The Afton House Inn was formely know as the The Cushing Hotel and
was a two-story frame structure measuring 24 feet by 80 feet.
It was constructed in 1867 on the foundations of the earlier 1856 Paterson
Hotel which was destroyed by fire in 1861. The foundation of the Paterson
Hotel survives beneath, The Cushing Hotel and measures 24 feet by 24 feet. Like
the present hotel, the Paterson Hotel was two stories in height and of wood frame construction.
The Cushing Hotel was constructed of locally milled white pine boards measuring
1-1/2″ by 16″ extending vertically from sill to plate. These boards are
sheathed in narrow-lap clapboard. Similar white pine boards were utilized in
the construction of the hipped roof. The appearance of the building was
otherwise simple, the only decorative treatment being low-profile bracketed
hoods over selected;.windows-and doors.
The Cushing Hotel has gone through several alterations during its lifetime,
the earliest of which was the addition of a rear two-story section at an
unknown date to provide additional sleeping rooms. Around 1907, the third
owner of the hotel erected a screen porch on the first story of the street
facade. Subsequent alterations included enclosure of the original side-lighted
side entrance with a gabled vestibule, erection of an exterior brick chimney
to accommodate a fireplace in the front dining room, and construction of
wings at the rear and north sides to serve the bar and restaurant functions.
In 1981 a.program of extensive restoration was begun and included structural,
roofing, and siding replacement and restoration. The result of the work
returned the original section of the Gushing Hotel to its pre-1907 appearance.
The Cushing Hotel is significant as a local example of a post-Civil War era
hotel built in 1867 in Afton, a river-oriented community in Washington
County.
Settlement in Afton Township (formerly organized in 1858) began in the 1830s.
Attracting settlers to the area were the well-watered valley creeks which
were utilized to supply power for numerous saw and r flour ‘and1 $eed mills,
the township’s strategic location along the St. Croix River, and the
pivotal location of the Point Douglas-St. Louis River Government Road. This
road provided a vital land connection from Point Douglas on the south to
Superior, Wisconsin on the north, with access for settlers to the communities
located along its route.
In 1855 the village of Afton was platted on the right bank of Lake St. Croix.
Its proximal location to a major waterway and the convenience of its steamer
wharf provided traveler access to Afton’s commercial district. To lodge the
lumberman, settler and traveler, a hotel was built in 1856 by Samuel H.
Paterson. It burned in 1861. In 1867, Charles C. Cushing erected a
second hotel on the site of the first hotel. Gushing died in 1876, but
his wife continued the hotel’s operation catering to the needs of travelers
and increasing numbers of summer tourists.
No known information exists regarding the building’s use during the period
1881-1907. In 1907 the hotel was purchased by Mary Pennington who used it
solely as a restaurant. Succeeding owners continued that use. Today the Cushing Hotel,
now known as the Afton House, has been substantially
rehabilitated and continues in use as a popular local restaurant.
The Cushing Hotel is significant as an example of the mid-nineteenth
century hotel constructed in communities which developed along major
navigable rivers. The building’s simple design is characteristic of many
of the structures built during that period.
The Cushing Hotel began as a 24′ x 24′ building with a hipped roof in 1867. It was
erected on the limestone foundation of the Paterson Hotel and had the same dimensions.
Framing for the original walls of the Gushing Hotel was 2″ x 2″ studs (not on 16″
centers) to which were nailed virgin white pine boards of approximately IV x 16″
and up to 24″ in width. These pine boards were of varying lengths and were nailed to
the studs vertically on the north and west sides of the building and horizontally
or vertically elsewhere. The effect must have been haphazard, indeed, in the first
years until the clapboards were added. The white pine boards were applied flush to
each other and painted with a milk-based white paint. Strength in the walls came from
the 2×2 studs and the 1″ thickness of the white pine. All of this material is
intact today under the clapboards. The ceiling joists and roof rafters in the building
were large members mortised and tendoned. These, too, remain intact as do the wide
white pine boards used as underlayment on the roof, over which were laid wood shingles.
In an area known as the heart of the white pine country in the 1860s, the Gushing
Hotel was constructed hastily and of local pine, probably cut in Afton or nearby
Stillwater, ten miles upriver.
Between 1867 and 1872, the building was expanded twice; first with a two story rear
addition measuring 24′ x 23′, and then with another two story, addition to the rear of
the first measuring 24′ x 33 (see sketch map). Eiy the ca. 1872-8 period, the building
expanded to its present dimensions of 24′ x 80′ with elongated roof ending in hips at
the front (west) and rear (east). The construction of these two additions was identical
to’ the original 24′ x 24′ built in 1867; that- is, 2″ x 2″ studs supporting wide white
pine boards for external sheathing, painted white and laid both vertically and
horizontally. When exposed in 1981 for major stabilization of the building the boards
on the original and the additions matched in age, si:ze, weathering, and application,
suggesting that the additions were added shortly after the original structure was built.
Ceiling joists and rafters in the additions were also massive and put together with
mortise and tendon construction like the front of the structure.
Some pencilled names and a railroad name we^re used to date the clapboards and give
a good approximate date on the additions. On the southwest corner of the front facade
were several names and the notation “W.W.R.R.” pencilled in the soft white pine
sheathing, which was exposed in 1981. In 1866, the West Wisconsin Railroad (W.W.R.R.)
was formed, and completed a line west from Madison to Hudson, Wisconsin on the east
side of the St. Croix River across from Afton between 1868-1872. By 1878, the bankrupt
West Wisconsin Railroad was absorbed into the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha
Railway Company.1 The identical materials, methods of construction, unweathered
pencilled names on the building and the railraod information strongly suggest
that the clapboard over the entire building and the additions were completed by no later
than 1878 and probably in the 1868-72 period when the railroad was abuilding-and before
it ceased to exist as the West Wisconsin. Although conjectural, the railroad would have
created the need for additional rooms in the hotel between 1868-78, giving bracket
dates for the additions. The pencilled names, written lightly on the original pine
sheathing are entirely unweathered strongly suggesting that the clapboard siding was
put on immediately after the names were written or by the mid-1870s, less than ten
years after the hotel was built.
The integrity of the building is excellent and the changes have been few since the
mid-1870s. The only elements not original to the building in a 1930 photograph are
a south side chimney of red brick and the south entrance ventibule, both added between
1945 and 1960. They were not removed during the 1981 certified rehabilitation
because they needed no work and were left untouched. A small bathroom window in the
ca. 1930 photograph on the south side of the second floor was a later addition and
was removed. Two original window openings on the first floor, south side, were shut
off after 1930 and were restored in 1981 to their original appearance. Since the
original configuration of the wood double-hung windows was unknown in 1981, new wood
1 over 1 windows were installed in 1981 as part of the certified rehabilitation.
The windows, the sill at the foundation, and 30% of the clapboards needed replacement
in 1981 because of a combination of dry rot and water damage. The old wood in these
elements by 1981 was the consistency of sawdust. These features were documented and
sent to Denver with the Part II. The current owner continues to be willing, as he
was in 1981, to remove the chimney and the vestibule, but the state historic architect
and state review board, familiar with the building and the streetscape, did not see
these elements as intrusive. Damage to the clapboards, which had received no attention
between 1907 and 1945 necessitated 30% new replacements to match the original and
70% restoration of the originals.
The fabric of the building is intact. All framing members in walls and roof are original
and did not need additional work. Corner boards, window trim and door trim is original.
The lack of hood molds on the front portion of the building is as it was originally.
The additions and the first floor of the original building did have the molding and
it was scraped and painted. Since the wide pine underlayment on the roof was in an
advanced state of decomposition, it was left in place and new boards added above before
a new asbestos roof was laid. The original wood shingled roof was beyond hope and was
removed. Four brick chimneys evident in the ca. 1930 photograph were gone by 1976 and
the flues nonfunctioning. It is not known if these chimneys were original to- the
building and they were not reconstructed.
Interior doors were saved and restored where possible. The building was bowed along
the lateral sides (north and south) because the 2″ x 2″ studs were not sufficient to
keep the building erect. Interior walls were so badly water damaged as to be unsalvageable.
Consequently, the old walls were removed, the original 2×2 studs left in place with
2 x 4s added on 16″ centers, the building reinsulated, the bowed sides left intact, the
ceiling joinst left intact and the building rebuilt on the inside. The original 4
panelled wood doors on the exterior were remanufactured to match the originals because
they were badly split, and dry and had missing members. The two major original entrances,
the front door and the south side door (at the vestibule), were retained and the south
side door (inside the v|istibule)side lights were retained.
The front porch with a hipped roof had collapsed
sometime between 1945-60 and had been removed. Since no photographs exist of the
building in the 19th century and no direct evidence from the building exists, it is
not known if the porch was original or added later or when added. The present owner
poured a cement slab in 1981 for a new porch, intent on reconstructing the front porch,
but code regulations prevented his doing so at the time because of the small setback
from the street which has been widened. Since simple buildings with hipped
roofs exist in Minnesota from the ca. 1865-80 period with and without porches, the
presence or absence of the porch has minimal impact on the building either way.
The Cushing Hotel has two other one-story additions: a north side dining room and
an east (rear) addition known as the “Catfish Saloon,” which also houses the kitchen
preparation area for the food service. The north dining room is located on the site
of an earlier porch which appears in a ca. 1907 photograph. In 1960, when this old
porch fell down, a previous owner installed a new larger porch and the current owner
enclosed it creating the north dining room in 1979. It is frame, one story, with
clapboard siding and a .pent roof . A row of pine trees on the
west side effectively mask the north dining room, as does its 30-foot setback
from the road.
A previous owner also added the Catfish Saloon (rear addition) in 1965
It has vertical wood siding and is located at the east end of the building on the
dead-end street which ends at the St. Croix River dike. Part of the Catfish addition
is contained within the original building.
Both additions have been painted a blue-grey at the suggestion of the Minnesota SHPO
during the Part II tax certification to effectively blend with the plantings and appear
unobstrusive vi-a-vis the original two story structure (painted white). Attached
views show that these additions have no visual ill-effect on the original portion of
the Cushing Hotel These additions are within the National Register
boundaries for the property.
The Cushing Hotel, the village of Af ton’s only hostelry since 1867, dates from the
early period of settlement along the lower St. Croix River and the period of early
statehood in Minnesota. It is the earliest surviving example of a modest workingman’s
hotel and the earliest surviving frame hotel above Point Douglass, the fork of the
St. Croix and Mississippi rivers. The hotel has defined the heart of the village
of Afton since its predecessor, the Patterson Hotel, was built in 1856. When the
Paterson Hotel burned, the Cushing was built on its foundation in 1867. It is also
the earliest commercial structure remaining in Afton and is associated with Af ton’s
early commerce, travel routes, and the white pine industry.
Afton was surveyed and platted in May, 1855, but was first settled in 1843, when the
area was still part of Wisconsin Territory. In the 1840s, Afton was located on the
major territorial road from Point Douglass at the fork of the Mississippi to Stillwater
to the north. This road ran along the west bank of the St. Croix River. Since
railroad construction did not begin in Minnesota until 1862, the patrons of the
Patterson Hotel, the Cushing Hotel’s predecessor built in 1856, attracted foot and
wagon traffic and the route up the west side of the St. Croix was well-established
by the time the Cushing Hotel was built in 1867. With the coming of the West Wisconsin
Railroad on the east side of the St. Croix in 1868-72, Afton ‘attracted enough
travellers to justify a hotel in the small center of town. Railroad workers stopped
at the Cushing hotel between 1868-78 while the West Wisconsin was in operation. It
was easy to cross the river from the east to west bank of the river because of the
shallows between Afton and Hudson. Since the Cushing Hotel offered only modest
accommodations between 1867 and the 1880s, it is also likely that lumbermen working
in the pineries of the upper St. Croix also availed themselves of a good meal and a
sleeping room at the hotel. The white pine used in the construction of the Gushing
Hotel was locally cut and planed.
Since the early years of the 1860s, the Cushing Hotel has been Af ton’s only hostelry.
It sits at the center of the small village along with five or six other commercial
structures. The town has changed little since the early years. An 1888 history describes
Afton: “The village contains one hotel, one church (Congregational), one school
house, an academy building, and several stores, shops and dwellings. “2 The hotel is
the Cushing located at the center of the village west of the steamboat landing on
the St. Croix River, now a marina. Afton is much the same as it was 100 years ago,
having suffered no urbanization, no strip development, and no significant change in
population. Other buildings mentioned in the 1888 description exist, in modified form,
The St. Croix Academy has been much altered and changed to a private dwelling. So
too with the school house. These were erected in 1876 and 1868, respectively, and were
of brick. A bank across the street from the hotel was built ca. 1890-1900 and has
been modified with a large two story addition to the rear (east) .
The remainder of Afton village is scattered older homes built by early settlers like Erastus Bolles,
Gilbert Newington, Squires, and Andrew McKay between 1854 and 1867. All are Greek
Revival and tucked away in the hills around the village center. The commercial
buildings in Afton today are boomtown style, frame one story, rusticated stone block,
or Greek Revival houses turned into businesses.
Behind the hotel (to the east) is the site of the early stramboat landing. Much of the
village’s business today comes from the marina for pleasure boats now located on the site.
In the early 1870s and 1880s, steamboat travellers seldom debarked at>Afton on trips up
the lower St. Croix River between Point Douglass and Stillwater. The trip by water could be
made in a day between these points and fashionable large hotels were located ten miles north
of Afton at Stillwater. The best known of these in the 1860-1880 era was the Sawyer House
at Stillwater, a three story frame building of simple style with a gabled roof which was
razed in the 1920s. Another frame two story hotel at Marine, the Marine House, was razed
years ago. None of the frame or early brick pre-1890 hotels upriver from Afton or downriver
to Point Douglass survive today except for the Gushing Hotel, but historical photographs
indicate that two story frame hipped or gabled roofed hotels were common in the region of
the lower St. Croix before 1880.
As the sole survivor of early hotel days, the Cushing Hotel was used by working men in need
of lodging on the lower St. Croix. Since there are no written records of the hotel’s guests
in the 19th century, there is a strong presumption that only travelers of modest means stayed
at the hotel. The names of West Wisconsin Railroad workers on the front facade lend support
as do the fact that the sleeping rooms on the second floor are very small (about 8′ x 9′),
further suggesting that the hotel offered only modest accommodations. In 1881, the Chicago,
Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad constructed a line up the west side of the St. Croix River
from Point Douglass to Stillwater. Running through Afton, the rails were located behind
the hotel parallel to the River. Although there is no direct evidence that railway workers
on the Milwaukee Road continued to use the hotel, it is probable, since the hotel rooms were
never enlarged, the dining room never updated, and the hotel was used continuously for
lodging from 1867 until sometime before 1945.
In the early twentieth century, between 1907 and 1945, lumbermen at a small camp on the
east side of the St. Croix at Hudson, Wisconsin stayed at the hotel, particularly when the water
was low in the river and they could walk across to Afton in the shallows. In the 1920s and 1930s, commercial
fishermen taking rough fish out of the St. Croix River stayed in the nine or ten rooms Mary Pennington kept open.
In 1907, Mary Pennington purchased the hotel and ran it until her death in November, 1945.
Aside from lodging fishermen and lumbermen, her chief business was serving Sunday chicken
dinners to motorists from St. Paul and the surrounding area. By the early 1940s, she was
renting out the hotel on a self-serve basis to youth hostel groups touring the valley by
bicycle.6 After a quick succession of owners from 1945 until 1960, the hotel became a first
class restaurant. Today, the chief fame of Afton is the Afton House, formerly tne Cushing Hotel.