| Additional Information: | 1990: Located on the west side of Main Street at the south end of the city's central business district, the Gladstone Hotel is a three story stone building with a red brick front designed in the Italianate style. In the middle of the ground floor facade is a narrow brick and stone arch, flanked on each side by remodeled storefronts. There is a narrow band of corbeled brick between the first and second floors. The symmetrical second and third stories are identical except the windows and slightly smaller on the top floor; all have segmental arches with keystones, decorative panels below the arches, and stone sills that double as stringcourse. Two sets of windows on each floor are paired and have decorative fluting betwseen each opening. Capping the building is an ornate pressed metal cornice with brackets, finials, and a central pediment.
2014-2015: This former hotel building is comprised of an 1886-87, three-story, Italianate-style, stone and brick structure, along with a two-story, faux stucco-sheathed building to the south (built as one story in 1892; second story added in 1899; rear addition, 1944). Regarding the former, the first floor has been recently remodeled with brick and new windows. The second and third floors, however, retain their original segmentally arched window openings (arranged singly and in pairs) with flush brick headers and a central keystone. The windows themselves, however, have been replaced. The pressed-metal cornice remains largely intact, including the bracket and central peak detailing. The two-story addition to the south, which was built with brick, has been entirely remodeled with faux stucco and new windows. A 1900 image of the exterior of the south building indicate that the first-floor elevation included a door and two windows, while the second level included four segmentally arched windows with brick headers and masonry keystones that resembled those on the 1886 block. Although an interior inspection of the upper floors was not completed, the first floor of the 1886 block includes two commercial units that are entirely modernized, as is the first-floor space of the two-story addition.
The original three-story block of this hotel building was built by Frank Rossell between 1886 and 1887; it was located immediately next-door to the Central House, another hotel also owned by Rossell. Local contractor Charles Knowles is identified as having laid the stone for the structure. Although originally advertised as the Garfield House, the name had changed to Hotel Gladstone by its opening on 15 March 1887. The first floor included “an elegant lobby” with a tile floor, with several offices and a dining room located behind it, while the north portion of the first level was rented out. A saloon was originally located on the second floor, above the rental space. By 1892, an addition was built to the south of the three-story block, which was rented out to the newly established Farmers & Merchants State Bank, with the second floor containing hotel rooms. As of 1900, and under the management of Charles D. McKinnon, the hotel boasted thirty-five rooms and two sample rooms. In 1931, the hotel was remodeled by owner Walter Sutherland, which resulted in a rearrangement of rooms. At this time, guest rooms numbered thirty-two and there were eight bathrooms. Sutherland’s son Bob then took over operations of the hotel. It was closed from July 1957 to June 1958 and the entire structure was remodeled. The lobby was converted for use as a coffee shop, which resulted in covering over of the tile floor and the removal of the original check-in desk. The third-floor rooms were also converted for use as apartments. The name was at that time changed to the Walvern, the name being the combination of his parents’ names: Walter and Verna. The building is now divided into four condominium units (including the commercial first-floor spaces and the upper-level apartments) and the four “units” are owned separately. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Historic name: River Falls Journal, 24 February 1887
Date of construction: River Falls Journal, 23 September 1886
Designer: River Falls Journal, 5 May 1921
"Hotel Walvern Nears Completion," Photo and Caption, River Falls Journal, 15 May 1958, page 1, col. 2-3.
A historic image of the hotel is included in H.E. Graham, A Souvenir--River Falls, Wis. (Red Wing, MN: Wall & Haines, 1900), 40.
“Changes at the Walvern Recall its Long Distinguished Past as Hotel Gladstone,” in Bennett’s, River Falls: A Frontier Community Grows Up, 71-73; Charles G. Knowles, obituary, RFJ, 5 May 1921, 1/2, includes mention of Hotel Gladstone; Gladstone remodeling, RFJ, 30 April 1931; “New Hotel Dining Room Nearly Complete,” RFJ, 16 March 1961, 1/5. |
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