Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

The Funk hardware and lumber business was founded by John Funk Sr., who was born in
Wurtemburg in the German States in 1826. He immigrated to America in 1847, finally
making his way to Carver in 1860. He worked first as a carpenter before devoting his
energies to developing a hardware and lumber business in Carver, which grew and made
him one of the leading figures in town. In the Minnesota Gazatteer and Business
Directory for 1865, 1872, and 1873 John Funk is advertised in Carver as running a
hardware store on Broadway, selling stoves, hardware, etc. The 1865 store location is
unknown, though it very well may have been located on the site of the present day brick
structure at 401 Broadway. In 1880 John was listed among Carver County‟s highest
taxpayers in the Weekly Valley Herald newspaper. He retired to St. Paul in 1891 and
turned the business over to his son, John Funk Jr., who greatly expanded and modernized
it, venturing even into banking and other interests. When John Funk Sr. died in 1893 his
funeral and burial took place in Carver, with more than 100 horse-drawn vehicles in the
funeral procession.
In the late 1930s or early 1940s the lower level of the building served as a grocery store,
operated by the Conboy family, and in the later 1940s by Vincent Sells.
404 Broadway, Butendorf-Plackner Saloon. Built about 1868, the wood frame
building once served as a saloon with a residence above it, but for more than a century it
has been given over as a private dwelling. The irregular addition at the rear seems also to
be early, and has been present since at least 1894, with a rear porch once in the angle of
those two main parts of the building. Early Twentieth Century siding probably hides
much earlier clapboard siding. The main 2-story portion of the building was probably
built first, and could date even earlier, perhaps to the late 1850s or early 1860s, with a
high purchase price on the sale of the property suggesting that some early buildings once
(and perhaps yet) occupied the land. The attached lean-to section to the north appears to
have been incorporated into the main structure very early, perhaps in Nov. 1868, when
the owners took out a $300 loan, and it appears in all known fire insurance maps of the
property since 1894. At an earlier 19 th Century period the saloon/residence had a tall
false front with brackets on the cornice, overlooking a first story porch that may well
have had a second story door accessing a veranda above. It remained in place as late as
1911, but was gone by 1928.
The property was purchased in Jan. 1868 by early Carver settlers, Paul and Margaretha
Butendorf, who were both born about 1821-1822 in Prussia in the German States, and
who immigrated to the Carver area in the 1850s. In the U. S. Census for 1860 Peter
Butendorf and Margaretha were living in Chaska, with Peter then a farmer, with a net
worth of $1,000. Settling permanently in the Town of Carver about 1865, Butendorf for
the next ten years drove a stagecoach between Carver and Watertown. The Butendorfs
took on more work by owning the Star Saloon and a boarding house, with Margaretha
probably doing much of the work in the early years on days Peter was driving the stage
coach. The 1870 U. S. Census for Carver lists Butendorf as a boarding house keeper. In
the Minnesota Gazatteer and Business Directory for 1872 Butendorf was advertised as a
hotel and saloon proprietor, and in 1873 as a saloon operator. By 1879 the Butendorfs‟
business advertised stabling facilities for 28 horses, Milwaukee bottled beer, choice