When you are looking for interesting old brick buildings, you often have to get off the beaten path to find them. That is the case for September’s brick structure of the month. As I was driving down Interstate 90 this summer, making a swing through southern Minnesota, a large church steeple caught my attention near Adrian, Minnesota. Of course, Adrian is not a household name to most Minnesotans, as it is a small town located in southwest Minnesota, not too far east of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Like I mentioned, there was a tall church steeple that caught my attention during my drive. I often find that tall steeples that dominate the skyline of smaller towns usually mean a beautiful old brick church when you get closer. I was in the Adrian area looking for Heron Lake brick buildings. There was an old brickyard in Heron Lake, which is north of the Adrian area. Heron Lake brick is a fancy orange looking brick, and I was not having much luck finding any old buildings that had this orange tinge to them.
I pulled off the interstate at Adrian to check out this tall steeple, which did turn out to be a nice old brick church. However, in my drive through Adrian, I was immediately fascinated by an old hotel in the old downtown commercial district (Figure 1). It still had one of its original signs out front (Figure 2), which proudly proclaimed it to be the Slade Hotel. It too is a brick structure, which has an orange tint to it (Figure 3). However, I am not positive it was made of Heron Lake brick, but it very well could have been.
The Slade Hotel probably had a very interesting history, if it could talk. I did a Google search on it and came across a book written by one of the owners, Jack Slade. I bought the little book and found out a little more about the history of Adrian and the Slade Hotel. Jack Slade’s parents bought the hotel and it was operated by the family for many years. Jack also included some memories of the town from when he was growing up.
One of the funnier memories was about an ox roast the town had back around the turn of the century. They got together and butchered the ox and put it on a spit and slow cooked it over a fire for a couple of days. Then the ox was sliced up and handed out to the townspeople for their community get together. Turns out, most of them stopped eating after just a bite. They found out quickly why roast ox is a rarely heard item on a barbeque menu!
So that is my brick structure of the month for September, the Slade Hotel of Adrian. If you are driving down Interstate 90, pull off and look through the town. There are quite a few old buildings which are worth a look!
