History Hotdish Ep. 39 - Edward G. Patterson and the Patterson Buildings

Kate Waldera talks to Jim Christianson about Edward J. Patterson and the Patterson buildings.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to History Hot Dish, a casual conversation about the
historic people and events that give BIZ Market's unique flavor.
History Hot Dish is brought to you by the Bismarck
Historical Society, a local nonprofit whose mission is to learn, preserve,
and promote the history of Bismarck. Sit back, turn up
the volume and enjoy another helping of history Hot Dish.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, welcome to another episode of History Hot Dish. I'm
your host, Kate Waldera, a member of the Bismarck Historical
Society's Board of Directors. Today, my guest is one of
the founding members of the Bismarck Historical Society and returned
guest to History Hot Dish. Jim Christiansen.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome Jim, Good morning, Keith. Thanks, good to be back.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, and I'm glad you are back for another helping
of history Hot Dish. And I know you're a busy fellow,
so thank you for sharing your time and for an audience.
Please share a bit about yourself and your background and
why you're interested in preserving and promoting our history.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Sure born and raised Bismarck kid, Both my parents, Mark
and Betty Christiansen were actually born and raised in Bismarck
as well, and the family is probably best known for
the founding of the Dakota Zoo. My folks founded and
built the Dakota Zoo and operated it for many years,
and of course the zoo's still going. My folks are
long gone. I segued from a couple of different ventures

(01:24):
into marketing ended up officing at what was then called
the Patterson Hotel in the late nineteen seventies. Kind of
dating myself now, but got involved with the physical property itself,
which was in a state of decay and deterioration. Through
our offices there, we managed the hotel functions and most importantly,

(01:46):
we managed the bar for the then owners to help
pay the rent. But I say that facetiously, of course.
But got more and more involved in the hotel, and
by late fallnineteen eighty it had fallen on such disrepair
that the city of Building inspector condemned the building. There
were probably thirty apartments on the upper two floors, mostly

(02:10):
occupied by elderly folks that had lived there for decades.
They had to move out. We had to vacate the building.
It probably would have met the wrecking ball, but fortunately
for my group and for the citizens of Bismarck. The
mayor at the time, Buzz Lary, the city auditor, Tom Baker,
and others. They gave us some time and we used

(02:32):
that time to pursue what was then called a Section
eight financing program through HUD Housing and Urban Development, and
we were able to renovate the building in nineteen eighty
two and eighty three. It took about a year to
the tun of about five point three million dollars for
a total renovation, and reopened it in the spring of
nineteen eighty three with one hundred and seventeen one bedroom

(02:53):
apartments for low income and elderly and it still serves
that function today.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yes, well, let's back up a little bit and talk
about Edward Patterson. We're familiar with the Patterson building that's
on the corner of Fifth and Maine, So let's talk
about mister Patterson and his life in Bismarck. It included politics, constructing,
operating a hotel, and of all things boxing.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, you touched on pretty much the highlights there. But
looking at a historical background on Edward G. Patterson that
was prepared by Frank Vizraelik in about nineteen seventy six.
And mister Vezraelik, as you as you know, was also
a founding member of the Bismarck Historical Society, and he's
not with us anymore, but he prepared this brief bio

(03:41):
of Ed Patterson back in the mid nineteen seventies. But
Patterson arrived in eighteen eighty two at the age of
sixteen when he arrived in Bismarck, and he was a barber.
He operated barbershops and ended up in the barbershop in
what was then known as the Sheridan House, which was
a hotel at the corner of Fifth in May, the
southwest corner where the Depot parking lot is today. His

(04:04):
political career. Patterson's political career began in eighteen ninety two
when he was elected as an alderman in Bismarck's first ward.
A couple years later, he became an alderman from the
fourth ward, which included the site of the Sheridan House,
which by then he had taken over and purchased from
Abner Bly and again he started as a barber in there,

(04:25):
but the Sheridan House kind of became the power base
for his future political fortunes. His ability to deliver and
a quoting now from Israelis paper. Patterson's ability to deliver
the fourth word vote was demonstrated in the nineteen oh
six gubernatorial election, when former Democrat reformed Democrat John Burke

(04:45):
defeated Republican e Y Sorrows by a decisive margin. Patterson
He's also served three years as mayor of Bismarck. He
was regularly re elected as city council until about nineteen
oh nine, when Bismarck changed to the commission form of government.
Was counseled before that, and then commissioners became elected at large.

(05:08):
I think he had other functions in government. He transferred
his interests to county government in nineteen six when he
was elected to the Burley County Commission. He was re
elected regularly and served continuously through nineteen twenty six, acting
as Chair of the Commission for many of those years.
And his political involvement and success in those years, of course,
brought him into contact with his mentor and political boss,

(05:32):
Alexander mackenzie, and he became Nolan Patterson became known as
one of McKenzie's most trusted lieutenants and close personal friend.
The Patterson hotel, which Ed Patterson constructed in nineteen ten,
open to the public in nineteen eleven, was originally named
the McKenzie Hotel after Alexander Mackenzie.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Right, and I know if you walk by and you
look up, there's a Mars stone for the lack of
a better word marker, tour the I think is it's
right before the additional three stories, yep, and that has
the old moniker on it.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
It does say the Mackenzie in the stone course up there.
So you know, Patterson and Mackenzie's relationship and fortunes became
intertwined for many, many years really. And in addition to
the Patterson Hotel and again kind of sourcing from Israelis paper.

(06:28):
In addition to the Patterson he owned, he had the
Sheridan House, of course, at the southwest corner of Fifth
and Maine. After the Great Fire downtown Bismarck in eighteen
ninety eight, the railroad determined that they were going to
build the beautiful new building that's there today. It was
built nineteen oh one, the historic Northern Pacific Depot. And

(06:48):
they told Patterson and they needed to move the hotel
off that site because of course it was on leased
land owned by the railroad. So they literally cut the
Sheridan House, which was a three story wood frame brick
the near structure. They cut it into sections and moved
it across Fifth Street to the east, and so it
became known as for some reason, it was at the

(07:09):
southeast corner of the intersection, and they called it the
Northwest Hotel. I have no idea why.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I think they had a sense of humor apparently.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
And that actually became the de facto headquarters of the
Nonpartisan League for many years until it burned in about
nineteen twenty three. So and again that was there was
some fairly famous going goings on there as well. Ed
Patterson also built the Sioux Hotel on Fifth Street, just
north of the Patterson Soo, named after the Sioux Line railroad,

(07:43):
Sioux after the Sioux Indian tribe. It was originally called
the Sioux then it was renamed the Princess Hotel. In
the forties and fifties it became known as the Patterson Annex,
and then it became known as the Coton Hotel. But
that was a little four story building. It's still there today.
It was kind of a working class named after the

(08:04):
sul line railroad to attract workers. Most of the rooms
had a sink and that was about it. Bathrooms were
down the hall. That was not unusual in that that era.
That building was built in nineteen oh six, before he
built the big one, the Mackenzie, and that whole corner.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
It seems like it was like a hotel in each corner.
And I know there was one job you said was
the Northwest. So that's break it confused because didn't some
of the names flip flop back and forth correct?

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yep In actually his first Patterson's first venture as a
builder developer, if you don't count the Sheridan House, of course,
but a building that he built and had a Fergo
architect design was originally known as the E. G. Patterson Block,
and that's the mid block of Main Street next to

(08:53):
what is today the Blarney Stone. It's between the Blarney
Stone and the Patterson commonly known as the Capitol Theater Building.
For the last thirty plus years, it's been occupied by
Dakota Stage Theater Community Theater. Patterson built that building and
building in nineteen o five, so he built that one.
Then he built the Sioux Hotel in nineteen o six,
around the corner and in between on the corner where

(09:14):
the Patterson stands today were a number of small two frame,
two story excuse me, wood frame buildings that he acquired
and then tore down when he built the McKinsey Slash
Patterson in nineteen ten. So you know, he was so
active in so many things. After Prohibition, he opened the
Peacock Alley restaurant and bar that's still in its present location, except,

(09:39):
of course, in after our renovation in nineteen eighty three,
the restaurant moved into what was then the lobby of
the hotel on the corner the hotel lobby. Most of
the photos in there, I think even today are of
boxers or prize fighters. Patterson was an amateur pugilist. Many

(10:01):
of his friends came through and stayed, came by train
and stayed at the hotel, including Jack Dempsey, Jimmy Braddock.
These were all world champion boxers, and Patterson traveled by
training to Minneapolis and Chicago to see the fights and
was very very active in that whole That was I
guess sport to him.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Now getting to the Patterson Slash Mackenzie Hotel met it
originally opened at as Mackenzie and then was changed to Patterson.
I'm assuming after Patterson purchased it from mackenzie.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
So just to correct you, it opened as the McKenzie.
Alexander Mackenzie passed away in about nine twenty three.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
And then that's when it along yep, along with.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Ed Patterson's first wife, Agatha. They died in the same
year and shortly after McKenzie's death, Patterson covered up the
name and called it renamed it the Patterson Hotel. McKenzie
never owned the hotel.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay, got used. Okay, I know too that it was
seven stories, so if people look at it, you can
see the original building and then when they built the
additional stories I believe to make it ten. The brick
is different. So that's kind of did a demarcation on.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
That kind of looks like a birthday cake?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yes it does. I mean you tell me an interesting
thing about Ed Patterson and how he legally avoided I
think it's property text.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yep. So the building, as first built in nineteen ten,
was a seven story structure. It was designed to be
seven stories. It was the first example of steel reinforced
cast in place concrete construction in the state of North Dakota,
which is still in use today right. So there's no
load bearing walls in the building. All the weight is

(11:49):
carried by the columns and the floors. So it's sometimes
referred to as post and slab or post and beam,
but that's the way they build buildings today. They put
up the superstructure right the frame and then pour the
floor the same thing there. By about nineteen twenty, shortly
after World War One, I think patterson property taxes were

(12:09):
running eighteen or twenty thousand dollars a year, which was
a small fortune back then. And after again, after McKenzie
passed and his first wife passed, Patterson figured that he
was paying too much in property taxes, and he probably was,
and so he put the building back under construction. And then,
as now, the Centry Code provided you don't pay taxes
on a building while it's under construction, although the law

(12:31):
got changed later because of Patterson. So he had two
men and a mule up on top of that building
for about the next thirteen years, laying up a few
concrete blocks every day to build the floors eight and
nine and then half of ten. The tenth floor was
the meeting space. Eight and nine were apartments, and in
nineteen forty one the legislature changed the law to limit

(12:53):
how long you can have a building under quote under construction,
and I'd have to pay taxes on it. Thank you
Ed Patterson for that.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Oh yes, yes, well he was very clever to find
that little loophole or got bive for as long as.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
He did, and that's why it's got that birthday cake effect.
And if you notice the top floors that they were
added eight and nine and ten after the last renovation,
which the Shoet Companies did when we sold it to
them right before COVID, and they renovated it in nineteen
twenty or excuse me, twenty twenty and twenty twenty one.
They stripped off the drive it that had been put

(13:27):
on those upper floors to kind of make it look
more uniform and went back to what was the original
brick colors up there and has a pinkish or rose
colored So Ed's Ed Patterson's second wife was Rose or
Rose Patterson, So when he added those floors, he actually
had a rose colored face brick used up there. Everybody

(13:48):
thought it was paint, and it turns out it's not.
It's actually baked into the brick. So they decided the
shoe companies, the new owners of the property, decided to
just go with it.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
And that's I like that either, bringing it back to
kind of close to what it originally was. Indeed, well,
a reminder for our guests that have just joined us.
You're listening to History Hot Dish on Radio Access one
oh two point five FM. I'm your host Kate Waaldera,
and today my guest is Jim Christiansen, and we're talking

(14:19):
about the ten story landmark building known as the Patterson
Building and Edward Patterson, an early politician, entrepreneur, and boxing
promoter who moved to Bismarck in eighteen eighty two. Tell
a little bit about the Silver Ballroom slash Capital Theater
because that was an addition.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Correct, So, as as I mentioned in the first segment,
Patterson built what is historically known as the Capital Theater building,
but today is occupied by the Dakota Stage Theater. He
built that building in nineteen oh five, and he didn't
build the hotel next door until about nineteen ten, opening
that to the public in nineteen eleven. Well, he built
a connecting hallway and door between the two buildings because

(15:04):
let's call it the Capital Theater building has what is
historically known as the Silver Ballroom. There's a ballroom on
the second floor of that building, and it has a
press tin ceiling that has a silver appearance, So thus
the name that space exists today pretty much in its
original form, tongue and groove flooring, press tin ceiling. It

(15:27):
has a small stage at the north end of the room.
I've got a photo of JFK. John F. Kennedy addressing
the Nonpartisan League there in nineteen sixty when he was
still a Senator. A lot of history in that building
and in that space. The ballroom is not open to
the public, has not been for many many years, simply

(15:48):
because it does not satisfy building codes for egress and
bathrooms and HVAC and fire stairs and all that sort
of thing. So the city the Fire Department allows it
to be used for storage, and Dakota Stage uses it
extensively for storing props and costumes and things of that nature,
and it works fine for that. But we are looking

(16:10):
at some plans right now in conjunction with some architects
and some other people, to possibly energize that space again,
and it would be in the concept of the guise
of a broader, bigger project that would involve renovating that
entire building. Again, it hasn't been renovated for about forty

(16:31):
years the last time I did it. Bismark is one
of the few large cities in the state that does
not have an arts center as well, and as we
all know, Dakota Stage the Community Theater has been doing
quite well there on the theater side of the main
floor for they've been there since nineteen eighty eight. There
is a main floor space that's currently in retail use

(16:54):
next to the theater, and then the second floor has
my offices on the front of the building, and then
the ballroom. And the ballroom is fifty by it's probably
a close to five thousand square feet. It's a large,
large room. It would usually accommodate a couple hundred people
for banquet seatings in any kind of you know, meetings
like that. But the building obviously doesn't have an elevator,

(17:15):
there's no need in nineteen oh five, doesn't have the
fire exits that it needs at you know, hvac restrooms
storage function space that I mentioned earlier. So we're looking
into that as a as a concept today down the road,
hopefully within the next year or so, project will come
together with investors and other folks that are that are

(17:40):
mindful of and supportive of the arts and Bismarck Performing
arts as well as fine art, music, et cetera. Yeah,
we could have a we could have an art center
in that whole building. And again with the recent renovations
of the depot across the street by Cam Knutsen, that
property has become activated again. You know, that whole area
of our downtown is is on the way up.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
So absolutely I love that idea to have all the
arts kind of consolidated in one location, whether it's the
visual or the performing arts. I like that idea.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yep, there's a lot of right now, a lot of
moral support. We've been working with GLG Architects on some
concepts and designs and code related items on you know
what it would take to renovate it. It would be
a total total renovation. I mean from the roof all
the way down. Significant renovation, and in today's world, there's

(18:36):
significant costs associated with that type of a project. So
we're going to We're trying to put together some sort
of a probably a limited partnership and give people an
opportunity if they want to invest. There would be a
historic tax credits available for investors. The idea would be
to do a project that has no bank debt, no
mortgage payment, and so that it can stand on its

(18:57):
own and be something that the community could utilize continue
to utilize going forward for the next oh one hundred
and twenty years. Right, built in nineteen oh five.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well, and I like that idea because the building buildings
themselves have such a rich history. Like you said, if
walls could talk, and it would be so interesting to
hear the conversations from years past when the Silver Ballroom
was an active entity.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Absolutely, I've had the good fortune to become friends with
and visit with a Bismarck historian in his own right
by the name of Stan Sharky, who just turned ninety nine.
And Stan, for most of his career after World War
Two worked for the Ridderbush architect firm. So Stan has
knowledge of practically every building that Ridderbusch designed and that

(19:45):
was ever built in Bismarck post World War Two, and
when he was in college right before the early years
of World War Two in the early nineteen forties, he
worked as a bell hop at the Patterson and he
can tell stories about going up to Paterson's apartment. Well,
there was there was quite a bit of gambling going
on on the upper floors, and he would he would

(20:06):
be the money runner. He'd have to drop off the
money bag. And he said. Patterson was apparently a diminutive
stature person, like five foot six or five foot eight,
and very self conscious about his height. So in his apartment,
the corner it was Sweet three hundred, the corner Sweet
on the third floor, he had a large throwne like
chair that sat on an elevated stage like about six

(20:31):
feet above the floor. So everybody that came to talk
to him he could sit there and either the eye
level or looked out all. Yeah, I never I never
knew that story until til stands Sharky's all very interest.
That is cool. We need to maybe get stand Sharky
in for an interview here.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
No, that's that would be a great idea. And now
absolutely great idea. And I know too, if memory serves
me correctly, that area where the Capital Theater is. If
you know, and I should know this as a former
library at Bismarck Public Library, I think the second floor
of the Capitol Theater or what is now Capital Theater, what.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Is out no Koda Stage.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
And now Dakota Stage. Was I think, wasn't that the
headquarters for what the precursor for like the Chamber of Commerce.
It was a come well.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
At the Commercial Bismark Commercial Club.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yes, that's the name, correct, I think, And then they
and then they obviously you know, so there was a
connection between library history and that history as well.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Sure, yep. And that's so got they met up there
for years.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
And I even think the beginning of the library was
up there. It was kind of like a reading room
kind of situation. And then you know, I wrote a
library history for our twenty seventeen one hundred year anniversary
as a library, and if I remember correctly, the reading
room was up was first located there. It had many
other different locations until Carnegie got built. Sure, And that's

(21:58):
so it's nice to know all the different connections and
partnerships that absolutely still were involved in some of these
different organizations. Well, you alluded earlier to the fact that
in the late seventies that the Patterson Building had run
into some hard times and in fact, at one point
had a condemnation order for city. You and a handful

(22:21):
of other people were pretty responsible for preserving this landmark
in Bismarck. Can you go into a little more detail
about the process you and the others went to to
preserve the building.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Sure, as I referenced a little bit earlier, I was
working with a sales company that was officing in the hotel,
and we had traveling salespeople. So it worked really good
because we had rooms there and we also managed the
hotel and the bar for the then owners. The owners
at the time, Rose Patterson passed in nineteen seventy six,

(22:55):
and she didn't have any direct error. She had a
nephew and a niece from out east, and they came
and they sold sold the property to a group of
local contractors and people that were going to had plans
to renovate it, and their plans just never came to
fruition it. Just for whatever reason. There were ten equal
partners I think was part of the problem. But by
the time I got in bold excuse me, it was

(23:17):
a parent that they just weren't going to get their
project done and they just wanted to kind of wash
their hands of the whole deal. And I was young
and dumb and said, well, sure, I'll take over your shares.
I didn't know what I was doing, obviously, there was
several hundred thousand dollars worth of debt against the property
that they had run up. But I fortunately got connected
with some people out of the Twin Cities and out

(23:40):
of Idaho who had experienced developing that Section eight to
low income and elderly project that is there to date, really,
and they pointed out the benefits of renovating a historic
building like that. There was tax credits involved, there were
programs involved at the time, some of which are gone
now federal probe. But it just, you know, to me,

(24:02):
it just seemed it would have been a shame or
more a sin to have that building torn down and
be a parking lot. There's just so much history, I
mean for United States presidents have stayed in that building,
and it was.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
A headquarters for the pull up politicians, especially during the
legislative session. Again, like I've said before, walls could talk. Yeah,
really interesting to find out the deals that got made
in the corners.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
So much history there. So I just you know, I
was again young and dumb and stupid and stubborn. I thought, no,
we can't. We can't let this building be torn down again.
All the elderly folks that lived on the upper two
floors eight and nine in the apartments had to vacate
when the building was condemned in the fall in nineteen eighty.
We stayed in the building. We kept our office open

(24:47):
on the main floor. We kept an eye on things
while we were processing paperwork with Hud Denver and then
Hud Washington d C. As well as a National Park
Service of the State Historical Society. Fortunately, we had the
support of then Senator Burdick who was very familiar with
the building, Senator Andrews, Governor Link's office, Governor Olsen's office.

(25:12):
So I mean, it was truly a bipartisan effort because
everybody had some connection or some history of the Patterson Hotel.
Some of them maybe were conceived there, you know, I
don't know, but so they all wanted to see it succeed.
And as I mentioned earlier, the Mayor Bismarck Buzzleary was
very helpful. Tom Baker was very helpful. But it took

(25:32):
a long time. It took us two and a half
years of paper processing, if you will, to get the
section eight rent program put in place with HUD and
then we had to go out and get financing to
do the actual construction, which in nineteen eighty two was
five point six million, so it is a significant project.
And we totally gutted out the building just you know,

(25:54):
everything had to go. Excuse me, all the old use
me plumbing, wiring, windows, everything was gone and replaced. Well
fast forward forty years and the building was getting old again,
so that's as a reference earlier. We sold it to
the Shuet Companies in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, and they

(26:16):
just renovated it again to the tune of about another
ten million dollars. So you know, it's going to be
around for a long time hopefully. And there's one hundred
and seventeen apartments in that building. There's a restaurant on
the main floor. It's active, it's great for downtown. And
you know, in my humble personal opinion, the worst thing

(26:36):
that could have happened that would be to have it
demolished and have a parking lot on that corner today.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right know, and that seems to be the fate of
so many buildings, like for instance, the Carnegie Library. You know,
that's a parking lot now too, And I just shuddered
to think, yeah, oh that the one day the wrecking
ball showed up and nobody knew what was going to happen,
and I would have hated to see the Patterson, Yes, agreed,
There's just nothing like having you know, I love history

(27:04):
and i love the historical buildings in town, and I'm
glad that the attitude is switch to preservation and repurposing
rather than demolishing.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
Well, we had a lot of a lot of folks
that doubted, you know, whether it could even happen, and
that's that's understandable. It's normal human behavior.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well it's a massive, massive undertaking and there.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
Are a lot of moving parts, and there are a
lot of people that wasn't just me. Obviously, I had
partners and who knew what they were doing and whereas
I didn't. But you know, I was the local face
and the person on the ground waving my arms and
saying hold on, hold on. And you know, I have
to give some credit to my heritage, my lineage, I

(27:46):
guess because I was a known entity, because everybody knew
my dad, Mark Christensen, he built the Dakota zoos so
it's like okay. So we'd get behind on the MDU payments,
which were substantial, and the winter months at building was
like five thousand dollars a month or better to heat
when we still had tenants in the upper floors, and
you know, there was no there wasn't sufficient revenue to

(28:07):
cover that every month. So we'd we'd, we'd sell off
some furniture, we'd do it. We couldn't. I'd take a
check over to Ae Jacobs and Al Jacobson was the
CFO at MDU at the time. He was basically the controller,
the accountant. They had account for him to you while
he was also on the zoo boarder directors. So he'd
take a thousand dollars check against the five thousand dollars

(28:28):
bill and give us another month at home. This mark
was still a smaller town than.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Nineteen Those connections help on people understand what you're trying
to do, you know, and that is there a way
of helping you, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Exactly, it wasn't. We weren't. We weren't trying to pull
the wool over anybody's eyes. We're trying to save a
historic landmark. And we did.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yes, absolutely, And I hope that continues to happen for
many of the other historic buildings that are downtown as well. Agreed, Well,
today you're no longer a direct owner of the Patterson Building,
but you were part of the recent transition to a
new ownership group as you have alluded to, that has
made significant investments and modifications and the property. What can

(29:13):
you tell can you elaborate a little more about the
building's used today and what you see coming in perhaps
the foreseeable future for that building.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
The new owners, and I say now they've owned it
for five years now is the Schuet Companies out of Minnesota,
and they have similar projects in other cities in Minnesota
and South Dakota and North Dakota. But they continue to
operate it as an apartment project for low income and elderly.
They went through the building from top to bottom, from
the rough on down, replaced everything new boilers, new kitchens,

(29:43):
new you know, all the apartments. One hundred and seventeen
apartments were redone. So I mean it should be as
good or better, you know, than it was when we
were invaded at forty years ago. So it's not going anywhere.
There's still a restaurant on the main floor. There's a
retail space on the fifth Street side as well, So I,

(30:05):
you know, I don't I don't see it going anywhere.
It's not it's not sinking into the ground anymore like
it was when Oh, you know, when I got involved,
there were serious structural problems because of the weight of
the upper floors.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Oh, I can believe.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
It was never designed to be a nine and a
half story building when Patterson decided to add those upper floors.
So but we got that taken care of structurally. So
just a funny aside when we when we renovated it
in nineteen eighty two. As I mentioned earlier, it's it's
the building. The Patterson Hotel building is the first example
of steel reinforced concrete construction in the state in North

(30:39):
Dakota and built in nineteen ten. Well, so they build
the frame, the slabs and the columns which hold up
the structure. Then they come back later and pour tilt
up slabs for the walls for the hotel room walls
every ten feet or so, and that's totally dead weight.
But the building was designed at seven stories to hold
that weight, so that was fine. But when he added
those upper floors, he kind of overdid it, and literally

(31:02):
there were there were structural problems in the basement of
the building, which is one of the reasons the building
inspector at the time, Jack Hagan, decided to condemn it.
But we unloaded the building by punching out all of
those walls because they're not load bearing. They don't hold
anything up other than themselves. And our demolition contractor is
another well known person around Bismarck Mandan named Jim Beck.

(31:24):
Jimmy Beck has the trolley and Mandan and huff Hills.
He's responsible for all of that. Jim was our demolition
contractor on that, and they hold all of the rubble
out through the alley out to the landfill and weighed
everything well. We removed one hundred and fifty tons of
dead weight per floor when we you know, and then

(31:45):
you go back in with steel studs and cheat rockets.
And then of course the structure itself was all reinforced,
the columns all reinforced, so it's way stronger today than
the day it was built.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
On those bottom seven floors, I bet they went, yeah,
heaved a big side.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yes, So no, it's going to be around for long,
long time.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
And getting back to Ed Patterson. I know we've talked
about his political affiliations and of course the fact that
he was an amateur boxer, but many people probably, you know,
don't realize that his wife, Agatha, I think was a
force in her own right as well, because if my
memory serves me correctly, I think she was one of

(32:27):
the first members on the Bismarck school board, I believe
correct And you know, and as far as personal tragedy goes,
you know, they lost their young daughter at you know,
at a very very young age, and then Agatha passed
away at the same time he lost one of his
fist friends, you know, So there's there were some sadness
in Ed Patterson's life as well, in addition to all

(32:49):
the political and entrepreneurial successes that he had.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Agatha Patterson's first wife was actually she was also postmistress
of Bismarck for sixteen years, so at that point in
that in that day and needs, that was a pretty
influential position.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Absolutely, So both of them were very civically minded, you know,
and to me, they were very likely a force to
be reckoned with. I believe Agatha worked fairly closely with
her husband too. In managing the building, yes, and everything
as well. So indeed, well in closing, if our listeners
would like to find out more information about Edward Patterson

(33:29):
or the building that bears his name, where could they
find that information?

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Well, of course, the internet's a great source. Google and
just google Edward G. Patterson. Wikipedia is going to bring
up a lot of information. They can contact me. The
State Historical Society in North Dakota has quite a bit
of information on Patterson and Mackenzie of course, the political Boss,
the the Historic Register, National Register. Information is available online

(33:58):
for the Patterson Hotel itself as well as the A. G.
Patterson Building which is today Dakota Stage. As we talked about.
So you know, if you're a history buff, if you
want to know about the architects, if you want to
know about the style of construction, the North Kota State
Historical Society is probably going to be your best bet.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Okay, Well again, thank you Jim for taking time out
of your day to come and visit with us once
again on history hot dish.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Thank you, Yeah, happy to do it. We want over
a bit is okay, you'll figure it out.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Oh yeah, he's very good at that, all right, And
he said it would air. It'll be airing tomorrow. It'll
be he'll edit it and it'll get dropped tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
What time is that, Yeah, the.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah History Hot Dish. Yeah, it'll be on the radio
tomorrow at ten am.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Okay, it'll come forward, all right. My people are on
their way. So this is great.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Okay, Well again, thanks Jim. It's been a while since
we've seen each other.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
I know, I don't make it to all of the
all the the program programs as I try it should
be all the well, life interrupts.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, life gets in the way.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
One is busy, and I to things like Walt Bailey's
funeral and on it.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, I know I didn't make it to that either
to be honest, or do you I don't. I didn't
even realize that he had passed away until I overheard
someone talking. Okay, yeah, because I don't get the paper
and I don't look in the Bismarck to being website
because I get locked out of it all the time.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Do you not get the emails from Jason.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Or I didn't see an email about it?

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Maybe not, or maybe they.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Just didn't even think about it. But and that's okay
because I know he wasn't or he was not doing well,
not at all. Yeah, he was, he was. He was
a fun guy.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah yeah, yeah, no time marchings on. But again, old
old Bismarck. You know, I went to school with his
brother in law, John Martinson, So I mean I'm on
the Martinson family since forever, since.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
First graded Will Moore. Oh yeah and deal wolves very
dood Margy's.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yes, well you take care, have a good meeting.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
We ran long tory, no worries well you know yeah
by cock silver like well Clary.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
All right, thank you for listening to History Hot Dish.
If you like what you heard. Thesmark Historical Society host
programs and events throughout the year. We welcome all those
with an interest in local history to join us. For
more information about programs or membership, visit our website Thissmarkhistory
dot org or find us on Facebook. You can find
History Hot Dish on one o two point five FM,

(36:57):
Radio Access dot org and anywhere you find History Hot
Dish is produced by the Bismarck Historical Society in partnership
with Dakota Media Access