Pine River Walking Tour Sponsored & Organized by Heritage Group North, Inc., Pine River, MN www.heritagegroupnorth.org Pine River began in 1873 when George Barclay opened a trading post on the Leech Lake Trail. In 1894 a logging railroad built north through “Barclay’s Ranch” attracted many settlers and led to the formation of a city. Pine River’s original business district, near the railroad depot, has a rich and colorful history. The walking tour highlights some of the town’s more prominent downtown structures, several of which no longer exist. Few of the buildings were designed by architects or built in a particular architectural style, yet people took pride in their buildings.
1. PINE RIVER RAILWAY DEPOT
c. 1895 • 102 Barclay Ave. W. It is appropriate that the walking tour begins and ends here. The depot, erected in 1895, is the oldest building in Pine River and the only one in town deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. A frame structure of simple utilitarian design, the depot underwent several changes through 1913 when a canopy and women’s waiting room were added and the station platform was paved with bricks. The depot was abandoned in 1985, and in 2009 it was relocated to a new site just across the track (the Paul Bunyan Trail) from where it stood for 114 years. The railroad played an active role in attracting immigrants and encouraging settlement.
2. COZY THEATER/NEWSPAPER OFFICE
c. 1915 • 109 First St. S. The Cozy Theater, the town’s first theater, occupied the small, “cozy,” upper floor of this concrete-block building before the era of talkies (movies with soundtracks). In its day the Cozy hosted theatrical 24
PINE RIVER CHAMBER 2023
performances and recitals and showed silent films. Privies flanked the alley-side of the building. An early town newspaper, the Pine River Sentinel-Blaze, had offices and a print shop in the basement. From 1917-20, classes for third and fourth grades of the Pine River School were taught here. The building’s more recent use as a Masonic Lodge hall and Eastern Star chapter ended in 2009.
3. FIRST STATE BANK BUILDING
c. 1903 • 200 Barclay Ave. The brick building was erected in 1903 for the First State Bank of Pine River, the town’s first bank. The bank later got a national charter before hard times led to its merger with a competing bank in 1924. For more than 100 years this building also housed a series of drugstores, early on in the same room as the bank! The building also hosted a basement barber shop and Pine River’s post office. The large pillars originally at the front of the building now form the entry of the old Pine Ridge Cemetery south of town. 4. HILL HARDWARE BUILDING
c. 1916 • 204 Barclay Ave. Hill’s Hardware began in a nearby lumber yard in the early 1900s, and later moved to a wood frame structure on Barclay Avenue. When that building burned in 1916, it
was replaced by a modern masonry building on the adjacent lot. The hardware store operated until 1971, and in 1973 the building became part of Silbaugh’s Department Store. The building now houses 218 Fitness. 5. MEMORIAL HALL/MARLOW THEATER
c. 1920 • 240 Barclay Ave. Memorial Hall was built in 1919-20 to provide rooms for meetings, stage shows and dancing, and showing silent movies (accompanied by a lively piano). The site was previously a boat shop and lumberyard. The hall closed in 1931 shortly after showing its first talking film and reopened in 1934 as the Marlow Theater. Over the years, the large theater building also housed a funeral parlor, beauty shop, pool hall, realty office, Laundromat and the offices of the Pine River Journal. The owners occupied an apartment behind the stage. The Marlow Theater was gutted by fire in 1980.
6. UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
c. 1902 • 348 Barclay Ave. The Methodist Church was the first church organized in Pine River. Lots were purchased from city founder Ammarilla Barclay in 1902 for $2, and a missionary grant was secured for church construction. Building the wood-frame church took several years and was hampered when lightning twice struck the bell tower, the second time cracking the bell. The
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