At the southeast corner of Crookston’s historic downtown business district stands the old city hall, built in 1899 to house the booming city’s police department, fire department, and government offices.
In 1898 the city of Crookston was growing in prominence as a railroad and lumbering town. As its population neared 7,000, officials recognized a need to expand city services. The architect chosen to design the city’s central public building, Emil H. Strassburger, presented his plans for approval in 1899.
Born in Germany in 1853, Strassburger had emigrated first to San Antonio, Texas. He and three other German-born architects, Emil Ulrici, Albert Zschocke, and Herman Kretz, all moved from San Antonio to Minnesota between 1883 and 1877. They left their mark by designing many buildings in St. Paul. Strassburger moved to Crookston in 1899 and set up an office in the Fournet Block. He would go on to build at least two other business in Crookston: the Rolsch Block and the Minneapolis Brewing Company building.
The city hall building Strassburger designed at 123 South Broadway was fifty feet wide and 130 thirty feet in depth. It was two stories high and built of Minneapolis pressed red brick. The original building featured a pyramidal roof and a bell tower on the southwest corner of the building, as well as Sullivanesque floral designs in the front. It cost approximately $20,000 to build.
The Crookston Fire Department, led by Crookston’s first fire chief, jeweler Tom Morris, was housed in the front of the building, in a room thirty-nine feet by fifty feet in size. There was originally room for four horses and a hose storage space on this floor.
In the original design, the police department was housed at the back of the building and was reached by a long hallway on the north side. Two men’s jail cells and one women’s cell were located in this area. In the basement were a boiler room, a gymnasium for the firemen, and an area where up to fifty itinerant workers could find temporary quarters.
A large room on the second floor, forty-seven by fifty-five feet in size, was the meeting room of the city council. This room featured an ornate metal ceiling and a skylight. Also on the second floor were a municipal courtroom, the judge’s office, the city clerk’s office, and a band room.
Unfortunately, by 1905, the city hall building began to demonstrate serious structural problems, including sprung doors, cracked walls, and a sagging second story. The city called upon architect Bert Keck to come up with a plan to renovate the building. Keck’s suggested improvements were approved by the city council in March of 1907.
During a major renovation, workers eliminated the original stairway and built an eight-foot-wide staircase from the north entrance on Broadway up to the second floor. They also added one truss as well as a brick wall running through the building across the council chamber. Together, these changes served to support the roof over the chamber. The police department began bringing its prisoners to their offices via the Fletcher Street entrance. In addition, the fire department now provided second-floor sleeping rooms for the firemen.
Gradually, the city hall was abandoned as a public building. The fire department received new quarters in 1968, followed by the police department and city offices by 1979. After the city offices moved, the local paper chronicled a discussion on what should be done with the vacant old city hall. Although some reportedly considered the building an eyesore, others wished to keep it alive to preserve a piece of Crookston’s history. It became part of Crookston’s Historic Commercial District and was named on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984.
The building was purchased by Eickof Construction for business purposes in 1979, and the pyramidal roof and bell tower were removed about this time.
In 2006, Larry and Ellen Leake purchased the building and began using it as a gift shop, allowing most of the historic features of the building to be preserved.