Workbench
Unfinished · Last worked 16 October 2026
Unfinished: this is the record only. The route has not been walked, so its addresses, order and directions are untested on the ground.
A self-guided walking route through downtown Winona, from the railroad freight house and the 1860s commercial block on Second Street, along the business row of Third Street, to the bank, lodge, library and civic buildings around Fourth and Fifth Streets. The route covers buildings from the 1860s to 2025. Twenty-two stops and two optional spurs. The loop begins and ends at Municipal Lot 1, 51 East Second Street. The route has not yet been walked, so its addresses, order and directions are untested on the ground.
Rather than smoothing those over or moving them to a footnote, they are marked in place. A Record note appears beneath any entry where a date is disputed, a figure comes from a single secondary account, or a gap exists. The note says what the disagreement is and which reading is carried. Nothing is presented as settled that is not.
Photographs. Several stops carry a Photographs line linking to the National Park Service record for the building, which holds the nomination and its photographs. Nothing is embedded here. The images belong to their holders and the links go to the holder rather than to a copy, so the captions and provenance travel with them. Where a stop has no line, no public photographic source was located for it.
Terms of art are handled the same way. Any word underlined with a dotted rule links to its entry in the glossary at the foot of the page. Readers who already know a term never have to leave the sentence. Every definition is also collected in the glossary at the end.
Every physical description comes from a nomination or from the city’s preservation page, and a description from a nomination carries the year that nomination was written. Surfaces change faster than anything else on a building, and none of these descriptions has been checked against the street. Read any description of a storefront, window, sign or lettering as a record of that year rather than a claim about today.
The record only. There is no commentary here: no judgment at the foot of a stop and no position on what the city should do. Entries state what the sources support. Where a source itself offers a judgment, it is attributed to that source by name.
Claims deliberately not made. No room, unit, seat or parking count is given as built unless a source reports it after completion. No tenant is named as current unless a dated source names it, and the date is given. No construction status is given without the date of the source that reports it.
The date this was checked to. Dates and figures reflect the public record as of 15 October 2026. Distance and walking time are not given, because they have not been measured on foot.
One mark appears in bold in the text. Record note flags a disputed or unresolved point, at the claim it qualifies.
1861. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad was chartered by a group of Winona business and civic leaders, according to the 1982 nomination for its freight house.
4 July 1862. Fire swept through the business district. Ten days later an ordinance prohibited the construction of wood-frame buildings within the six-block commercial core.
1860s and 1870s. The 1989 nomination for the East Second Street district states that lumber mills and yards expanding throughout Front Street gradually forced commercial and retail shops one block south onto Second Street. By the same account, 251 businesses operated on Second Street by 1876, and ten years later at least 200 more had spilled onto Third Street.
1868. The 1998 nomination for the Third Street district says the commercial district, initially concentrated on Second Street between Center and Market Streets, began to shift south to Third Street in 1868.
1883. The Winona and St. Peter freight house entered service as a railroad office and freight house, a use that ran to 1961.
1885. The J. R. Watkins company’s home and plant had been in Winona since this year, according to the 1984 nomination for its complex.
1888 and 1889. Work commenced on the Winona County Courthouse in 1888, and construction of the five-story Winona Hotel on West Third Street began in 1889, according to each building’s own nomination. The courthouse nomination gives 1889 in its specific-dates field.
1912 to 1916. Merchants National Bank on East Third Street was designed in 1912, and the Winona Savings Bank on Main Street was constructed from 1914 to 1916.
1938 and 1939. The city built a new City Hall with a federal Public Works Administration grant and formally opened it on 12 December 1939.
1958. The Laird, Norton Company moved its corporate office from Winona to Seattle.
1963. The Winona post office was razed, according to the city’s preservation page.
1970s. Much of the Latsch and Sons distribution center, known locally as the Latsch Block, was torn down, according to the Star Tribune of 30 December 2023, which says the 60 Main Street site was at one point part of the center.
By 1989. Urban renewal and similar programs had demolished numerous blocks in Winona’s central business district, including several rows of buildings elsewhere on East Second Street, according to the 1989 nomination.
May 1989. The City Council formed the Heritage Preservation Commission. The city’s preservation page attributes the formation in part to a citizen and historical society response in the battle over two historic buildings, and records that the post office was razed in 1963 and the courthouse saved in 1974 and again in 2003.
2007. The East Second Street and Third Street districts received local historic designation, according to the city’s preservation page.
2015. On 23 November the Planning Commission voted 5 to 1 to request that staff prepare a framework for a moratorium relating to residential use in the Central Business District area. The Winona Post reported on 25 November 2015 that the city had long ago exempted downtown properties from off-street parking requirements.
2017. On 5 June the City Council amended and introduced the ordinances for a new Unified Development Code and a new zoning map, and on 19 June it adopted both. The motions to introduce and to adopt carried with all voting aye. The Winona Post’s report of 5 June 2017, published before the vote, said that if the code passed it would be the first overhaul of the zoning ordinance since the code was first written in 1959. It reported that the compromise before the council required one parking space per apartment in much of downtown after the first six units, and that the vote needed a five-vote supermajority.
2021. The Windom Park Residential Historic District was listed on the National Register on 13 October. Fastenal opened a 97,600-square-foot downtown office on West Second Street on 7 December, according to the city’s Opportunity Winona page.
2023. On 18 December the City Council unanimously adopted two resolutions for the 60 Main Street project, one on a development agreement and one on a purchase and redevelopment agreement.
2025. The opening of the 60 Main building was celebrated on 12 November, according to the Winona Post of 14 November.
2026. On 18 May the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 4314, introduced on 4 May. For dwellings created after 20 May 2026, it set the off-street parking required for efficiency and one-bedroom units at one space, reduced from two, and allowed up to half of the street frontage adjacent to the property to count toward the requirement. On 9 September the Heritage Preservation Commission agreed that staff should come back on all four options before it with a recommendation and reasoning, and carried a motion setting that direction. The first option was to advise the Planning Commission to remove parking minimums in historic districts.
Provisional. The route has not yet been walked. The stop sequence and the directions will change after it is, and the page is published in this state so it can be carried and tested on the ground. The provisional line comes out when that walk is done and the corrections land.
Written October 2026, and current as of that date. Building histories hold. Three things on this page will not: who occupies a storefront, what is under construction, and where a pending public decision stands. Treat anything about a current tenant, a construction schedule, or a pending decision as a snapshot with that date on it, and check it before relying on it.
Schematic, not to scale. The dashed line follows the walking order.
North To The River, Then East On Second Street
North On Center Street
The 1982 nomination records brick bearing walls a foot thick on a high limestone foundation, a wood bay window on the Center Street side, and most of the arched openings filled with concrete block.
Built in 1882 and 1883, 272 feet long and 40 feet wide. It served as a railroad office and freight house from 1883 to 1961 and was then acquired by the Peerless Chain Company for its production operations. The interior wood system was replaced with steel between 1960 and 1963. The 1982 nomination recorded the building as vacant and describes it as the last freight structure standing in the city from the Winona and St. Peter Railroad. Listed on the National Register in 1984.
Across Center Street
According to the Winona Post of 14 November 2025, the opening of the five-story building, called 44° North, was celebrated on 12 November 2025, and the hotel side would begin welcoming guests that weekend. It reported 76 hotel rooms on the east side and 24 apartments on the west side, and that the developers had renovated the former Jefferson Pub and Grill across Center Street to serve as a restaurant and event center.
South On Center Street To Second Street
The city’s Opportunity Winona page states that Fastenal’s first location was a 1,000-square-foot building at 69 Lafayette Street.
East On Second Street
The 1975 nomination records cast iron Corinthian columns added in the 1880s and the original window glazing retained, and describes the building as transitional, early Italianate with Gothic overtones at the windows.
Built about 1868, in what the nomination calls the heart of the old commercial area of Winona, one block south of the old steamboat levee. The nomination traces its history to the early 1870s, when J. B. Kirch & Co. occupied part of it, and records Kirch as its prime occupant until the late 1880s. Latch & Son occupied it in the mid-1890s, and Grams Feed and Seed from 1933. Listed on the National Register in 1975. The city’s preservation page records a $3 million restoration in 2015, and states that John A. Latsch donated 20,000 acres of land for public parks.
South On Walnut Street
The 1977 nomination records a two-story brick building with a ten-bay front, semicircular-arched storefronts, cast iron columns with foliate capitals, and a terracotta panel inscribed ANGER’S BLOCK. The original cornices and window hoods had been removed by then. The 1998 nomination records a bracketed and denticulated cornice over the storefront, added after 1977.
Designed in 1872 by the Winona architect Charles Maybury for the butcher and meatpacker Gustave Anger. The 1977 nomination records that the original architect’s drawings and specifications were extant, along with early photographs. Listed on the National Register in 1978.
East On Third Street
South To Third Street, Then West One Block To Lafayette
102 East Third Street is Merchants National Bank, designed in 1912 by the Minneapolis firm of Purcell, Feick and Elmslie, with renovations and expansions in 1927, 1946, 1961 and 1971 and an interior restored in 1971. It was listed on the National Register individually in 1974. The city’s preservation page records stained glass in its windows, terracotta sculptures of grain on the exterior, and murals of farm scenes painted by Albert Fleury.
78 East Third Street is the Odd Fellows Block, built in 1884 by John Lohse at a cost of $12,000 to a design by C. G. Maybury. The 1998 nomination records parapet gables lettered “Odd Fellows Block” and “Humboldt Lodge #24”. The city’s preservation page credits the iron cornice to the local iron forger Jacob Scherffius.
79 East Third Street dates from about 1900. The 1998 nomination counts 101 to 105 East Third Street, built in 1972, as noncontributing.
East On Third Street To Walnut
129 East Third Street is the German-American Bank of about 1890, designed by C. G. Maybury. The city’s preservation page describes a corner turret with a conical roof.
On the way, 109 East Third Street is the Beck Building of 1886, which housed C. C. Beck Hardware, with the words “Beck Building” on its central parapet gable.
151 East Third Street is the W. C. Pletke and Company grocery of 1886. Pletke bought the lot in 1883, and the 1998 nomination records the date 1886 carved on a stone panel beneath the cornice. The city’s Opportunity Winona page cites this address as an example of a historic building being reactivated.
The 1998 nomination counts 150 East Third Street, built in 1950, as noncontributing.
East On Third Street To Market
175 to 179 East Third Street dates from about 1890 and at one time housed the Winona Candy Company. 201 to 203 East Third Street is Edward Pelzer’s Block of about 1882. Pelzer, a druggist, lived above his store, and in the 1890s the dry goods merchants Roessner & Company occupied the building. The 1998 nomination counts 176 East Third Street, dated 1961 and possibly a remodeled gas station of the early 1930s, and 200 East Third Street, of about 1930, as noncontributing.
East On Third Street To Franklin
The 1998 nomination records the cornice of 225 East Third stamped “P. BUB” and “1892”, a carved panel dated “1893” above a pair of windows on 222 to 226, whose parapet gable reads “Stott”, and a stone plaque dated “1881” on 227 to 229.
227 to 229 East Third Street is the J. W. Lauer pharmacy of 1881, designed by C. G. Maybury and Son. An 1881 newspaper quoted in the nomination places Lauer and Company in their new store at the corner of Third and Franklin. 222 to 226 is the Stott Building of 1893 by C. G. Maybury and Son, and 225 is the P. Bub Building of 1892, associated with the brewer Peter Bub.
East On Third Street To Liberty Street
The 1984 nomination records the ten-story Manufacturing and Warehouse Building topped with an observatory penthouse and a water tank house. The city’s preservation page puts the top of the Administration Building’s dome 70 feet above the street and records stained glass of Winona landscapes in the arched entries.
The 1984 nomination describes the complex as occupying all of Block 14 of Laird’s Addition, bounded by Third Street on the north, Chestnut Street on the east, Fourth Street on the south and Liberty Street on the west. George W. Maher designed both the Administration Building of 1911 and the Manufacturing and Warehouse Building of 1914. The 1984 nomination records that in 1868 J. R. Watkins secured the right to make and sell a Cincinnati doctor’s liniment, which he mixed at his house in Plainview, and that the company’s home and plant had been in Winona since 1885. The complex was determined eligible for the National Register on 13 November 1984 but was not listed because the company objected. By October 2004 the company had asked that the objection be lifted, and the complex was listed in 2004. The 1977 nomination for the bank at stop 15 says that Watkins had been one of its founders.
West On Fourth Street, Then North On Center
South To Fourth Street, Then West To Lafayette
On 5 July 1938 the aldermen voted unanimously to ask the Public Works Administration for a grant, and on 2 August word arrived that the PWA had approved $103,815. The total cost was $223,691. More than 5,000 people attended the formal opening on 12 December 1939. Boyum, Schubert and Sorensen designed it, and the Standard Construction Company of Minneapolis built it. The 1999 nomination records that in 1938 the corner held a city-owned parking lot, and that it was earlier the site of Winona’s first city hall, built in 1860 and later moved. The 1999 nomination records the council chambers on the third floor in what was the original municipal courtroom. Listed on the National Register in 1999.
West On Fourth Street To Center
The 1976 nomination describes a four-story brick and stone building.
The 1976 nomination names Kees and Colburn of Minneapolis as architect and John Lohse as builder, and gives 1900 in its specific-dates field. It also records that the building was leased before construction and that the basement held a barbershop and three bowling alleys in addition to the physical plant. Listed on the National Register in 1977. The city’s Opportunity Winona page, viewed 15 October 2026, states that the Winona Real Estate Fund bought the building in October 2021 and that it offers 29 residential units.
North On Center Street To Third
51 to 55 East Third Street is the Choate Department Store, designed by the Winona architect A. E. Myhre for Hannibal Choate. The building’s own nomination, prepared in 1976, says it was erected in 1881 and that the present store at Third and Center opened in the fall of 1889. The 1998 district nomination gives its dates as 1888 and 1895, the second for an addition on the east side, and names Munch and Lohse as builders. Listed on the National Register individually in 1976.
50 to 52 East Third Street is the Post Office Block of 1871, owned by M. G. Norton, William Mitchell and H. W. Lamberton and built at a cost of nearly $175,000. The post office held the first floor, a United States court room and offices the second, and a Masonic lodge the third. The 1998 nomination records a plaque reading “ERECTED 1871”.
The 1998 nomination records that three attached buildings at 62 East Third Street share a continuous storefront and the same address. The middle one is E. A. Gerdtzen’s Block of 1884, with “GERDTZEN 1884” in relief on the arched window surround of its east bay.
Across Center Street
The city’s parking map, updated March 2024, lists Lot 3 with 48 two-hour stalls. The city’s public parking page puts Lot 3 under alternate side parking, which it describes as running from 15 November to 15 March, and states that no parking is permitted in the lot on even-numbered days between 12:01 and 6:30 in the morning.
The 1998 nomination lists a parking lot with a small bus shelter, at an address it gives as the corner of West Third and Center Streets, on the former site of three buildings of the 1880s and 1890s at 51 to 57 West Third Street, among them the Winona Republican Building at 51. The nomination records that the three were demolished in the early 1990s.
West To Main Street, Then South To Fifth
West On Third Street To Main
101 West Third Street is the Slade Block of 1886, designed by Charles G. Maybury for A. O. Slade. The 1998 nomination records a parapet arch on the east front reading “1886”, and the city’s preservation page describes a two-story tower at the northeast corner.
164 Main Street, mid-block between West Third and West Fourth Streets, is a commercial building of 1902, which the 1998 nomination records with a small round plaque bearing the date “1902”.
South On Main Street To Fourth
The 1977 nomination records twin granite columns on the Main Street front, each thirty-seven feet tall and weighing thirty-two tons, each resting on a plinth of five tons.
Built from 1914 to 1916 to designs by George W. Maher, under a contract with the Haglin-Stahr Company. The bank contracted with Tiffany Studios on 2 December 1913. The nomination records an art-glass window above the entry and twelve smaller windows designed and manufactured by Tiffany, and original fixtures and bronze grille-work throughout the building from the same studio. It also says that Watkins had been one of the bank’s founders, and that Maher designed two buildings for the J. R. Watkins Company. Those buildings are on the first spur of the route: J. R. Watkins Medical Company Complex. Listed on the National Register in 1977.
South On Main Street To Fifth
Built in 1908 and 1909 to designs by Warren Powers Laird and C. F. Osborne, both of Philadelphia, with John Lohse of Winona as contractor, for $40,050 in construction cost alone. The 1997 nomination records 98 hand-painted scenic drops by Sosman and Landis of Chicago among the original stage scenery, and describes them as the largest of only two such collections remaining in the state. The Winona Masonic Benevolent Association sold the building to the city in 1979. Listed on the National Register in 1998. The city’s Opportunity Winona page, viewed 15 October 2026, describes an investment of over $4 million to restore and renovate the theater.
As the Winona Post reported on 9 October 2026, MnDOT’s Highway 43 plan proposes eliminating the stop light at Fifth and Main and replacing it with stop signs for through traffic on Fifth Street. MnDOT said its traffic study found that the intersection did not meet the state’s warrants for a traffic light.
West On Fifth Street To Johnson
The Laird, Norton Company built its headquarters here in 1917 and 1918 to designs by the Chicago firm of Schmidt, Garden and Martin, with Seidlitz & Werner of Winona as general contractors. The final construction cost was $135,349, in addition to an architects’ fee of $9,641. The company moved its corporate office to Seattle in 1958. The 2014 nomination records that Pro-Build leased the building as its regional headquarters until 2011 and that the building was vacant when the nomination was written. Listed on the National Register in 2014.
Across Johnson Street
The 1976 nomination records an inner dome of stained glass by Otto Heinigke and a mural titled “Light of Learning”, executed in 1912 by Kenyon Cox.
The library stands directly opposite the Laird, Norton building at stop 17. The 1976 nomination records that it was built in 1899 through the generosity of William Harris Laird, through the interpretation of three architects: Warren Powers Laird, Edgar V. Seeler and Cass Gilbert. The city’s preservation page records that in 1897 Laird offered to finance the building in return for the council guaranteeing permanent support for the library as a public institution. Listed on the National Register in 1977.
The West End, And Back To The River
Across Fifth Street
On 5 June 2017, introducing the city’s new zoning map, the City Council amended it to place the residential properties on this block in the R-3 multifamily residential district, with two members voting no. The Winona Post reported on 24 December 2024 that Main Square Development had bought fourteen residential properties and two commercial properties on the block, leaving one residential property unsold, and that Schwab Construction Services had asked for the block to be rezoned to MU-DC. On 17 December 2024 the Planning Commission unanimously carried a motion “to approve the rezone” of the block’s R-3 properties to MU-DC, one property excepted. At the hearing one resident asked the commission to decline the rezoning, saying people need affordable housing. A resident of the block directly to the west expressed concerns about increased traffic and noise and asked whether the parking entrance and exit could be relocated. Two commissioners expressed concerns about traffic, and the chair about cars leaving the parking with their lights shining into residential windows across the street. The City Council introduced the rezoning ordinance on 6 January 2025 and adopted it on 21 January 2025, both times unanimously. On 15 January 2025 the Board of Adjustment unanimously approved a request for two variances on the block: ground-floor transparency of 27 to 35 percent, against the code’s minimum of 60 percent for a mixed-use building facing a public street, and a maximum height of 65 feet, or four stories, against the 40 feet allowed within 150 feet of a residential district.
At the Board of Adjustment hearing the applicant described about 100 apartments, all of one and two bedrooms, about 175 parking spaces beneath the apartments and some in the courtyard area, and 30,000 square feet of commercial space at the southwest corner. The Winona Post described the block on 17 January 2025 as flattened, and the Winona Journal reported on 22 January 2025 that bulldozers and excavators were beginning foundation work for the Main Square West complex.
West On Fifth Street To Windom Park
The district takes in the blocks immediately surrounding Windom Park, originally First Ward Park, which the city later renamed for William Windom. The City Council designated it locally by Resolution 2016-108 on 19 December 2016, on the Heritage Preservation Commission’s unanimous recommendation of 9 November 2016, and it was listed on the National Register on 13 October 2021, reference SG100007069. As the Winona Post reported on 31 July 2024, the city’s senior planner described its properties as predominantly residential.
Back East To Johnson Street, Then North Between Fourth And Third
The city’s preservation page gives its original owner as the State of Minnesota and the City of Winona jointly and its architect as Hoffman and Mosse, and records that it housed the Minnesota National Guard until the 1960s, that it is home to the Winona County Historical Society, and that the Laird Norton Addition expanded it in 2010. As listed on the society’s website on 15 October 2026, its museum exhibits, lobby art gallery and shop are open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and its library and archives Monday to Wednesday by appointment.
North To Third Street
129 West Third Street is the Schlitz Hotel, constructed in 1892 by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, which operated it as a cafe and hotel until about 1921. The city’s preservation page records a one million dollar rehabilitation in 1979. Listed on the National Register in 1982.
157 West Third Street is the five-story Winona Hotel of 1889, designed by George B. Ferry, with C. G. Maybury and Son supervising and Kratz and Company building it. Local businessmen formed the Winona Hotel Company and sold shares in it to raise the $100,000 construction cost. The hotel’s own nomination and the city’s preservation page record that it closed in 1975. Listed on the National Register in 1983.
171 West Third Street is the Winona County Courthouse, designed by C. G. Maybury and Son in 1888. Its 1970 nomination records that work commenced in 1888 and gives 1889 in its specific-dates field. Listed on the National Register in 1970. The city’s preservation page records disputes over its future from 1956 to 1974 and from 2000 to 2003.
North To Second Street, Then West To Washington
Opened on 7 December 2021 as a 97,600-square-foot office for 450 employees, designed by The Kubala Washatko Architects with a mass timber frame and built over sixteen months by C.D. Smith Construction of La Crosse, Wisconsin, according to the city’s Opportunity Winona page.
East On Second Street To Lot 1
Two layers of designation apply on this route: listing on the National Register, and local designation by the city.
National Register listing. The city’s Heritage Preservation Commission page describes listing as largely honorary and says it protects properties from any federal- or state-sponsored impact. Its example is a state highway project planned for downtown, which would require a review of its impact on the historic district. The same answer says a property contributing to the district qualifies for the federal preservation tax credit. In a separate answer on tax benefits, the page says an income-producing property may qualify.
Local designation. Section 22.27 of the City Code establishes the Heritage Preservation Commission and the city’s heritage preservation program. The city’s commission page records that the East Second Street and Third Street districts were locally designated in 2007. The City Council designated the Windom Park district by Resolution 2016-108 on 19 December 2016.
Section 22.27 allows the commission to name a subcommittee to review and approve applications. Other applications go to a full commission meeting with a public hearing. The applicant may appeal the commission’s decision to the City Council within 15 working days of the commission’s order, and the council may approve the permit by a majority vote. The city’s commission page states that designation does not restrict zoning or land use.
Each status below carries the date of the source that reports it.
Masterpiece Hall, stop 18. The Winona Post reported on 30 July 2025 that the hall was under construction and expected to open the following year. On 15 October 2026 the organization’s website described the hall as coming in 2027 and the project as a $60 million one.
Main Square West, stop 19. The Winona Post of 17 January 2025 described the block as flattened, and the Winona Journal of 22 January 2025 reported bulldozers and excavators beginning foundation work for the Main Square West complex.
Highway 43, stop 15 and stop 16. MnDOT’s project page schedules construction from Mankato Avenue to Winona Street in 2028. As the Winona Post reported on 9 October 2026, the city had until 17 November 2026 to make a final decision on municipal consent.
Every term marked with a dotted underline in the text, collected here. Each entry links back to where the term is used. 9 entries.
certificate of appropriateness
Under section 22.27 of the City Code, the certificate the Heritage Preservation Commission issues before the construction, demolition, alteration, removal or relocation of a structure or site within a heritage preservation site. The section requires an application before the work it lists begins on land within a designated site or district.Seen at What The District Protects
contributing
In the National Park Service’s definition, a building, site, structure or object that adds to the historic associations, historic architectural qualities or archeological values for which a property is significant, because it was present during the period of significance, relates to the property’s documented significance and possesses historic integrity or can yield important information about the period, or because it independently meets the National Register criteria.Seen at Stop 3
local historic district
A district designated by the City Council under section 22.27 of the City Code, which calls it a heritage preservation district and defines it as two or more properties, linked by significance, in a contiguous area. Proposed exterior work inside it is reviewed by the Heritage Preservation Commission.Seen at What The District Protects
MU-DC
Mixed Use Downtown Core District, a zoning district on the city’s zoning map, which also shows a Mixed Use Downtown Fringe District, MU-DF. It allows commercial uses. In the City Code as posted with updates to 18 December 2025, section 43.02.24 sets its maximum height for a principal structure at 75 feet, or 40 feet within 150 feet of a residential district, and section 43.03.62, on design standards for all mixed use districts, requires the ground story facade of a non-residential or mixed-use building fronting a public street, park or plaza to have a minimum transparency of 60 percent.Seen at Stop 18
municipal consent
MnDOT’s term for a city’s approval of a trunk highway project within its limits. Under Minnesota Statutes 161.162 to 161.167, which apply to projects that alter access, increase or reduce highway traffic capacity, or require permanent right-of-way, the city council approves or disapproves MnDOT’s final layout, and a layout not disapproved in writing within 90 days of the public hearing is deemed approved. As the Winona Post reported in October 2026, the Winona City Council may approve MnDOT’s project, recommend changes to it, or deny it.Seen at Stop 15
National Register of Historic Places
In the National Park Service’s words, “the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.” The city’s Heritage Preservation Commission page describes listing as largely honorary, and gives the example of a state highway project downtown that would require a review of its impact on the historic district.Seen at How This Guide Handles What Is Not Settled
period of significance
In the National Park Service’s definition, the length of time when a property was associated with important events, activities or persons, or attained the characteristics which qualify it for National Register listing.Seen at Stop 9
tax increment
In Minnesota House Research’s description, the revenue generated by applying the original local property tax rates to any increase in net tax capacity, captured and delivered to the authority under tax increment financing. Minnesota Statutes 469.176 requires it to be used in accordance with the tax increment financing plan.Seen at Stop 2
variance
An exception to a requirement of the zoning ordinance, such as a height limit or a window requirement. Minnesota Statutes 462.357 provides for variances. In Winona the Board of Adjustment decides them.Seen at Stop 18
National Register nominations. Winona Commercial Historic District, 1998. East Second Street Commercial Historic District, 1989. Winona and St. Peter Railroad Freight House, 1982. Kirch/Latch Building, 1975. Anger’s Block, 1977. Merchants National Bank, 1974. Grain and Lumber Exchange Building, 1976. Winona City Hall, 1999. Choate Department Store, 1976, amended 1988. Winona Savings Bank Building, 1977. Schlitz Hotel, 1982. Winona Hotel, 1982. Winona Masonic Temple, 1997. Winona County Courthouse, 1970. J. R. Watkins Medical Company Complex, 1984. Winona Free Public Library, 1976. Laird, Norton Company Building, 2014.
National Park Service records. Listing years come from the National Park Service record for each property, at the NPGallery address for its reference number, for example the Winona Commercial Historic District. The Windom Park listing date comes from the National Register weekly list of 15 October 2021.
City of Winona. Heritage Preservation Commission, including the district and building entries and the answers on what designation does. City Code section 22.27, Heritage Preservation Commission, the city’s copy. The same section as filed in the city’s action file with Minnesota GreenStep Cities. Application for Certificate of Appropriateness. Opportunity Winona projects. Public parking. Public parking lots map, updated March 2024. Downtown local historic districts map, October 2020. Zoning districts map, September 2025. City Code chapter 43, Unified Development Code, updated 18 December 2025, sections 43.02.24 and 43.03.62. Board of Adjustment appeal form.
60 Main Street. City Council minutes, 18 December 2023, items 5.1 and 5.2. Winona Post, 22 November 2023, on the site and the $700,000. Star Tribune, 30 December 2023, on the site, the financing terms and the objections. Winona Post, 31 January 2024, on the closing of the parking lot on the site. Winona Post, 14 November 2025, on the opening. Visit Winona, on the opening. Hotel 44° North, on its address and room count. Winona County, parcel record 320000210, 60 Main LLC, 51 Center Street. Winona County, parcel record 320000220, City of Winona, 60 Main Street.
Masterpiece Hall and Main Square West. Winona Post, 12 January 2022, on the announcement. Planning Commission minutes, 22 May 2023, item 3. Winona Post, 1 June 2023, on the rezoning, the purchases and event parking. Board of Adjustment minutes, 7 June 2023, Petition No. 23-11-V. Minnesota Masterpiece Hall. Planning Commission minutes, 17 December 2024, item 4. Winona Post, 24 December 2024, on the purchases and the rezoning request. City Council minutes, 6 January 2025, item 2.4. Board of Adjustment minutes, 15 January 2025, Petition No. 25-3-V. Winona Post, 17 January 2025, on the cleared block. City Council minutes, 21 January 2025, consent item 8.5. Winona Journal, 22 January 2025, on the start of foundation work. Winona Post, 30 July 2025, on the sale of the former YMCA parking lot.
Parking and zoning. Planning Commission minutes, 23 November 2015, Moratorium Information. Winona Post, 25 November 2015. City Council minutes, 5 June 2017, item 4.4, Unified Development Code. City Council minutes, 19 June 2017, consent items 8.2 and 8.3. Winona Post, 5 June 2017. Winona Post, 4 March 2026. City Council agenda report, 4 May 2026, item 2.1, Parking Ordinance Amendments. Ordinance amending section 43.03.22, as introduced on 4 May 2026. City Council minutes, 4 May 2026, item 2.1. City Council minutes, 18 May 2026, consent item 8.2. Ordinance No. 4314, summary publication. Heritage Preservation Commission minutes, 9 September 2026, item 3.5, draft attached to the agenda of 14 October 2026. Winona Post, 30 September 2026.
Highway 43. MnDOT project page. Winona Post, 28 August 2026. Winona Post, 9 October 2026.
Fastenal. Star Tribune, 1 November 2019, on the site of the downtown office.
Windom Park and the Armory. City of Winona, Windom Park local designation form, 2016, on the park’s renaming. City Council minutes, 19 December 2016, item 2.4, Resolution 2016-108. Winona Post, 31 July 2024, on the district. Winona County Historical Society, visit.
Definitions. National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service, National Register Bulletin 16A, How to Complete the National Register Registration Form. Minnesota House Research, Tax Increment Financing, July 2024. Minnesota Statutes 469.174, definitions, including tax increment. Minnesota Statutes 469.176, limitation on use of tax increment. Minnesota Statutes 161.163, application of the municipal consent sections. Minnesota Statutes 161.164, final layout approval. MnDOT, municipal consent guidance. Minnesota Statutes 462.357, zoning and variances.
If something here is wrong, send the stop number and what is wrong. Where a date, an attribution or a record note is wrong, send the source that shows it. A source settles a correction fastest, and a firsthand account from someone who was there is worth sending.
Disagreement belongs here too. A reader who sees the street differently may be right, so say which stop and what you see.
If you walk the route, say where it did not match: a storefront that has changed, a building that is gone, or a direction that sent you the wrong way.
Write to inquiries@endure-group.com. A correction that holds is made on the page.
A place is easier to understand on foot than from a plan.
Field work of this kind exists to separate the thing being observed from the mechanism that produced it. A lot width, a storefront, a setback, a district boundary, a zoning approval: each is an outcome. The useful question is which physical, financial, regulatory and institutional constraints made that outcome the one that occurred, and which of them can be changed.
The method comes out of construction operations as much as research. It starts with the observed condition and tests the explanation against the thing itself.
These are published because observations that explain one street usually transfer. The reading that accounts for a good block here accounts for a good block elsewhere, and the mechanism travels further than the building.
Endure studies places this way for owners, developers, institutions and communities when the visible problem is not the underlying one. See Consulting or start a conversation.
Written and last researched October 2026. See the dateline in the route panel for what goes stale and how quickly.