BlockFrom the record
One of 16 National Register listings published here for Houston County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Spafford Williams Hotel
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. Williams, Spafford, Hotel - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. E. Main at N. Marshall, Caledonia, 55921
- When was it listed? April 1982
- Category. building
- Also known as. Houston County MRA
- City. Caledonia city
- National Register reference number. 82002963 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The ground it stands on
9,241 wordsThe chapter on Caledonia Township in History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919 names Caledonia. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
In the early days there were no places of amusement or community center. Until the churches were built, church services and other public meetings were held in the little old school house. Later, they were held in the old court house which was built over the county jail and which accommodated more people. Then a second court house was built which gave a larger seating capacity and it became the public hall. This building was replaced by the present creditable structure which was the largest public hall in Caledonia and was used for all large public gatherings until 1912 when the city hall was completed.
Passage source: History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919.
During the winter of 1911 there had been much talk among the more progressive men of the community of the need of some sort of social center, some place in which the people could get together under better conditions than those enjoyed. There were several organizations that needed a better place in which to carry on their work. The old building used as a city council room, voting room, fireman's hall, and public library, was too small for any of their purposes, poorly lighted, badly heated, dirty and with no accommodations fit for any of the purposes for which it was used and, in fact, a disgrace to a town of the size and importance of Caledonia.
Passage source: History of Houston County, Minnesota, published 1919.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Caledonia Township - 9,241 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
38 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Spafford Williams Hotel between 1992 and 2017, burning about 191 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 20 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 July 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 June 1995 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 June 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 June 1995 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 May 1996 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 May 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 May 1995 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Spafford Williams Hotel: 3 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gengler Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Holty-Badger Quarry - Badger | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Holty-Badger Quarry- Holty | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this property
32 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Caledonia, the town this property stands in, in 32 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 16 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2018 | Heavy Rain | Caledonia | $189,000 | Rainfall totaled 4.80 inches during this time frame. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $100,000 | A localized downburst blew down trees, power lines, a barn and some farm outbuildings just northwest of Caledonia. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $95,000 | An eighty foot tall tree fell on a garage and four vehicles near the intersection of First and Main Streets in Caledonia. |
| August 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Caledonia | $80,000 | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Flash Flood | Caledonia | $70,000 | Runoff from heavy rains caused street flooding to occur in Caledonia. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $40,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $35,000 | no account filed |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $34,000 | Barns were damaged in the Caledonia area from strong storm winds. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Caledonia | $15,000 | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $15,000 | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Caledonia | $12,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $10,000 | Roof damaged at elementary school. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Caledonia | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $5,000 | Trees were blown down onto parts of State Highway 76 between Houston and Caledonia. |
| July 2012 | Lightning | Caledonia | $5,000 | Lightning struck the Houston County Courthouse and knocked out phone services, destroyed a control module for one of the ventilation units and a copy machine. |
| August 2000 | Hail | Caledonia | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $4,000 | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $1,500 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $1,000 | Siding ripped off and overhang damaged on mobile home. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Caledonia | $1,000 | Law enforcement officials reported water over the roadway near Green Acres and across other sections of the county. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | $250 | no account filed |
| August 2017 | Funnel Cloud | Caledonia | - | A funnel cloud was sighted northeast of Caledonia. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Caledonia | - | The COOP observer in Caledonia measured 4.41 inches of rain. |
| July 2013 | Hail | Caledonia | - | Up to half dollar sized hail fell in Caledonia. |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | - | Several trees and power lines were blown down by strong thunderstorm winds. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Caledonia | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Caledonia Commercial Historic District | 0.1 miles | 1994 |
| David R. and Ellsworth A. Sprague Houses | 0.1 miles | 1982 | |
 | Houston County Courthouse and Jail | 0.1 miles | 1983 |
| Schech Mill | 4.8 miles | 1978 | |
 | Portland Prairie Methodist Episcopal Church | 7.5 miles | 1982 |
| Johnson Mill | 7.9 miles | 1982 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 82002963 in Record Group 79. |
| Houston County | All 16 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.