Rand House, Historic house in Monticello, Minnesota, US

The Rand House is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame building of 30 rooms on a hill southeast of downtown Monticello. Its Queen Anne features include a polygonal corner tower, wraparound porches, patterned shingles on the gables, an irregular plan and a multi-gabled roof. Open porches and large windows suited it to summer use, while exterior shutters helped seal it for winter.

Rufus Rand, vice-president of the Minneapolis Gas Light Company, married Susan Mealey in 1884; her parents, including state senator Tobias Mealey, gave the couple a hilltop property near their own house outside Monticello, and Susan designed the summer home. The house stayed in the Rand family for over 60 years. During World War II the family lent it to the U.S. Army Air Corps as officers' quarters for glider pilots training at Monticello. It later served as a nursing home and a funeral home, and in 1986 Duffy and Merrill Busch bought and renovated it.

The house reflects how wealthy Minneapolis business families expressed their status through grand summer retreats built outside the city. These residences show the architectural tastes and lifestyle choices of the city's most successful merchants during that era.

The house features large windows designed for summer air circulation and exterior shutters that provided protection during Minnesota's harsh winters. When visiting, pay attention to how the building was designed to handle the region's dramatic seasonal shifts in temperature and weather.

The Rand House and its carriage barn were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as the Rufus Rand Summer House and Carriage Barn. The nomination cited local significance in architecture, commerce and entertainment/recreation. The barn, a 1+1⁄2-story frame building south of the house, was converted into a single-family home under separate ownership in 1952.