John T. Chyphers House

Information

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1971

History

In 1855 the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer suggested building a “newstyle house” of “grout,” which was a cement of lime, mud, sand and gravel. John T. Cyphers was taken with this notion and by 1858 had built a remarkable “grout house” that still stands in Lakeland, pouring the cement-like material between wooden forms to build up walls nearly two feet thick.