Stunning, spectacular 1961 mid-century modern time capsule house in Minnesota — 66 photos!

For this 1961 time capsule house, by architect John Polivka just outside Minneapolis, I’m pulling out all my favorite adjectives, this house is: Stunning, spectacular, amazing, jaw-dropping, drop-dead gorgeous. Thanks to selling agent Jacob Smith of Sotheby’s International Realty for giving us permission to feature this house, and to reader Dan, who sent us this tip! Pictures tell this story, so move along, we worked overtime this Friday night to load up a slide show 66 beautiful photos — taken by Mike McCaw of Spacecrafting — who clearly had immense fun capturing the gorgeous linearity of this house on camera.  

According to the listing, this house was built in 1961. Covering just over 4,100 s.f., it has four bedrooms and fours baths. It sits on fully recreational Sweeney Lake and is just five minutes from Minneapolis. It is for sale for $1.25 million. A hefty sum, yes, but just keep lookin’ and you will understand.

Alas, we have rushed these photos to the blog so fast that we do not have information on the architect. The house seems to be a study in linearity. It also appears to have been impeccably maintained.

Update: Thanks to Retro Love Affair, who told us that the architect was John Polivka – you can read his biography here (link now gone, alas).

Take a look at a quick selection of shots, then head to the gallery below:

Note the restrained palette — a rich warm brown brown, light colored brick, black slate tile and beams:

And pay attention — the two kitchen photo aboves — that is LIGHTING underneath all those beamed panels on the ceiling. This lighting design is repeated in bathrooms and throughout the house — that is, minimal use of “ceiling fixtures”, upstairs especially. The vintage refrigerators are Revco, I’d guess — see this story.

And, oh my my, take a look at the staircase: Again, linearity is the rule of the day:

In the bathrooms, note the use of small square mosaic tiles — this is EASILY REPLICATED today!

The house is situated to enjoy the vista across Sweeney Lake:

Yes, we like to show lots of mid century modest houses here on the blog — because they are wonderful, too, and we do not want them to get lost in the shuffle of the seemingly ever-onward aspirations in our society today. That said, we ADORE a gorgeous, architect mid-century modern masterpiece as much as the next person. Golly heck, we adore this house!

Repeat of link love:

• Listing – 1961 time capsule house [link now expired]
• Thanks to agent Jacob Smith of Sotheby’s International Realty for permission
• Super thanks to Mike McCaw of Spacecrafting for the photos — he sent us all these high-resolution photos to feature!
• And thanks, Dan, for your tip. Readers, we love you! Keep those tips coming!

Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image: