When Angela Kohrt bought a house in downtown Chaska a few years ago, she didn’t know it held a century-old secret. Thanks to a Resilient Communities Project (RCP) partnership with the City of Chaska, she discovered her house was built from salvaged brewery materials and may have hosted a prohibition-era speakeasy in its basement.

Based on the architectural design, Kohrt could tell that it was an older home from the early 20th century. But the house also had an unusually tall basement ceiling, which is a unique feature for that time period. Fascinated by her new home, Kohrt tried to look into the history of the property herself.

“I looked through the [Chaska] Historic Society, I Googled the address, I tried to speak with neighbors and people just to see if I could figure out any information about the property,” Kohrt explained. “And unfortunately, I didn't know what to do, where to look, and I couldn't find out anything.” After coming up with little to no new information about her home, she decided to give up on her research.

Two years later, she received a phone call from Elizabeth Hanson, a city planner in Chaska. The City of Chaska had a project with RCP that aimed to preserve houses with major historical significance. Kohrt’s home happened to be one of the homes they were looking to nominate.

“I was just really interested in figuring out more about my home in particular,” said Kohrt. “I thought that was a great opportunity.”

The Project

The Defining Properties for Historic Nomination project with RCP was initiated by the City to achieve its long-time goal of adding more properties to the City’s local historic register. RCP hired Alissa Bidwell, a University of Minnesota Ph.D. student studying theater and public history, to work on the project as an RCP Scholar during summer 2025.

“Chaska has a really strong sense of community," said Bidwell. “And it has a really strong want to preserve their heritage and history.”

At the beginning of the project, Bidwell and Hanson considered potential properties in the downtown area of Chaska. Together they narrowed what was originally a long list of more than 10 homes to just a few strong candidates. To receive a local historic nomination, the building must have some specific architectural significance to the City of Chaska. The building must also connect to the culture and historical figures in the City. The final qualifier was consent from property owners.

“We weren't going to follow through with the nomination process if the homeowners weren't interested,” said Bidwell. 

Throughout the summer, Bidwell spent hours at the Chaska Historical Society where she dug into the genealogies of historic Chaska families, old newspapers, and other historic documents. 

“Finding that point where you can kind of crack it open is a little bit tricky,” Bidwell said as she reflected on her research. Some of her best leads came from Lisa Oberski, President of the Chaska Historical Society, and other community volunteers who shared local stories.

Thanks to a tip she heard at the Chaska Historical Society about a speakeasy, Bidwell began to take a closer look at Kohrt’s home at 515 First Street West. 

The Leivermann House

Through her research, Bidwell learned that Kohrt’s house was originally built and owned by the Leivermann family, who ran a local brewery that is credited with producing Chaska’s first bottled lager beer. The brewery closed its doors in the early 1920s with the ratification of the 18th amendment and prohibition of liquor.

Leivermann enlisted the brewery’s debtors to salvage the brewery’s materials after it was demolished to make way for Highway 22. The materials were used to build the house Kohrt now owns. The repurposed bricks are likely Chaska brick, which holds historic significance.

“The City was…built on [brickmaking],” said Hanson, which was a major early industry in the area. Chaska brick was widely used in prominent buildings around the state.

But the bricks that were used to create this home weren’t the only thing that made its architectural design significant. In a window of the Leivermann House basement, there are marks that indicate there was once a small stairway that was used to enter from an attached garage that does not exist anymore. There is also a cellar area in the house that has high ceilings and a built-in bar.

The prohibition of alcohol did close down the Leivermann Brewery but, like other citizens across the United States during the 1920s and 30s, it did not altogether stop them from gathering together and drinking.

Bidwell's research didn’t uncover concrete documentation that the Leivermann house was a speakeasy, yet the house’s unique characteristics support the theory.  “There wasn't going to be much documentation on it for the purpose of keeping it a secret,” said Hanson. “They have a tuck-under basement…[and] a separate entrance into the basement if you kind of walk around to the back of the home. So, there's kind of evidence there just with how the house was designed.”

The Leivermann house speakeasy is part of an “oral history that's been passed down from family to family, or property owner to property owner,” said Hanson. 

Hanson noted that “the history of properties gets diminished and diminished unless you document it or put it in a tangible form. So I think over time, that history might have been lost if we didn't go through a formal research process like this.”

Additional Houses

Bidwell compiled research on two additional houses in downtown Chaska for this project. The Glatzel House at 403 First Street West was significant because the original homeowners, Ed Glatzel and his family. were well-known shoe repairers. One of the original Glatzel shoe repair machines is in a permanent collection at the Chaska History Center. In addition to repairing shoes, Ed Glatzel was a local historian who was responsible for a significant amount of Chaska’s historical documentation.

Bidwell also studied 307 N. Cedar Street, known as the Muyres House. M.H. Muyres, who once lived there and who the home is named after, held many positions in Chaska. Most significantly, Muyres served as a representative for the county committee for the Democratic County Convention in 1880. This committee was responsible for reporting the number of delegates from their towns in preparation for the 1880 presidential election that saw the election of President James A. Garfield.

Project Impact

After putting all of her research together to complete the local historic nomination forms, Bidwell presented her findings to the Historic Preservation Commission at Chaska City Hall on August 5, 2025. In attendance for the presentation was Kohrt and her fiance. 

“She did a great job,” said Kohrt. Bidwell’s “presentation to the city council members was spot on. She was able to answer some follow up questions. It was above and beyond what I actually expected to see.”

Hanson is optimistic about getting the houses nominated through the official process, which will take several months. Bidwell’s work identified ways for the City to complete the nomination process more quickly and continue to add new properties to their registry. 

Owning a house on the local historic register engenders “a little bit of bragging rights when you're local in town,” said Kohrt. “You can go into the national nomination and then potentially get grants to help to fix up your house for the long term.”