River living

People River living from page 1

He earned his degree from the University of Kansas in 1963 and spent the next two years serving in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, where he helped build roads and bridges and worked on other construction projects. That’s also where he married. When the couple eventually settled in Crystal, Minn., Howell began working in architectural design with a large Minneapolis firm. By the late ’70s he’d started his own firm working out of their home. He went on to specialize in the hospitality industry and has designed more than 300 hotels and 60 restaurants across the country. Truman Howell Architects is now based in Monticello, specializing in commercial projects, and at 79 he is still drafting designs. His work space is the exquisitely apportioned pilot house of an all-steel, freighter-style vessel named Trubador, docked close to the slip that held the Howell-e-luyah.

Howell found love again, and in 2006 married Barbara Haake. It wasn’t hard to convince her that a houseboat was the perfect abode. She already had liveaboard experience from a 6-month adventure sailing through the Caribbean. After discovering that life in a tropical paradise can be boring, she returned to her home in Mounds View, Minn., where she worked as a benefits consultant and served a term as a Minnesota state representative during the Gov. Jesse Ventura administration. She has three children from her first marriage, and eight grandchildren. Truman has two sons, Bryan and Eric. Eric, who has provided Truman with a grandchild of his own, had just graduated from high school in the late ’80s and lived with his father on the boat.

“He always brags about growing up on the river,” said Truman. Nowadays the entire family enjoys visiting the couple on their boat.

Trubador—a name created using letters from Truman, Barbara and Dwelling on the River—is much different than Truman’s first boat. At 24-by-65-feet, it’s considerably larger—one of the largest at the Yacht Club—and more beautifully designed. Using photos of a Florida Bay Coaster, Truman designed the boat himself. The sketches were ready in about a week but the building process took much longer. He found a boat builder in Escanaba, Mich., and he and Barbara spent much of 1994 traveling between here and there to oversee the progress. The couple made the 12-hour round-trip drive a few times a month for several months. When the boat was finally finished, they motored it home through Lake Michigan and down waterways in Illinois to the Mississippi River. At St. Louis, they headed north to St. Paul. With its Twin 175 hp John Deere diesel engines— each with a 500-gallon fuel tank—the boat has a traveling speed of 8 mph upriver and 10-12 mph downriver. The journey took about 21 days.

Floating home

The Trubador has more space than many of the Barbara and Truman Howell in the pilot house of the Trubador.

homes in the neighboring West Side community. With nearly 1,800 square feet of living space, it has a large main salon with hardwood floors and a wood-burning stove on the first level. The salon and the spacious master stateroom (bedroom) on the upper level have French doors with a view of the St. Paul skyline. Also on the first level are two smaller staterooms for guests, and a three-quarter head (bathroom). The master head on the second level is as large as any bathroom you’d find in most homes. It has tile flooring and a corner Jacuzzi-style bathtub.

In the upper level pilot house, which features all black walnut woodwork, Truman has carved out space for a design table to work on architectural projects and his creative arts, which include drawing and painting. He also enjoys pottery but engages in that art below a skylight in the hull, next to the engine room. Throughout the boat, the walls are filled with original artwork from around the country, and many of their own pieces. Barbara also enjoys painting, primarily portraits. Truman’s architectural sketch of the Trubador, as well as that of St. Paul’s Public Dock,

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