The Conley–Maass–Downs Building, also called the Maass and McAndrew Company Building, is one of the oldest remaining commercial buildings in

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. It is located along rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a popul ...

History

Originally built in 1900 by the Rochester Woolen Mill Co to produce pants made from wool fabric from their mill. The woolen mill company went bankrupt in 1903, and the factory was purchased by the Conley Camera Company (established by Kerry Conley and his brother Fred) in 1904. The Conley company and the building were featured in the 1908

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

catalog. They remained until 1909 when they moved to a larger facility on the north side of Rochester. Maass & McAndrew Plumbing and Heating purchased the building in 1910 and occupied it until 1955. Maass & McAndrew did much work for the

Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

and one of the family members, Frederic Maass, worked with

Henry Stanley Plummer Henry Stanley Plummer ( – ) was an American internist and endocrinologist. He, along with William James Mayo, William Mayo, Charles Horace Mayo, Charles Mayo, Augustus Stinchfield, E. Starr Judd, Christopher Graham, and Donald Balfour founded ...

in designing the

Plummer Building The Plummer Building in Rochester, Minnesota, is one of the many architecturally significant buildings on the Mayo Clinic campus. This new "Mayo Clinic" building, opened in 1928, added much needed space to the ever-expanding Mayo practice. Th ...

and later became Chief Engineer at Mayo. It has also housed the

Fraternal Order of Eagles Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) is a fraternal organization that was founded on February 6, 1898, in Seattle, Washington, by a group of six theater-owners including John Cort (impresario), John Cort (the first president), brothers John Considin ...

Veterans of Foreign Wars The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), formally the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States Armed Forces, United States war veterans who fought in wars, Military campaign, campaig ...

, the Loyal Order of Moose,

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

, Rochester Ballet School, Masque Theatre, and Words Players. In 2016, the new owners Hunter and Traci Downs undertook a $2.2 million restoration project. The main level houses a restaurant called ''Bleu Duck Kitchen'' and the upper-level houses commercial office space. In 2021, Google announced occupancy within one of the commercial office spaces - marking the first Google location in Minnesota.

References

External links

Conley Maass Downs Building

Conley-Maass-Downs teaser
(Video from December 2015) {{DEFAULTSORT:Conley-Maass Building Buildings and structures in Rochester, Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Olmsted County, Minnesota