Chauncey, Jane and Cats Adventures: Rochester, MN

We are in Rochester MN where we needed to get two new tires for the truck. We use Discount Tire Company because they are nationwide but this time we will not. Chauncey went to the closest location and priced tires only to be told that they would only install on the rear of the truck and we needed to have them installed on the front having the front tires rotated to the rear. The rep said that it was a state law. Well, we went to a Good Year dealer and had no problem having the tires installed as we needed.

Rochester is the home of Mayo Clinic downtown and several compasses in the city. Mayo brothers, doctors who founded Mayo Clinic in the late 1800s resided in Rochester. Dr. Charles H. Mayo, a co-founder of the internationally known Mayo Clinic, created the Mayowood Estate in Rochester, Minnesota between 1911 and 1938. The centerpiece of the estate is the thirty-eight-room Historic Mayowood Mansion, affectionately referred to as the “Big House” by the family, and surrounding ornamental gardens. In 1965 the Mayo family donated the home and ten acres to the Olmsted County Historical Society. Two years later, due to its architectural and historical prominence, Historic Mayowood Mansion was declared a Minnesota Historic Site by a legislative act and in 1970 the mansion and landscape were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We toured the mansion which we really enjoyed.

The Chateau Theatre originally opened as a Vaudeville house in Rochester, Minnesota that opened in 1927 with an interior decorated as a medieval village. The theater was converted to a movie house eventually remodeled and reopened as a Barnes & Noble bookstore. The Chateau was originally opened on October 26, 1927. The architects, Ellerbe, said," We have given this town the finest theater of its size, bar none, in the U.S."In April, 1927, Dr. Charles Mayo laid the building's cornerstone. The structure was originally called the Chateau Dodge Theatre because the Dodge Lumber Company had previously occupied this site. With construction costs of a then-unheard-of $400,000, the theatre opened on October 26, 1927, showing the movie "Spring Fever." The Chateau Theatre was one of Rochester's first air-conditioned buildings, presenting plays, concerts, operas, silent and later talking movies, and vaudeville: In 1940, 25 cents' admission provided audiences 3 acts of music/magic/juggling, "Pathé news," comedy, and a main show. Chateau headliners over the years included actresses Ethel Barrymore and Tallulah Bankhead, the husband-wife acting team of Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, cinema cowboy Tom Mix; Mary, the rhinoceros co-starring in Johnny Ismuller's "Tarzan"; and bandleader Paul Whiteman ("The King of Jazz"). From the 1940 premiere of "Gone with the Wind" through the 1980s "Star Wars" episodes, the Chateau provided Rochester the very best in cinema. It is really neat that it is an active book store.