Trying to find information on the now-closed Fairmont Hotel, 9th & Hennepin Mpls. (Minneapolis: 2014)

[Falls14303]

I'm not expecting much because I have searched a lot online and have found nothing except a story about the hotel closing in the early 2000's to become the Chambers Hotel. My grandpa lived at the Fairmont Hotel for decades, and he died there the year before I was born. I'm just trying to do some family history gathering. I know he lived a very troubled life and as far as my dad and his siblings are concerned that's a closed subject they do not wish to get involved in, so I respect that.

What little discussion I do remember overhearing about the Fairmont Hotel...was it one of the last single-room hotels that mostly older men who were end-stage alcoholics lived in? Did any of you know anyone who lived there, or did you pass by there a lot? I'd love to know more about the place or see what it looked like.

[milliepearl]

I found an online photo of the Fairmont Hotel in an old issue of “Hennepin History” magazine. (Summer 1994, Vol. 53, No. 3) The photo is on page 20, and the hotel is mentioned on pages 22, 26 and 27. (from the article, “Living Downtown” by Michael Koop) I don’t see a date on the photo, but I assume it was taken in 1994 for the article.

https://digitalcollections.hclib.org.../id/2747/rec/1

This is where I started looking, the Hennepin History Museum.

https://hennepinhistory.org/

I've never lived in Minneapolis so I have no first-hand knowledge of this building. I'm just another family history hunter. :-)

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by Falls14303

I'm not expecting much because I have searched a lot online and have found nothing except a story about the hotel closing in the early 2000's to become the Chambers Hotel. My grandpa lived at the Fairmont Hotel for decades, and he died there the year before I was born. I'm just trying to do some family history gathering. I know he lived a very troubled life and as far as my dad and his siblings are concerned that's a closed subject they do not wish to get involved in, so I respect that.

What little discussion I do remember overhearing about the Fairmont Hotel...was it one of the last single-room hotels that mostly older men who were end-stage alcoholics lived in? Did any of you know anyone who lived there, or did you pass by there a lot? I'd love to know more about the place or see what it looked like.

Was there not an adult store shop below that place?

[Falls14303]

Originally Posted by milliepearl

I found an online photo of the Fairmont Hotel in an old issue of “Hennepin History” magazine. (Summer 1994, Vol. 53, No. 3) The photo is on page 20, and the hotel is mentioned on pages 22, 26 and 27. (from the article, “Living Downtown” by Michael Koop) I don’t see a date on the photo, but I assume it was taken in 1994 for the article.

https://digitalcollections.hclib.org.../id/2747/rec/1

This is where I started looking, the Hennepin History Museum.

https://hennepinhistory.org/

I've never lived in Minneapolis so I have no first-hand knowledge of this building. I'm just another family history hunter. :-)

Thanks for doing some digging for me! This is a great place to start!

[milliepearl]

You're welcome. Good luck in your search!

[gweilo845]

I don't have first-hand knowledge of the Fairmont, but I remember the corner it was on being fairly sketchy (I went to concerts at the Orpheum in the 80s and 90s). As was posted above, there was an adult bookstore on the first floor of the building, and the Saloon "kitty-corner" from it was a hub of drug activity.

You may find this documentary interesting, it is about Minneapolis's "skid row" back in the 50s before the Nicollet Mall/downtown redesign removed most of the SRO hotels.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-o79czcfKE

Downtown experienced another spike in crime/poverty in the 1970s, mostly along Hennepin Avenue (where the Fairmont was located) and specifically "Block E", which was demolished in the late 80s and remained a parking lot for about 10 years.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBkV9xy7e44

I believe there is only one SRO hotel downtown now. Most of the older buildings have either been torn down and/or made into office buildings or condos.

[sjwong55]

Hello, I too am searching for my Grandfather, who I'm told did reside here at The Fairmont Hotel as of 1950. I'm searching for any information I can find. His name was George Kim Suey Wong. He may have gone by: George Q Wong. If anyone knows anything about anyone living at this Hotel with the surname: Wong. Please message me anytime. Thank you, Sjwong55

[NWMicro]

Please check out [url=http://historyapolis.com/blog/2014/06/04/summer-in-the-city-hennepin-avenue-1970/]Summer in the City: Hennepin Avenue, 1970 |[/url]

The 32nd frame of Hennepin Avenue East shows the Fairmont Hotel in 1970.

I worked on the second floor of the LaSalle Building at 15 S. 9th St from 1975 to 1991, right next to the Fairmont Hotel. I managed a data processing center that ran 24/7/365, so I found myself coming and going at all hours of the day and night. We had at least one employee for a while who lived at the Fairmont.

My memory of the hotel (from the outside of the building,at least) was that it was just an affordable residence for people who didn’t have much, or were at the edges of normal society because of their eccentricities. There were a couple other hotels like this in the neighborhood as well, but they all seemed to be nearing their end. The only people living in this part of downtown were of very limited means.

I would walk by the hotel entrance at least twice a day when I went out to grab some food from one of several little diners or from one of the new fast food shops that were just beginning to pop up.

Although the alley between the buildings would smell like a latrine in the summer and there were frequent empty liquor bottles lying around, I NEVER witnessed any scene that might be associated with “skid row”. No drunks lying on the sidewalk or anything like that. None of my employees ever got mugged.

Occasionally, curbside corner preachers would appear, standing on milk crates and hoping to help the fallen onto a better path. After a while, they gave up entirely.

The inside of the Fairmont lobby was pretty plain, and just had a clerk under an overhead neon light behind a glass panel with a talk through hole. I never went inside.

Our windows were 10 feet from the resident room windows on the second floor and matched their height and position exactly. The textured glass in their windows offered a bit of privacy and were lined with embedded chicken wire for security, as there was a New York tenement style fire escape ladder system going up the entire side of the Fairmont building.

Not much money was spent on window coverings in the hotel rooms, so everything was just kind of on display, especially during the summer months when the lack of building air conditioning meant the windows were always wide open. We had to remember to close our curtains during client visits and tours.

During the cooler months, residents would store their perishable food items on the outer windowsills to take advantage of the natural refrigeration.

A couple of the residents I will always remember.

There was a woman in her 70’s, or 80’s that always wore a full length beaver coat - year round. It was so old that it was bald in many spots. I would usually see her coming or going from the Fairmont on her way to the brand new Burger King on 8th and Hennepin. She would enter, cut in front of whoever was waiting in line to order, and angrily tell the employee “Hamburger, plain!” She never got charged for her food. They just gave it to her for free. I saw her doing this routine for several years. Until I didn’t see her anymore. She was known as Hamburger Plain.

There was a guy in his 30’s or early 40’s who rode an old cream colored Schwinn bicycle. He would chain it to the “no parking” sign in front of the hotel year round and go out everyday to collect cans and bottles for whatever he could earn on the deposit. He rode at a time when it was really rare to see a bicycle anywhere downtown. His bike was never stolen,or impounded by the police. He was Schwinn Man.

[HappyHappy001]

Detailed 1950 census data is now available, perhaps you can find loved ones, their addresses and some other inforamation.

https://www.archives.gov/research/census