The Huff-Lamberton Mansion
The Huff-Lamberton Mansion is one of Winona’s most historic homes. Erected in 1857, the mansion has been home to orphans, senior citizens, and families of many generations. After 162 years of the mansion being built, it is in nearly the same shape, made of red brick and lined with Italianate-style features, and is still occupied to this day. It is one of Winona’s oldest and most historic buildings and means so much to the people who live here and know it’s story.
Henry Depeu Huff arrived in Winona, Minnesota with his family on June 26, 1853. He was a real estate speculator and chose to move to Winona because he saw potential and knew how to grow a town because of his business experience. H. D. Huff bought a large portion of land to use for real estate but ended up keeping the prime piece for his own home. With the extra land he also created a public square — now known as Windom Park — which is currently home to the Princess Wenonah Statue and is located right outside of the mansion. In the fall of 1853, H. D. Huff first built a smaller home at the corner of Huff and Fourth Street on the highest ground of the island, but in 1857 the home was replaced with the historic Huff-Lamberton Mansion. H. D. Huff hired Calvert Vaux, and New York architect and landscape designer, to build the mansion on a one-and-a-half-acre piece of land. Vaux designed the Italianate villa home and described it as a “mansion in the wilderness”. With most of the homes in town being made of wood and located near the river at the time, this grand, Italianate style mansion was the centerpiece of the town.
I visited the Winona County Historical Society and talked to Archivist Walt Bennick to learn about the history of the Huff-Lamberton Mansion, and I was provided with very rich information. He handed me three overflowing folders of information on the Huff-Lamberton Mansion. I was surprised to see how much information was sitting in front of me, and I was weary of where to start. I was given a timeline of the different residents, how the mansion has changed over the years, and details about the different families that lived there. The mansion is something that everyone in Winona can see, but not everyone knows what the mansion means to this town. Since it is one of Winona’s most famous landmarks, the history of the mansion is something that everyone should be aware of.
H. D. Huff was married to a woman named Harriett Carpenter Huff with whom he had six children with. Most of the children passed away in early life, but their son, Charles, grew up in the mansion until he passed away while on a hunting trip in Wisconsin. This tragedy caused H. D. Huff and his wife to relocate to Chicago, where they eventually separated from each other. After the separation, Harriett moved back to Winona and lived with her niece. Henry and Harriett both passed away in the late 1800s and were buried in a brick vault located in the yard of the Huff-Lamberton Mansion.
Henry Wilson Lamberton was the second owner of the Huff-Lamberton Mansion, hence where the mansion gets its name. H. W. Lamberton served as the lead commissioner of the Winona and St. Peter railways and moved into the fourteen-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion with his wife, Margaret Plumer Lamberton, and five children. According to Marianne Combs of MPR News, the Lamberton family “continued to improve the property, adding electricity, central heating, elevator, and eventually, air conditioning.” The Lamberton family also added a wing in the kitchen and servant’s quarters on the west end, installed an elevator, and built the Queen Ann Islamic Porch. Upon moving in, H. W. Lamberton discovered the brick vault in the yard that contained the deceased relative of the Huff family. The vault was large enough for ten bodies, but only held four. Out of respect, H. W. Lamberton reserved a plot in the Woodlawn Cemetery and relocated the members of the family. The mansion remained in the Lamberton family for three generations, with the last being Henry M. Lamberton. He returned to the home as an adult and raised his family there with his wife, Jeanette.
Jeanette Lamberton created one of the most significant rooms in the Huff-Lamberton Mansion. Jeanette was an opera singer and designed a music room in the house where she could practice. The Winona County Historical Society Archives provided that the music room was decorated with violins, pipes, etc. imported from France tied together with plaster-cast flowers and ribbons decorating ceiling and walls. However, the music room was used for more than just her practice, it was also used for used for sing-a-longs and religious services. Jeanette was well-known in town and occasionally sang for the people in Winona. Her last performance was in Winona on the steps of the old post office in 1916 for a war bond rally. Jeanette passed away in 1956, leaving the Huff-Lamberton Mansion empty for the first time in roughly 150 years, according to Mark Peterson from the Winona Post, and her wake was held in music room.
Beside the music room, the Huff-Lamberton Mansion had dozens of other interesting and beautiful rooms. The front parlor, or green room, was located in the front of the house and was used for special occasions. It included one of the four black marble fireplaces in the house and was right across the hall from the music room. The back parlor overlooked the garden and was a used mainly as the servants’ sitting room. The carriage house, which could not be reached from inside the mansion, was believed to have first held horses, and then was used to contain three cars belonging to the Lambertons. The most dominant feature of the house is the thee and a half story tower on the southeast corner of the house. It had a “widow’s walk” balcony and variety of windows located around the tower which allowed the first owner, H. D. Huff to watch river traffic and for possible Indian attacks. The craftsman ship of the house is excellent, with sixteen-inch walls, native woods used in windows and doorways, stained glass windows, and five marble fireplaces throughout the home. To the town, the mansion was known as the “Chateau of the Frontier”.
The third owner of the Huff-Lamberton Mansion was the Diocese of Winona, which they used as an orphanage and renamed the mansion as the Lamberton Home for Children. The fourteen-room mansion was expanded in 1963, building nineteen more rooms for the children. This allowed the mansion to accommodate 34 orphan children. The Lamberton Home for Children lasted from 1962 until 1976, and it is said that some belongings of the orphan children are stored in the upper part of the mansion’s tower to this day.
The historical characteristics of the Huff-Lamberton mansion have been preserved fairly well over the years, but major renovations have taken place. In 1977, the Huff-Lamberton Mansion was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. It was described as “one of the earliest and best-preserved residences of the Italian Villa style in the state of Minnesota” and “one of the finest Italianate style homes in the upper Midwest”.
Also in 1977, the fourth owner bought the Huff-Lamberton Mansion and converted it into a senior citizen home, called the Lamberton Residence. They added bathrooms and emergency-pulls to each room, and a library and pub in the basement for the residents’ entertainment. The carriage house was converted into a common space with television, games, and a telephone. Another unattached room, named the court building, was built and had the same amenities as the carriage house.
Since it was built, the Huff-Lamberton mansion had been occupied almost constantly, until 2006. The Lamberton Residence sold the mansion and it remained on the market for five years. Over those years, tours were held, and many bids were offered, but the mansion remained unoccupied. The price was lowering drastically, and the town began to worry that one of Winona’s finest pieces of history was coming to an end. That was until Bluff City Properties purchased the mansion in 2011. No changes were made to the mansion by Bluff City Properties, besides renovations on railings and trim on the house. The now forty-two-bedroom house is occupied by a group of girls in the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, who take great pride in the history of the Huff-Lamberton Mansion. Today, the mansion still holds onto its original features and beautiful detailing. The only difference is that flowers, photos of sorority girls, and the Greek letters of Delta Phi Epsilon line the walls.
From Henry Depeu Huff’s home to a mansion full of sorority girls, this historic house has an abundance of stories and memories tied to it. These memories belong to the people that resided in the mansion, and also to the people of this town. Besides being one of the first beautiful homes built away from the river, this mansion is the centerpiece of the town and one of Winona’s most beloved landmarks. It has been owned by many, but the structure has been preserved so well that it looks almost the same as when it was built. It has been around for 162 years, and hopefully 162 more.
