Joshua Sanders House 269 Summit Avenue

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The stately house at 269 Summit Avenue, was built in 1882, at a cost of $12,000. Constructed of cream colored Milwaukee brick, the mansion is Italianate in style, with its most prominent feature being a three story central tower capped by a hipped roof. Another key feature is the highly decorated and carved wooden detailed front porch, which has recently been restored.

Joshua Howard Sanders was born in New York in 1832. When he came to Minnesota he lived in Redwood County where his son Prettyman was born in 1874. When the family moved to Saint Paul, Joshua was a partner in a Lime, Plaster, and Cement company, and when he was 50 years old, moved to Summit Avenue. He lived in the home until 1886, and died on Manitou Island in White Bear Lake in 1899, and was buried in the family lot in Davenport, Iowa.

By 1887, Emerson W. Peet had purchased the house. Peet was born in Ohio in 1834 as the son of a clergyman, and came to Saint Paul in 1885. Quoted as a “remarkable man”, he was the president of E. W. Peet and Company, which dealt in loans, stocks, bonds, and life insurance. Peet died in the house in 1902, and his family stayed until 1917, when it was sold to the Roger B. Shepard family. Shepard was the secretary and treasurer of Finch, Van Slyck, McConville, a wholesale dry goods company, located in Lowertown. Today the house is still a private residence.