Take the Virtual Tour
Ochs Department Store414-420 Central Avenue N. |
Style: Classical Revival influences
Year Built: 1908 |
 The facade of this Central Avenue store was obscured by metal alterations for many years, but has been recently restored to reflect its original appearance. Family-operated Ochs department stores served communities for almost 100 years at various locations in Faribault and southern Minnesota. Faribault contractor William O’Neil constructed the building. |
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Theopold Mercantile Company Wholesale Grocery303 Depot Square |
Style: Romanesque Revival
Year Built: 1893 |
 The development of railroad networks brought wholesale and distributing firms to Faribault, including the Theopold Mercantile Company, established in the 1880s. The building, located directly on a railroad line, provided storage for a variety of dry goods, including high grade cigars. Smaller buildings connected to the main structure housed the Theopold-Morris Candy Company and a print shop. Rising from this business success, the Theopold family held a socially prominent role in turn-of-the-century Faribault. |
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Security Bank/Theopold Block302 Central Avenue N. |
Style: Classical Revival
Year Built: 1870 |
 A Classical Revival-style brick facade covers a stone structure constructed originally by mercantile entrepreneur F.A. Theopold. The building was leased by Security Bank in 1899. The bank eventually purchased the building, and a fourth story was added in 1914, possibly the same year that brick was used to radically alter the structure’s appearance. |
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Timothy McCarthy Building24 3rd Street NW |
Style: Italianate
Year Built: 1884 |
 Faribault’s only polished marble facade highlights this architecturally significant Italianate storefront. Irish immigrant and bulding owner T.J. McCarthy attended Shattuck School under the sponsorship of Father George Keller. Part-owner of a brickyard, McCarthy later purchased the Faribault Marble works with J.H. Nightengale and provided undertaking services in conjunction with his marble and granite business. |
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Wolf Building216-218 Central Avenue |
Style: Italianate
Year Built: 1878 |
 A grocer, a dentist and the Citizen’s National Bank have been housed in this architecturally interesting building. A broken pediment projects from the cornice with a date plate and finial. Decorative window hoods are characteristic of the Italianate style. |
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Lieb Block202-204 Central Avenue |
Style: Italianate
Year Built: 1882 |
 R.J. Lieb’s family came from the German-speaking province of Alsace-Lorraine in France. He opened his first shoe store in Faribault in a small frame building, then relocated the business to this building after its construction. The south wall of the building was adorned with a sign, painted by Jacob Fink, advertising the shoe store. |
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Dandelet Dry Goods Building227 Central Avenue |
Style: Art Deco and Italianate influences; altered
Year Built: ca. 1882 |
 The Italianate facade that graces so many other downtown Faribault buildings is partially obscured by a distinctive, Art Deco-style front. The black and cream vitrolite and strong lines undoubtedly attracted fashionable customers in the 1930’s, when the building was purchased and “modernized” by the Dandelet family. |
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George F. Batchelder’s Block120 Central Avenue North |
Style: Italianate
Year Built: 1868-69 |
 The Batchelder Block is one of Faribault’s oldest, best designed and best preserved Italianate storefronts. George Batchelder, who served as a state senator and city mayor, used the building of local limestone for his dry goods store, with a carpet display on the second floor. The building contained one of the first elevators in town, run by counter weights and a hand-over-hand pull rope. At various times, the building housed an undertaker, a grocery warehouse, a saloon and a cigar factory.
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Faribault Thresher Company/Farmer Seed and Nursery818 4th Street Northwest |
Style: Vernacular
Year Built: ca. 1890-1909 |
 This stone warehouse is Faribault’s only industrial building on the National Register of Historic Places. The building originally housed the Faribault Thresher Company, then became home to the Farmer Seed Company in 1899. Both business reflect Faribault’s strong agricultural heritage. The Farmer Seed Company, originally based in Chicago, moved their operations to Faribault in 1894 “for the purpose of growing such farm and vegetable seeds as can be raised to advantage in Minnesota.” Additions to the original warehouse in the first decade of the twentieth century included a two story elevator and and the four upper stories. |
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Chase State Bank101 3rd Street Northwest |
Style: Classical Revival
Year Built: 1905 |
 Restored in 1993, this small structure reflects Classical Revival design principles with its graceful columns and the careful placement of its angled entrance. The Classical Revival style was favored for federal government buildings of the era and lent an air of official distinction to this local bank. |
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