Stone Mill Suites TODAY

Friday, July 13, 2001 Stone Mill Suites Historic Inn Hotel opened its doors to the first guests in Lanesboro, Minnesota.  Monday, July 16, 2001 the Riverside on the Root Restaurant opened.  Now, they celebrate together the beginning of 10 years. 

Stone Mill Suites location before 2001

Tuesday, July 13, 2010, the festivities will begin with a local and guest special Open House. Beginning at 5:30 pm at Stone Mill Suites, 100 E Beacon St, Lanesboro Free Inn Tours, Music and Food will be provided for locals, past employees and guests.  Local talent including the Tom Schramm Band featuring Walter Bradley, John Goutcher, and Dave Harrenstein; the Rhubarb Sisters, and the Stockers Sisters will perform. At 6:15 pm there will be a special moment in Stone Mill History.  For the first time since Stone Mill Suites opened, a new sign will be unveiled on the front of the building. At 7:30 pm, the party moves to Riverside on the Root Restaurant, where there will be more music by local talent John Black and a complimentary Dessert will be offered with purchase of a meal.  Riverside on the Root will have a full weekend of musical entertainment and specials.

Stone Mill Suites Building History
Circa 1885:  The building which is now Stone Mill Suites was completed by the Nelson brothers who constructed its walls out of limestone from the bluffs surrounding Lanesboro.  The stone building originally served as a cold storage facility, its lower levels being used to store ice cut from the nearby mill pond.  The cold storage complemented the egg and poultry receiving and processing plant located in the upper levels of the building.  Carload after carload of product was shipped east, preserved by the ice from the mill pond. 

Mr. Fosse owned the stone building until the mid-1930’s when Mr. Wilson became operator.  The business continued until 1950, after which the stone building and the wood frame building just east of it were used by Lanesboro Grain, owned and operated by the Hager family.

The Lamon-Mortimer family purchased the facility in October 1999, our hope being to restore and preserve much of the building’s history and structure while providing a comfortable, elegant, and most importantly a fun lodging experience for our guest.

Riverside on the Root Opening

Riverside on the Root Evolution
Mike and Julie Charlebois purchased what is now the Riverside in the winter of 1996 opening its doors as Root River Outfitters in the Spring of 1997.  The building was originally a gas station in the late 1920’s, and in the 1950’s a car garage and carwash was added on.  In the Late 1960’s it was operated as the Johnson Fur Buying Company buying and trading furs.  In the early 1980’s it was purchased by Don Chapel and named Root River Outfitters thus purchased in 1992 by Larry Charlebois and then sold to Mike and Julie in 1996 who kept it as a total rental Outfitter until 2000 when they started their dream of adding a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating.  Now celebrating the Riversides 10th year, the Dirty Martini Lounge was added upstairs in 2009.  In 2010, Root River Outfitters was moved to 105 South Parkway, just two buildings north, and is still operated by Mike and Julie.

Riverside on the Root before 2001