Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

The Carver House/Planter‟s House, with its billiard room and lower level saloon, was
once located on the east side of Broadway on the site of the present day Carver City Park
and gazebo. By 1923 the widow‟s walk had been removed and the front porch enclosed,
perhaps with screens. The building survived until being torn down about 1941-1942..
Railroad Hotel and Saloon. The Railroad Hotel and Saloon in Carver, Minnesota were
situated on lots 11 and 12 of Block #40 which today includes the addresses of 216 and
220 Fourth Street East, as well as 430 Lime Street North, all in close proximity to the
first railroad to make its way to Carver.
In 1870 Swedish married immigrants John and Anne E. Gustafson purchased both lots for
$650 from Louisa Heuer, who had received the property after probate in 1866 from the
deceased Christian Heuer, most likely her spouse or near relative. The somewhat
elevated purchase price indicates that there may have been a small house or outbuildings
on the property, perhaps on the portion of the lots facing Lime Street, or that the seller
and buyers knew that the Minneapolis-St. Louis Railroad was slated to come through
Carver the following year. In 1870 the Minneapolis-St. Paul Railroad had plans to cross
the river at Carver to destinations south. In January 1871 a contract for building the
railroad bridge over the Minnesota River at Carver was let out, with work to be
completed by July 1871 at a cost of about $40,000, with most of the stone for the bridge
being obtained from a quarry near Carver. Undoubtedly John and Anne Gustafson saw
opportunity to profit from the railroad, and perhaps even from the men and horses
required to build the bridge and lay the tracks.
In January 1871 John Gustafson started a livery stable on his new property, and it may be
that at this time he built or modified one or more buildings on the property to serve as the
Railroad Hotel and Saloon. In Aug. 1871 the Weekly Valley Herald newspaper reported
that John Gustafson was painting his new house. The Gustafsons‟ hotel operations were
to be short-lived, lasting not longer than two and a half years. In the Minnesota
Gazatteer and Business Directory for 1873 John Gustafson is advertised as a hotel
proprietor. On January 8, 1873 Anne E. Gustafson died of stomach cancer at Carver, just
thirty-one years old. Five and a half months later, on June 30, 1873 John Gustafson died,
forty-five years old, leaving several orphaned Gustafson children: Eva, Hannah, Minna,
Emma, Bengt, and a 23 year-old daughter, Josephine. The Gustafsons are buried in
Mount Hope Cemetery in Carver. Andrew M. Swenson, owner of a nearby Carver
business and perhaps a relative of the Gustafsons, was the estate‟s administrator, and in
July 1873 he rented the Gustafson‟s hotel and saloon to a certain Mr. Krincke of Young
America in Carver County. Krincke planned on “keeping it a first class boarding house
and saloon”, as indicated by an 1873 Weekly Valley Herald newspaper item.
In 1873 the Gustafson‟s oldest daughter Josephine married Andrew Larson, who was
born in Sweden about 1849. Some time between around 1874-1875 Josephine and
Andrew took over the running of the Railroad Hotel that had been owned by her parents.
The Minnesota State Census of 1875 for Carver reveals that Josephine and Andrew
Larson had also taken in Eva and Hannah Gustafson, two of Josephine‟s orphaned sisters.