If These Walls Could Talk: Antique mall finds a home in historic hotel building

Editor's note: This is part of a 15-story series titled "If These Walls Could Talk" completed by Pioneer reporters with help from the Beltrami County Historical Society for our 2023 Annual Report.

Just like so many of the items you can find inside, the building that houses the First City Antique Mall on the southeast corner of Second Street and Minnesota Avenue has an intriguing history of its own.

Its tale begins in 1919 when the land was purchased by Morris Kaplan with the intent to create a manufacturing plant. When he grasped how badly the city needed housing following World War I, he built a state-of-the-art hotel meant to service Bemidji’s growing population.

The building far exceeded the $30,000 estimate. Because of the swampy terrain between the Great Northern Depot and Second Street, the building had to be built on steel piers with a concrete foundation.

The Bemidji Pioneer reported, “That it will be solidly rooted is a fact, for 380 large piles have been driven, upon which the structure will rest, said to be one of the strongest foundations in the state.” Steel beams were installed on both the first and second floors.

A huge 16,000-pound boiler was installed to provide steam heat for the structure. A pipeline was laid under Second Street to connect the Kaplan Block at 202-204 Minnesota Avenue with this new structure. Kaplan’s Block north of Second Street housed Clifford & Co., which carried groceries, flour and feed.

While there was considerable excitement about the development, there was some disappointment with the plans, since an alternate dream for the land was a city park.

“With the purchase by Morris Kaplan of a large section of the block between First and Second Streets and Minnesota and Beltrami Avenues, the dream of our citizens that this section might be transformed into a city park will fade,” an article from the Pioneer lamented on May 8, 1919.

During the planning, Kaplan changed the layout of the interior several times. Instead of 40 single-room apartments, he changed the plans to 20 two-room apartments, two three-room apartments and 24 single rooms.

The Pioneer reported in an article on Jan. 13, 1920: “There will be 54 lavatories, 17 baths and 17 toilets. The two sides facing the streets will be enclosed by glass entirely, all of which has already arrived. Over 27,000 feet of maple flooring will be used in the new structure.”

After the hotel opened, it quickly became a landmark in town. Within the first year, the lower floors were home to a café, a floral company and even a harness shop.

One of the main demographics who occupied the hotel were young women stepping out on their own, a fact shared by Jan Burger, who owns First City Antique Mall and has researched the history of the building.

“One hundred years ago women wouldn’t get apartments, but their parents would put them in a hotel that was considered a nice place,” Burger explained.

Serving as a safe and respectable place for a young lady to live in the early 1900s, the hotel saw success for the first decade of its existence. However, during the economic downturn of the Great Depression, the hotel fell into some difficulties and the lower floors were vacant from 1934 to 1935.

Business picked up as the economy recovered, with Bemidji Mercantile Co. moving in downstairs. In 1937, young Olga Bjornstad was a clerk for Morris Kaplan. By 1939, she was vice president of Bemidji Mercantile.

By 1942, she was president of the company. She died in 1971. Sidney and Janice Moe bought the Bemidji Mercantile from her estate and ran the company for 36 years.

Known as the Bemidji Hotel Apartments in the 1960s, just over a decade later a fire broke out on the third floor in January 1973, causing 60 residents to evacuate the building in the early morning.

While the damage was severe, repairs were made and the apartments reopened, rebranding to the Lakeview Apartments in 1978.

Bemidji Mercantile remained in the building until 2008 and the apartments remained on the upper floors. Tenants moved in and out and parts of the lower floor ultimately sat vacant before Burger and her business partners began leasing a section of the building in 2023.

While its historic nature wasn’t initially what drew them to the structure, it became an important part of why Burger and her partners chose the location.

“How perfect to put an antique business in a historic building,” Burger said. “I just think it was meant to be.”

Remnants of the building's history remain, with the faded graphics of the Bemidji Hotel still visible on an exterior wall.

“The location tells a story,” Burger shared. “I love the fact that our downtown has so many wonderfully preserved old buildings.”

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If These Walls Could Talk: Antique mall finds a home in historic hotel building