Commercial Hotel (Wadena, Minnesota)

By 1881 Wadena had become a substantial town of about a thousand residents, but possessed only one hotel. Around 1885, though, the Commercial Hotel opened, despite being three and a half blocks from the Wadena Depot while its competitor was directly across the railroad tracks. The new hotel, however, was built of brick rather than the more common—and flammable—wood, lending itself an advantageous reputation as a more modern facility. In fact when Wadena's worst fire struck in 1888, 18 buildings were destroyed but the Commercial Hotel survived.^[3]

In 1901 an English immigrant named Joseph Askew purchased the hotel. He also served in local politics but died in an accident ten years later. Askew's widow and two daughters continued operating the hotel, doubling it in size around 1925 with the rear addition. This greatly increased the Commercial Hotel's popularity, and its distance from the train station was mitigated by its central location in Wadena's main business district and proximity to other transportation corridors. Many of the hotel's guests were traveling salesmen.^[3]

At the time of the building's nomination to the National Register in 1987 it had been vacant "for many years" but was being acquired by the city of Wadena for adaptive reuse as senior housing. This long period of vacancy, however, was credited with leaving the Commercial Hotel as one of the least altered late-19th/early-20th-century buildings in downtown Wadena.^[3]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Wadena County, Minnesota