4285 Tower Square
Pequot Lakes, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - A.L. Cole Memorial Building

Statement of Significance:

The Cole Memorial Building is of local significance and eligible for NRHP listing under Criterion A in the areas of Entertainment/Recreation, Social History, and Politics/Government. The building provided a facility for a wide variety of social and recreational activities that included sports, motion pictures, theatrical productions, school functions, social gatherings, and a meeting place for local governments, farm groups and others. Under the aegis of the Pequot Lakes Commercial Club, the main floor was converted into a full-time movie theater in 1941, and the profits from this operation funded a variety of community betterment projects and institutions.

As a WPA-funded construction project, the Cole building provided temporary jobs for individuals on relief and also business for local firms during the most serious economic depression in American history. The property is being nominated under the NRHP Multiple Property Documentation Form “Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933-1941,” and it relates to several statewide contexts:

Railroads and Agricultural Development 1870-1940 Northern Minnesota Lumbering 1870-1930s Minnesota Tourism and Recreation in the Lake Regions 1870-1945.

Introduction
The origins of Pequot Lakes, known as Pequot until changed in 1940 to encourage tourism, date to about 1894 when a logging railroad, the Minnesota & International, was run from Brainerd (Crow Wing County seat) to Hackensack in Cass County. A siding was built in Sibley Township (“Sibley Siding”) and within a year a small village had grown up there. Known as Sibley, it was changed to Pequot by 1900 and incorporated in 1902. Crow Wing County is one of 14 counties known as the Minnesota Cutover Region, and after logging operations had removed most of the timber, farming was promoted. This was initially successful; an agricultural society with an annual fair was organized in 1906 and a local creamery was in operation by about 1915 {Pequot Review, 12-19-20; Nic Anderson, Part I, 35). By 1920 the village had grown considerably, and by 1930 the population had reached 488. Since it was within 30 miles of at least 150 lakes, tourism was already being mentioned in 1920, and eventually it replaced farming as the major local industry (“What Pequot Offers,” Pequot Review, 12-19-20).

In December 1935, Fay Cole Andrus deeded a large parcel of land next to the Pequot commercial district to the Village of Pequotto “be used exclusively as a public park and for other public purposes” (Crow Wing County Recorder’s Office; Deed Records). Mrs. Andrus was a daughter of A. L. Cole, an early Pequot merchant who also owned a large amount of land which he developed into a substantial portion of what the city is today. The donated parcel was intended as a memorial to her father.

In March 1936 the Pequot Commercial Club approached the Village Council with a proposal that it sponsor the construction of a “Recreational Hall.” Federal funds were available, and an architect had been contacted who would take his fee over time as a percentage of the project cost (Village Council Minutes, 2-3-36). The architect was P. C. Bettenburg, and he had already drawn up plans for the building, since at least preliminary plans and specifications were required to submit a construction project proposal to the WPA and other New Deal agencies.

The building was placed on the east side of the donated parcel, with the grounds to the north and west initially used as a park, outdoor gathering place, and athletic fields. A historic photo taken shortly after the building was erected shows a baseball field to the north of the building and a park with flagpole to the west.

A water tower was built in 1960 on the portion south of the building, and everything north of the well house was sold in 1983 along with the Municipal Liquor Store, which had been located there for many years.