Winona Heritage Preservation Commission Annual Preservation Month Open House

Saturday | May 31 | 11 am – 2 pm
Free & Open to All
Location: 102 Walnut Street
Winona Heritage Preservation Commission

 

We hear a lot about storytelling these days. What would it be like if an old building could tell us its story?

 

You’ll have a chance to do just that on the last day of this month, Saturday, May 31, from 11 am – 2 pm.

Your ‘narrator’ will be 102 Walnut Street, a solid source, who’s perhaps best known today as home to Nosh Scratch Kitchen. But the building at the corner of East 2nd St., has housed many enterprises over its 150+ years. It was built in five stages and situated not far from the steamboat landing at the Levee and nearby railway. 102 Walnut epitomizes the type of business block built of local brick and stone that replaced Winona’s original commercial buildings. Those had been mostly constructed of wood and were destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1862.

Come listen to its stories about Winona’s rivertown past spanning the years after the Civil War into our dynamic present. 102 Walnut was built as the Erpelding Block in 1870. It has been the home to a millinery, a physician’s office, the Winona Business Institute (established there in 1874), Schneider Brothers Livery, Weibel’s House hotel, and a basement saloon that became a Prohibition era illegal speakeasy. For a time the Charles Miller Grocery & Ice Operation encompassed the entire first floor; they later added a farm implement store. According to a recent preservation report, “[t]he most historically significant tenant, utilizing all four bays in one large operation through extensive additions and alterations, was the Ramer Candy Company, from 1904 to 1920.” Other enterprises followed: a meat market, a textile mill, Koch Vegetable Tea Co., and a grain dealer with its own feedmill. The Winona Adler, one of four newspapers then in town, was published there. A fraternal organization called the United Ancient Order of the Druids met there. Winona’s first armory was established there and its team The Guards even played indoor baseball in their hall during winter months.

In 1976 Riverhaven, a parent-run alternative school, moved into 102 Walnut. Forty years later, Peter Shortridge and Mike Gostomski, under the aegis of Riverfront Partners LLC, acquired the building and gave it a thorough make-over. Today the headquarters of the Upper Mississippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge may be found on the second floor along with a stunning mural in stained glass depicting the Mississippi River from its Lake Itasca source to the Gulf of Mexico. Inside are taxidermied exhibits of the River’s flora, fish, and fauna. The office of the Nature Conservancy is just down the hall in a co-working space. The ground floor includes the 150+ year-old financial advisors Edward Jones, and, of course, Nosh. All will be open to the public at set times during the event.

The Open House at 102 Walnut St.—which is free to the public—is being held in honor of Preservation Month by the city of Winona’s Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC). Preservation Month activities are promoted each May by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to celebrate the country’s architectural treasures. This year’s theme is “Harnessing the Power of Place.”

Two brief guided tours of the building’s exterior—at 11:15 A.M. and 1:15 P.M.—will be conducted by Luke Sims, Winona’s Senior Planner and staff liaison to the HPC. Concurrently, separate guided tours of the building’s interior—will be conducted by HPC volunteers.

A short video consisting of aerial footage and historical photos of the building’s exterior and interior produced by Bill Kuhl will be screened continuously in the lobby of the Walnut St. entrance.

At 12:00 P.M., in Nosh’s back dining room, a talk entitled “The Erpelding Building, 1871-2025” will be delivered by popular local storyteller and historian Dr. Joseph Hughes, Professor Emeritus of Classics at Missouri State University. Members of Joe’s Kashubian Polish family have lived in Winona for generations.

Also during the noon program HPC Chair Emily Kurash Casey will award the 2025 Historic Preservation commendations to former Winona Mayor Mark Peterson and to Mike Slaggie. Mr. Peterson is being honored for his multi-decade efforts conserving and promoting Winona’s distinctive historic built environment, both while in office and serving as director of the WCHS. Mr. Slaggie is recognized for the extensive rehabilitation of St. Cecilia Theatre on the former College of St. Teresa’s campus, now Cotter Schools, in 2017. His Hurry Back Productions regularly presents concerts in this exquisite 400-seat venue.

Event co-sponsors include the Winona County Historical Society; Riverfront Partnership, LLC; Nosh Scratch Kitchen; the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge; the Nature Conservancy; Edward Jones; the National Trust for Historic Preservation; and Rethos.

Michaeal Doyle is a member of the Winona Heritage Preservation Commission and also a member of the River Arts Alliance. To learn more about the benefits of membership, please visit: riverartsalliance.org/membership/.