In July of ’03 the demolition of a small frame building in Washington Avenue opposite the Milwaukee Road station opened up a view to one of the very oldest houses in the young city of Minneapolis. Erected in 1856 by John H. Spear, the house was hidden from the street for almost 15 years. When it was built it stood in the center of a lot that covered three-fifths of the half-block corner fronting Washington and 3rd Avenue. After many years Spear mortgaged the property for $1500 to a dentist named Dr. Kirby Spencer and Ovid Pinney. Back then the site of the depot was a wetland that stretched across much of what is now Washington Avenue. The mortgage was never redeemed and when it was foreclosed the two proprietors tried to sell it out from under one another. After a good squabble, Dr. Spencer bought the place for $2,152. The price was high and the old doctor thought he was ruined, but in 1866, the Milwaukee Road came along. When Spencer passed away in 1870 the property was worth $12,150. He loved books and left all his money and land, profits and rents to be paid to the library. In 1885 the library board had a book plate bearing a likeness of Dr. Kirby Spencer was placed 15,818 books. By the turn of the century, his land was worth 215,000. In the march toward improvement, the wetland was drained and the rear half of the building was removed. The larger part of the front half was set on the alley at the rear of the lot. In 1907 the a memorial tablet bearing the doctor’s name was unveiled at the public library. The house was razed in 1914.
