George Peoples, then a Bismarck resident, purchased lots 14 and 15 of Block 6 in Mandan from the Northern Pacific Railroad for $375 (about $13,000 in 2025 dollars) in July 1881. He built a hotel in 1882–1883 for $23,500 (about $784,000 in 2025 dollars), using brick manufactured just east of Mandan. Located at the northeastern corner of Main Street and Collins Avenue, it became the city's second three-story building, after the InterOcean Hotel four blocks west, and its first three-story brick building. The hotel opened in April 1882.
The walls were five bricks thick on the first floor, four on the second, and three on the third. Floor timbers measuring three inches by 12 inches came from a dismantled Minnesota flour mill. Bingenheimer and Taylor's Drug and Fancy Goods operated in the ground-floor storefront along Main Street, while S. Smith Dry Goods occupied the Stark Avenue, now Collins Avenue, side. Gussner's Meat Market stood east of the hotel and supplied its dining room. A second floor was later added to the market building, but an air shaft between the structures allowed the hotel windows to remain usable.
Peoples later sold the hotel to Pat McGinley, who renamed it the McGinley. Before air conditioning, families visited the hotel's dining room for home-cooked summer meals without having to heat their own houses.
Jane Lauscher, widow of a successful Red River Valley bonanza farmer, purchased the hotel and operated it from approximately 1908 through 1916. She undertook a major remodeling of its rooms and marketed the hotel to railroad workers and area ranchers.
Nels and Lillian Romer purchased the business in 1918. Nels served as a city commissioner in 1922–1923 and later became Mandan's police chief. Lillian continued operating the hotel briefly after he was shot and killed in the line of duty in December 1926.
In 1929, Otto Gussner opened a radiator shop behind the hotel, in space where the city had stored fire trucks until a new city hall was built. The shop moved to the rear of the lot along the alley when the hotel was remodeled in 1947.
The building operated exclusively as a hotel until 1968. Other tenants over the years included attorney John Sullivan, Taylor Drug, White Star Cafe, John Sand's Bar, St. Elmo's Restaurant in the basement, The Mandan News, and Crescent Printing. A Christian coffeehouse occupied the main floor for a decade before the final tenant, Ratz Lounge. The building was demolished in April and May 2007.
This article draws on the following sources.[1][2][3]
Sources
- Morton County Roots. 1985. Morton County Historical Society.
- Susan Balcom. Mandan Hotel Has Seen Many Comings and Goings. March 16, 2007. Morton County Mandan News.
- Uncredited report on Mandan construction. November 2, 1883. Bismarck Weekly Tribune, item 1. Page 1.