The House of John H. Stevens
The US Post Office stands on the site of the first permanent dwelling in what is now Minneapolis. The land was part of the Fort Snelling Military Reservation in 1849, but the army allowed John H. Stevens to build a house in return for operating a ferry above the falls.
For a time, John Stevens and his wife, Frances Helen, had no white neighbors, but they recalled often walking to find Indians camping nearby on their way to sell food and buy goods in the shops of St. Anthony across the river. In 1896 the Stevens house was removed to Minnehaha Park, where it still stands.
Marker is on West River Parkway 0.4 miles west of Portland Avenue South, on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
