On a sunny June afternoon in 2022, a crowd of neighbors, preservationists, and longtime supporters filled the sidewalk at 215 South 9th Street to watch a designation plaque get unveiled in the garden of an 1889 brownstone. It was quite a moment for a building that, only a few years earlier, had been a burned-out shell sitting on Minnesota’s most-endangered preservation lists. Today that plaque is one of the first things you pass on your way to the front door of Oaklands on 9th — and your first clue that a stay here comes with more history than the average furnished studio.
Plenty of hotels hang old photos in the lobby. The Oaklands is different: the building itself is the exhibit, and you get to live in it — with a full kitchen, fast Wi-Fi, and free laundry included. Here’s the history you can see with your own eyes during a stay.
The plaque in the garden — and how close it came to never existing
Minneapolis takes its landmarks and historic districts seriously, and the marker in our garden is the building’s hard-won badge of honor. At the 2022 unveiling, the biggest thanks went to City Council Member Lisa Goodman, who is credited with saving the Oaklands from demolition after a 2016 fire left it roofless through three brutal winters. If you want the full rescue story — the grassroots campaign, the wrecking ball that never swung — we’ve told it here: How Oaklands on 9th Was Saved from Demolition.
That staircase in the photo above — peeling paint, snow on the handrail — is the same one guests climb today under a plush red runner and crystal sconces. Almost nothing here was faked or replaced with lookalikes; it was rescued.
A history wall designed by the architect’s biographer
Walk the main hallways and you’ll find a history wall dedicated to the building and its architect, Harry Wild Jones — the same man behind the Lakewood Cemetery Memorial Chapel, whose papers are preserved in the University of Minnesota’s archives. The display was designed by Liz Vandam, the leading Jones historian, who quite literally wrote the book on him. Just as fitting: the wall also honors the tradespeople who brought the building back to life, from the drywall finishers to the window restorers.
The research behind the wall turned up some wonderful details. Archivist and genealogist Kathleen Bell discovered that the building’s original owner and builder lived right next door to his creation. And the original permit — pulled on June 20, 1889, for a three-story brick apartment house with a brownstone front — means the building has an official birthday it still celebrates.
Look up: every studio’s light has its own story
One of our favorite touches from the restoration: instead of ordering matching fixtures from a catalog, the team chose antique light fixtures and had them professionally restored for the entire building. Every studio has its own unique light with its own past — so the fixture above your kitchen table hung somewhere else for a century before it ended up here. Pair that with the modern comforts threaded invisibly through the 1889 brick — we wrote about how an 1889 building gets modern heat, AC, and fiber internet — and you get a room that feels historic without ever feeling old.
Stay inside the story
Our Good, Better, and Best furnished studios come with full kitchens, free laundry, and all utilities included, whether you stay a night, a week, or month-to-month. You’ll be a short walk from Orchestra Hall, Nicollet Mall, and the skyway. And if rescued landmarks are your thing, our sister property 300 Clifton — a Loring Park mansion bed & breakfast that Lisa Goodman also helped save — makes a great romantic follow-up stay, and Minneapolis Trolley Tours will happily show you the city’s other architectural treasures from a vintage trolley.
Ready to sleep inside a piece of Minneapolis history? Book your studio at Oaklands on 9th, or give us a call at (612) 314-5124 — we’d love to show you the history wall in person.