For over nine decades a small building at the corner of Abbott Street and Winter Avenue has served as a historical connection between Albert Lea and one of Minnesota’s most famous citizens.

Saturday, April 13, 2002

For over nine decades a small building at the corner of Abbott Street and Winter Avenue has served as a historical connection between Albert Lea and one of Minnesota’s most famous citizens.

In 1908 James Jerome Hill of St. Paul was asked to donate funds for the construction of a new central heating plant which would become a part of the campus at Albert Lea College for Women. The man was called the &uot;Empire Builder.&uot;

Hill was born in 1838 near Rockwood, Ontario, Canada. He went to St. Paul at the age of 16 and started his lifetime career in transportation. His first employment was with a steamboat firm. At the age of 30, Hill organized the Red River Transportation Co. to provide railroad service between St. Paul and the Dakotas. In time, his shrewd talents resulted in the creation of the Great Northern Railway which ran between Lake Superior over the Rocky Mountains to the Puget Sound in the state of Washington. This was the first transcontinental rail line, completed in 1893, built without government aid or land grants.

Hill aggressively promoted the creation of farms, ranches and towns along his rail lines. His agents persuaded thousands of Irish, Germans, Bohemians (Czechs), Russian-Germans and Scandinavians to either immigrate to the U.S., or to move further west.

Hill also organized the first steamship line to provide direct transportation between the U.S. and the Orient.

Just how Hill, described as an outstanding financier and great philanthropist, became aware of the small Presbyterian college is unknown.

Now, it’s one thing for a philanthropist to just give away money, and another to actually know where the funds are going. On Sept. 29, 1908, Hill came to Albert Lea. He went to the Freeborn County Fair to give a speech. Then he went to the Albert Lea College for Women to give another speech to the faculty and students and visit the lakeside campus. Thus, he saw the building his $10,000 was creating. Hill later donated $20,000 to the college endowment fund.

On Jan. 22, 1909, Minnesota Governor John A. Johnson came to Albert Lea to dedicate two new college buildings. One was the central heating plant and the other was the nearby Cargill Science Hall at the corner of what’s now Abbott Street and Summer Avenue.

(The college’s science hall was donated by William Wallace Cargill who lived in Albert Lea from 1871 to 1875 and actually organized the famous grain firm in this city. The building he donated to the college later became the Abbott Grade School and is now the Abbott Apartments.)

J. J. Hill died in 1916, and that’s the same year the Albert Lea College for Women ceased operations.

The heating plant with its tall smokestack had been the source of heat for the buildings of the college. The main buildings, incidentally, were across what’s now Abbott Street at the present site of Lakeview Elementary School. The building eventually became the location of the White Wet Wash Laundry in the 1930s. Just prior to 1940, Henrichs and Sons Laundry took over the building at 923 Abbott St. In a few years the business name changed to Henrichs Laundry and was operated by brothers Ben and Hemme Henrichs until 1960, according to the city directory.

In the 1960s this former heating plant and laundry became the business location for Jatco Jeep Co. and Dick Trow Real Estate. With this change came two new addresses for this site, 412 and 414 Winter Ave.

Some time during the later years of this structure, the tall smokestack was removed. And with its demolition about a hundred chimney swift birds had to find a new place to roost and build nests.

Today this building consists of an apartment and a place for cold storage.