Another Historic Rochester Minnesota Building On Chopping Block

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UPDATE: It has been reported full demolition is not the plan, but used to jump-start the historical review process. Waiting for confirmation from owners.

Another one of Rochester, Minnesota's iconic old buildings (if 103-years-old counts as old) could be gone as it's owner wants to demolish it.

It's officially the former Olmsted County Bank Building, but that location at 7 Second Street Southwest in Downtown Rochester has been many things since 1965 when the bank moved.

Older residents of Rochester still refer to it as Tinkler's, I  think of it as the Clubhause Brew Pub (even though it only lasted a couple years). I think it was the first place in Rochester's modern era to brew their own beer. More recently the businesses in there included O'Neill's Pizza Pub and Goonie's Comedy Club was in there.

And then it became the Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi, Fuji...but it didn't catch on, which is a major shame as there was an extensive remodel to turn it into that restaurant.

So we're up to now, now, and one of the building's owners, Mike Hawkins, filed to tear it down. The other owner is A.J. Hawkins, Mike's son. They bought it for $1.5 million and have ad it on the market for almost $3 million.

I couldn't reach Mike or A.J. for comment, so that's all I know for now. I think you can expect some ruckus over the planned demolition. Many in Rochester feel we've lost too many historical buildings already.

What do you think? Are they tearing down history or is it just part of a city growing...if they can't make a business work in there, maybe it should go?

As always, if you have a comment, complaint, or concern about something I wrote here, please let me know: james.rabe@townsquaremedia.com

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