History of Ames-Florida-Stork House
Annandale History Club Tour
- Rockford, Minnesota
August 2, 2004
Rockford Area Historical
Society - www.rockfordmnhistory.org
Seventeen members of
the Annandale History Club traveled to Rockford to the
Ames-Florida-Stork House built near the Crow River in 1860.
In 1857, George Ames and his brother-in-law, Joel Florida,
began setting up a mill in Rockford. They
were assisted by their partner, Guilford George. The
partnership established a lumber mill and a flour mill along the Crow
River where the river flows north through Rockford to Dayton and the
Mississippi River. The
famous woolen mill came later.
Ames started
building the home about 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Ames
lived in the home until he died in 1879. Various members of
the Florida family lived in the home from 1880 until 1937, when it was
sold to Clinton and Meda Stork, who occupied it for 50 years. The
Storks bought the house, most of the furnishings, and its historic
collection of clothing from Jessie Florida, the only surviving child of
Joel Florida, and spent many years carefully restoring the house. The
house is now known as the Ames-Florida-Stork house in honor of the three
families who lived in it. A
historically-minded donor purchased the house for $115,000 and gave the
house to the city of Rockford in 1986 following Meda Stork's
death. The
Rockford Area Historical Society was founded to oversee its management. The
house is open June through September, Tuesday 11-2 and Thursday 4-7, and
also for a Fall Festival and Christmas Tea (763-477-5383).
A 1981 video tape of
Meda Stork telling about the use of items in the rooms was available for
viewing; however, the History Club didn't have
time to watch the tape during this visit.
The tour included
the kitchen, dining room, music room, parlor, workshop, office/game
room, three bedrooms, maid's room, bathroom,
attic and summer kitchen, gardens and grounds. The
home contains family portraits, books, furniture, and dishes of the
original owners. The
home also has the second largest vintage clothing collection in the
state, second only to the Minnesota Historical Society. All
of the original ornate kerosene lamps are also in the home. There
were three different very steep staircases. Some
of the original flour sacks from the mill were in the kitchen. Mr.
Florida had 49 pounds printed on the sacks, because he said that most
50-pound sacks of flour contain only 49 pounds, and he wanted to be
honest about it.
The workshop was of
particular interest because of the many tools still hanging on the walls
as if ready to be used. There
was also a trap door leading to what may have been a hidden escape route
to the banks of the Crow River. The
home was built before the Indian War of 1862, and the story is that the
escape route was added for protection against Indian attack. This
area was later filled in and used as a root cellar. In
the future, funds permitting, the Rockford Historical Society may try to
dig out that area to prove or disprove the secret tunnel theory. One
of the next projects to be paid for with grant money is restoring the
dry sink in the kitchen.
Our guide explained
the use of several kitchen items including churns, butter bowls and
paddles used in butter making and the very heavy sad irons used for the
labor intensive job of pressing clothes. The
kitchen contained a very large ice box and black cast iron stove.
The
Ames-Florida-Stork House was built on land much higher than the Crow
River, which is a good thing because the Crow is prone to flooding in
that area.
The flower garden
was the last stop on our very enjoyable and informative tour of the
Ames-Florida-Stork House.
Living on the Edge in Wright County
by Rebecca A.
Mavencamp
Rockford
Area Historical Society
Notes by Secretary,
Annandale History Club