haunted, but I’m not so sure. But it does add to the interest in the building.”
Bill is passionate about restoring and preserving historic buildings. “I remember when I realized the Carnegie Library was being torn down because the city could not find an alternate use for it. “I was angry,” he said. “It was an architect-designed building. No one will ever build structures like that again. It had specialized brick, granite and heavy ornamental woodwork on the inside. Once that building was gone, all its special features were gone. It was built to last more than 100 years.”
“I think my legacy will be placing the 1913 Riverview Hall on campus listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which kept it from being destroyed, and it has had a complete restoration in recent years.”