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Memories by Bev Jackson Cotter

“I don’t think anyone will pay 20 cents for a piece of pie.”

I had only been working at the coffee shop of the Hotel Albert for a few months when the manager unveiled the new menu to the staff. My 17-year-old “experienced” attitude didn’t faze him. These were the new prices. He wasn’t asking my opinion.

I really enjoyed my new job as a waitress. Management worked my hours around school activities, I was exposed to a variety of people and experiences, the tips were good — about $2 a day — and the regular local customers and travelers either staying at the hotel or getting off the Jefferson buses were interesting and easy to work with.

I didn’t realize then what a fascinating history the hotel had. Located on the northeast corner of Broadway and College Street, the Hotel Albert opened in 1900. Built by the Albert Lea Hotel Company, it was three stories tall with 60 rooms. By 1956 and after several additions, there were 228 rooms, the Colonel Lounge and the Jefferson Bus Depot. The complex was managed by Carl Jacobson, who also owned the adjoining building with the Coffee Shop, Spanish Dining Room and five apartments. He was later joined by his son Don Jacobson.

Gradually I learned more of the hotel’s history. During World War II, an Air Force Flight Training School was held at the Albert Lea airport, and 90 cadets stayed at the hotel eating their meals in the Spanish Dining Room. Also, during the years when Highway 65 included east Main Street and Broadway, the hotel was the largest between Minneapolis and Des Moines, and hosted conventions and celebrities like Eleanor Roosevelt, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and Elizabeth Taylor and her first husband Nicky Hilton.

While waitressing, I thoroughly enjoyed wearing my black taffeta dress with a white collar and black and white checked apron and feeling pretty classy while serving chocolate malts, beef sandwiches and 15-cent chiffon pie to area customers in the Coffee Shop all week, and then on Sundays in the Spanish Dining Room listening to Miss Peterson (I think that was her name) playing classical music on the grand piano while patrons enjoyed an elegant dinner.

I did happen to be working the Sunday evening when Elvis Presley first appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” The rest of the staff smiled and shook their heads when I slipped out of the Coffee Shop long enough to watch him on the hotel lobby television set.

When Carl Jacobson retired, his son continued managing the hotel complex until once again the hotel became a dormitory for students when in 1966 the buildings were sold to Lea College. The last hotel guest checked out on Sunday, Aug. 28, 1966.

The 20-cent pie? Yes, customers complained at first, but the Coffee Shop pies were just too delicious to quibble over a five-cent price increase.

Bev Jackson Cotter is an Albert Lea resident.