Italian-style villa in south Minneapolis’ Linden Hills listed for nearly $1.8M

Arched doorways and windows, barrel ceilings, pillars, decorative tiles, Brazilian mahogany floors.

All features of the Italianate design on Katie and Rob Frederick’s south Minneapolis home they bought in 2015 after a move from Iowa. But the details outside of the house were what really sold the property.

“Linden Hills is really nice for restaurants. We biked everywhere and walked everywhere,” Katie Frederick said, adding the couple’s twin sons enjoyed outdoor activities ranging from playing volleyball by the lake to snowshoeing at Minikahda Golf Course, which the home borders.

Those sons are now 31 and no longer live in the house that’s about a block from Bde Maka Ska and nestled between Uptown and St. Louis Park. One son lives in Victoria and the other is considering moving there. So their parents, both in their mid-50s, have relocated to Tonka Bay to be close and help care for their 10-month-old grandson.

That means their five-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath house is on the market for just under $1.8 million.

The family chose the Linden Hills neighborhood because Katie Frederick’s parents often vacationed there before eventually moving there themselves. Rob Frederick had taken a job with an insurance company in Minneapolis. Katie Frederick is retired from a career as a sales representative for a gift company and oversees rentals at two Costa Rica properties the couple owns.

Although the Fredericks thought what Katie Frederick called their 4,700-square-foot home’s “really heavy Italian style,” with rich colors and heavy draperies was beautiful, they preferred a brighter, less formal look. So they painted rooms in light, neutral shades.

They also updated the mechanicals with two air conditioners and two furnaces, allowing independent climate control in different areas of the house.

The house’s main floor features an open kitchen, a living room that opens to a backyard patio with a trellis and a library standing off from the foyer.

The lower level has an entertainment room with a granite walk-up bar, a spacious family room and a 300-bottle wine cellar with heated, tumbled limestone flooring. The Fredericks often held tastings there.

The upper level holds three bedrooms. One is the owner’s suite, which has its own balcony, bathroom with a steam shower and cozy sitting room around one of the home’s three fireplaces. Katie Frederick enjoyed reading in front of the fireplace or out on the balcony.

But her favorite room was the large, formal dining room, which has a built-in buffet and wine bar.

“We’re not formal people, but we used it for card clubs, family dinners, games,” she said, adding they bought and used the dining room set from the previous owners.

When describing her experiences living there, Katie Frederick talked about her family’s adventures in the walkable neighborhood that’s close to outdoor recreation.

“We kayaked, biked and walked a lot,” Katie Frederick said. “I’d never really kayaked before, never did snowshoeing before, never biked as much.”

She would walk to Wakame Sushi and Asian Bistro for dinner or to Trader Joe’s for groceries, she said. The family biked around the Chain of Lakes to the Minneapolis Farmers Market downtown and to the Lake Harriet Bandstand for musical events.

Friends from Iowa who visited said they’d “just never seen so many people outside, even in the dead of winter” and “never knew you could be so active, summers and winters,” Katie Frederick recalled.

The Linden Hills neighborhood offers skating rinks and events on Lake Harriet, according to the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council. For example, May featured Taste of Linden Hills, and in September, the council will host its 50th annual Linden Hills Fall Festival.

“There’s never going to be a house like it,” Katie Frederick said.

But actually, there are several nearby houses that resemble it. That’s no coincidence, according to Patrick Jacobson, president of Excelsior-based Lake Country Builders. The house inspired nearby homes’ owners after Jacobson’s parents — Peter and Sue Jacobson, founders of the construction company — built it for themselves in 2004.

“They kind of stumbled upon the lot and just thought it was totally awesome,” Patrick Jacobson said.

The couple’s travels in Italy influenced the home’s design because “they fell in love with classic architecture,” Patrick Jacobson said. Those details included its stucco exterior with Old World finish, marble floors in the foyer and vaulted ceilings.

Patrick Jacobson lived in the house for a couple of years when he returned from college, and he later did some carpentry work in it. He particularly liked the open office balcony on the upper level that’s above the entry and grand staircase.

“It’s a very tasteful, elegant, functionally designed house overall,” he said. “It was one of my favorite ones we’ve ever built or lived in.”

Paul Johnson of the Johnson Hoiseth group of Southeby’s International Realty (952-212-7103, Paul@JohnsonHoiseth.com) has the $1,795,000 listing.