You’re standing where it stood · Southwest corner of Main and Olive Streets

The North Star Hotel

A two-storey brick hotel stood on this corner from 1898 until 1977.

TodayMain Street Exchange121 West Main Street

Drag across the photograph to compare early 1900s and 2022.

Through the years

Before 1898An earlier North Star Hotel
1898The two-storey brick North Star Hotel replaces it
1904After the cyclone of 20 August, the brick hotel stands amid the wreckage on Main Street
1977Razed, after various owners
TodayMain Street Exchange

The story

This two-storey brick hotel replaced an earlier North Star Hotel in 1898. It is the brick building at the centre of an early 1900s view taken from the roof of the 1895 school, looking north, with Coney Island of the West beyond.

After various owners, the hotel was razed in 1977. The Main Street Exchange building stands on the corner today.

**August 1904.** From the school roof after the cyclone, looking northeast: wreckage along Main Street and the brick North Star Hotel on the left. Courtesy of the Carver County Historical Society.

Do you remember this place?

Did you stay, work or eat at the North Star? Tell us what it was like inside.

Memories, names and family photographs go into the association’s archive, kept with your name and in your own words.

Share what you know

In the archive preview

Sources

Photographs from the Waconia Heritage Association collection, some courtesy of the Carver County Historical Society.

More building stories downtown

Look for the plaque in the window. See them all

124 West Main Street The Waconia Patriot building 1916

46 West Main Street The first Braunwarth Ford garage 1923 to 1929

4 East Main Street Menzel’s Garage 1930s

500 South Maple Street Waconia Ridgeview Hospital Today: Ridgeview Medical Center