Hotel Lester-Lester Cafe
Iowa, United States
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Hotel Lester-Lester Cafe, located in Mason City, Iowa, is a two-story Chicago School building completed in 1915 by local real estate developer Meir Wolf. Strategically positioned a block from the Chicago and North Western Railroad and Chicago Great Western Railway depots, it served as a railroad hotel to spare passengers and employees the six- to eight-block walk downtown. The building originally contained 29 guest rooms on its second floor and three commercial spaces below, which housed restaurants, grocery stores, and barbershops. It remains the only surviving railroad hotel in Mason City. The hotel gained historical note when Olympic track star Jesse Owens stayed there in December 1937 during a basketball exhibition, unable to lodge elsewhere in town due to racial discrimination. After 1975, it became the Dodge House and rooming establishment. A fire in 2006 caused significant damage, and subsequent renovation in 2007 removed the second floor and converted the first floor into apartments. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
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- Type
- building
- Heritage
- National Register of Historic Places listed place
- Place
- Iowa, United States
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