User:Jonathunder/Maxwell

Maxwell Guest House
Maxwell Guest House demolition on June 5, 2007. Photo by Chad Johnson.
Location	426 Second Avenue SW, Rochester, Minnesota
Coordinates	44°1′6″N 92°27′55″W
Built	1877
NRHP reference No.
Added to NRHP	1980-07-21

The Maxwell Guest House was a building in Rochester, Minnesota listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Further reading

• Calavano, Alan (2008). Rochester. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738551945.

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Sources:

• Calavano, Alan (2008). Rochester. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738551945.

page 25:

The Rochester Hotel at 217 - 219 First Avenue SW started life in 1877 as the Pierce House Hotel. It was built by James Pierce and his wife Sarah, on the site of the former Steven's House Hotel, which burned down on September 3, 1877. The Pierce House was originally constructed of wood and consisted of the front five-window section of the building. In 1880, the building recived a brick facade. In March 1884, the name was changed to the Commercial House, but from February 1891 until March 1893, it was again the Pierce House. In March 1893, the name changed to the Grand Union Hotel, and in July 1895, it was remodeled and reopened as the New Rochester Hotel. By 1907, the building had been expanded to two sections and was later expanded to three sections.

In 1920, the Kahler Corporation purchased the building and renamed it the Olmsted Hospital. In 1923, it became a home for Kahler nurses.

In 1923, the building was moved three blocks south in three sections (using horses) to 426 Second Avenue SW and renamed the Maxwell House to make room for the Model Laundry. The 70-room structure was the largest building moved in the city up to that time. In newspapers of the time, it was noted that it could have been moved in one piece except that it was felt too many trees would have to be cut down to get the hotel around the neccessary corners. In 1968, the Maxwell became the Maxwell Guest House.

• Request for Council Action, City of Rochester, Minnesota

http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/citycouncil/councilmeetings/2007/07July/070207/070207_agenda_D09.pdf

"The city has not adopted any historic preservation laws or ordinances which would prohibit the demolition of the building."

130-year-old Maxwell House is no more Jeff Hansel Rochester Post-Bulletin 2007-07-06

Jim Elliott held vigil as crews demolished the building that was his bread-and-butter for nearly 20 years.

"I watched it all day (Thurs-day)," Elliott said this morning. "I'll be down there again today. I watched them tear down rooms that I rented out for 20 years; the elevator and all the rooms."

Premier Bank purchased the property, Elliott said, and will create a parking lot there. Premier Bank did not return a phone call this morning for comment.

Together with Elliott, the 52 people who called the 130-year-old building home when it was sold formed a tight-knit group and supported each other like a family. By December, all had left to make way for demolition.

"I'm just sad that it's happening. I want to be around when it does, I guess," Elliott said.

A progenitor of the current structure was first built in about 1855 as a farm house and hotel. It burned and was rebuilt as Pierce House in 1877, according to records from former management. After a diphtheria outbreak, it was renovated and renamed the Commercial House. The name changed again to Grand Union Hotel, which was sold and renamed the New Rochester Hotel.

Kahler Corp. bought the building in 1920 and turned into a hospital. In 1923, the building became the Rochester Nurses Home. Five years later, it was divided into three sections and moved to 426 Second Ave. S.W.

Rochester Methodist Hospital leased it in 1954 for housing for nurses. In 1968, it was sold and became the Maxwell Guest House.

"It's served its purpose," Elliott said. "It's about 100 years old, and it needed to have a lot of work to be done on it. So I guess it's time to go."

Memories of Maxwell House Dawn Schuett Rochester Post-Bulletin 2007-01-29

Although the Maxwell Guest House had several other names during its long history in Rochester, those who stayed at the brick building at 426 Second Ave. S.W. usually called it home.

It was more than a guest house, the Rev. John Darlington said Sunday during an event at Christ United Methodist Church to remember the landmark and honor its most recent proprietors, Jim and Norene Elliott.

"Let's call it a family place," Darlington said.

The history of the Maxwell Guest House dates back to 1855, when John Stevens built a frame house on Main Street as a hotel. After that building burned in 1877, its owners, Joseph and Sarah Pierce, rebuilt on the same site. The new hotel was known as the Pierce House. It was expanded a few times before the Kahler Corp. purchased it in 1920 and renamed it Olmsted Hospital. In 1923, it became a residence for nurses. Five years later, the building was moved in three sections to its current site.

It was still used as a nurses' dormitory when Carol Ann Wallace lived there in the 1950s. By then, it was known as Maxwell Hall, a name that honored Anna Caroline Maxwell, a respected leader in schools of nursing from Boston to Montreal.

"It was condemned at the time, and we all thought it was a big joke," said Wallace who used her repair skills and tool box to fix broken banisters and door hinges. "Condemned or otherwise, it was a wonderful home for us."

The building was sold again in 1968, and its name was changed to Maxwell Guest House.

In 1985, the Elliotts took a risk, acted on faith and bought the guest house, where they welcomed tenants who often had no place else to go. Lynn Behnke, a former resident of the southwest Rochester neighborhood where the guest house is located, said the Bible guided the couple's business model.

The guest house was a place where compassion meant more than the bottom line.

"Now it falls to us, to you and me, to fill the vacancy left by its closing," Behnke told the audience of about 75.

Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson also thanked the Elliotts for what they've done in the community.

Peterson said when he was a patrol officer just starting his career, he would sometimes respond to a call of a vagrant in the doorway of a downtown business. He would tell the man to move along and the man would ask, "Where?" The Maxwell Guest House was an answer to that question for 25 years, Peterson said.

"I can say, without any contradiction, I'm sure we have no fewer problems today," he said. "We have one less answer" now that the guest house has closed.

Norene Elliott said she and her husband cherished the experience of being able to welcome so many tenants at the guest house.

"It's been a wonderful thing, I think, for both of us," she said.

Maxwell House to close Dec. 1 Jeff Hansel Rochester Post-Bulletin 2006-11-03

Gerald Bertschinger nervously taps his finger on an end table in the front room of the Maxwell Guest House, yet the action seems to ground him for what he is about to say.

"It's got to be done," he says. "You gotta go with the flow, I guess."

Bertschinger and 31 other residents of the Maxwell Guest House, 426 Second Ave. S.W. in Rochester, must all find new places to live by Dec. 1, because the property is closing for good.

Cost makes the search for a new place difficult for residents. At Maxwell, most pay weekly or through verbal monthly agreements with former owner Jim Elliott. Elliott says he sold the Maxwell to Premier Bank and will stay as manager until closing day.

"Jim would let me slide by until I got my SSDI, Social Security Disability (payments), and then I'd pay him all back in full," Bertschinger says. That kind of trusting support from property owners is essentially absent in today's society, said Robert Frisby, of Olmsted County Community Services, giving his personal opinion.

Residents with disabilities or mental illness will struggle. Others have criminal backgrounds, including felonies. But Frisby said Maxwell offered a good option for a new start.

"You give that person a home, and we'll help that person stay on the straight and narrow - and if they don't, we'll get them out of there," was the gentlemen's agreement that worked between the justice system, social workers and Jim Elliott, said Frisby.

"After 88 years, I think I'm about ready to slow down a little," Elliott said this week.

Premier Bank officials did not return calls for comment, so what will happen to the building is uncertain. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but no demolition permit has been applied for, city officials say. If Premier intends to tear the building down, they would first have to submit forms to the Minnesota Historic Preservation Office.

Although the Maxwell House has gained an unsavory reputation, residents are quick to point out that outsiders don't realize there's a community within a community.

"Most of the people that are here are here because they couldn't find a place in the first place," said Joleen Kenitz. "I was actually homeless before I came here."

Residents visit, play cards, volunteer in the front lobby or take out the trash. The camaraderie will be missed.

"Everybody gets along. Everybody helps each other out, and that's all it is," said Dennis Becker, who has lived in the building five years. "People get together. They make food together. They do everything. It's a community. It really is."

"It'll be hard for them to find that same spirit," said Frisby.

James Elliott owned and operated the Maxwell for more than 20 years. Cite: http://www.austindailyherald.com/obits/2008/dec/03/james-elliott/

http://www.eqb.state.mn.us/documents/EQB%20Monitor%205-21-07.pdf EQB Monitor Publication Date: May 21, 2007 Vol. 31, No. 11 Page 3

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT WORKSHEETS

Project Title: Maxwell Guest House Demolition

Description: The project will consist of demolishing the current Maxwell Guest House, also know as the Pierce House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The future use of the site is proposed to be a surface parking lot.

RGU: City of Rochester

Several old buildings come down in 2007 Rochester Post-Bulletin 2008-01-05

Demolition crews were busy in Rochester in 2007.

Many high-profile buildings were knocked down and hauled away to make way for developments to be built this year.

Here is the breakdown of some of the larger, more high profile demolition projects.

Maxwell Guest House

The 130-year-old building, originally called the Pierce House in 1877, was demolished in July. It had served as a hotel, hospital, nurses home and guest house.

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Comment sought on guest house 05/23/2007 Post-Bulletin staff

Public comments are being sought on the fate of the former Maxwell Guest House, 426 Second Ave. S.W.

The house closed in December after owner Jim Elliott sold it to Premier Bank. The site is scheduled to become a parking lot.

Registry on the National Register of Historic Places requires a public comment period. The building was rebuilt in the late 1800s after the original structure burned. It has served as the Grand Union Hotel, Olmsted Hospital (used for clinical investigation and research) and the Rochester Nurses Home, according to a history provided to the Post-Bulletin before the business closed. In 1928, the building was divided into three sections and moved to its current location from its original spot on Main Street.

An Environmental Assessment Worksheet is available for public review at the Olmsted County Administration Office in the city-county government center in Rochester.

Written comments should consider "the accuracy and completeness" of the worksheet, mention impacts worthy of investigation or justify the need for an Environmental Impact Statement.

Comments will be taken until June 20 by Brent Svenby, senior planner, Rochester-Olmsted Planning Department, 2122 Campus Drive S.E., Rochester, MN 55904.