210 North Minnesota Street
New Ulm, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Grand Hotel

Statement of Significance:

Considered in the context of "Early Agriculture and River Settlement, I8f|0s to 1870s," the Grand Hotel is significant in American history because of its association with the development of New Ulm's business district, which played a central role in the economic growth of the southern Minnesota River Valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is also architecturally noteworthy as a good example of an Italianate style building used for commercial purposes.

Immediately after treaties were signed with the Dakota Indians at Mendota and Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the Minnesota River Valley in the southern part of Minnesota Territory was opened for settlement. In 1854 the first large group of settlers from the Chicago Land Society arrived in Brown County. Organized by German immigrants in Chicago who sought to establish their own Midwestern colony, the settlers platted the New Ulm townsite in 1855. Within a year they were joined by the Turner Germans from the Cincinnati Settlement Society, and together they created the German Land Association of Minnesota. Founded as a trading and agricultural center. New Ulm was unlike many other villages in the area because it was not platted by or for the railroad; instead, its development relied on Minnesota River steamboats from the I850s until the early I870s.

As a reflection of the city's ethnic homogeneity. New Ulm's i860 population of 635 persons contained only two residents of non-Germanic heritage. Among those in the majority was Phillip Gross, who came to New Ulm by way of Milwaukee in 1856. In the same year Gross began a hostelry in a two-story wood frame building called the Minnesota Haus, which became the Union Hotel in i860. This was the only business in the community which provided room and board for visitors. The hotel soon became a focal point of activity in New Ulm, including serving as a hospital during the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862 when over 185 of the city's buildings were burned.

Commercial activity in New Ulm increased after the Conflict largely because of an influx of settlers who took advantage of land offered through the Homestead Act. This period marked the beginning of development of the area into a producer, exporter, and processor of agricultural products. When the Winona and St. Peter (later the Chicago and Northwestern) Railroad entered the county in 1872, New Ulm became a regionally important center for processing and marketing grain. Business flourished for the Union Hotel, which served travelers until 5 July 1875 when it was destroyed by fire. Gross was undaunted, however, and he immediately built a new two-story brick hotel that he operated until retiring in 1885; his son-in-law then managed the property for a short time.

Two other hotels had been constructed in the center of New Ulm by 1884. Perhaps because of this competition, in 1899 the new owner of the Union Hotel added a third floor, upgraded the interior, and changed the name of the building to the Grand Hotel. The expanded hostelry contained about thirty sleeping rooms, an office, a new kitchen to the rear, and a large dining room which occupied one-half of the first floor. With a refurbished interior and additional space for boarders, the Grand continued to play an important role in community life into the twentieth century.

Architecturally, the Grand Hotel is the finest largely unaltered example of mid-Victorian period commercial design in New Ulm and the surrounding area. Elements of the Italianate style are evident in the symmetrical, formal balance of the facade, the tall, narrow round arched windows with pronounced moldings, and the decorative quoins. Other commercial buildings of larger size with greater detailing remain in New Ulm, but the majority were constructed at least ten years later and have had their street level facades drastically altered. No other building in the city's commercial district has retained such a high degree of historic architectural integrity. Only the Constans Hotel in Faribault County was built at an earlier date (1868 and 1896, NRHP) than the Grand Hotel, although its design has been compromised somewhat by later alterations. New Ulm's primary hotel compares favorably with others in the area including the Slade Hotel in Nobles County (1891), and the Hotel Broz (1898) and Union Hotel (ca.1888) in LeSueur County, all of which are listed in the National Register.