This solid brick building has been a centerpiece of downtown Lanesboro for more than 150 years. Built in 1875 by Michael Scanlan, son of the Irish immigrant whose log home was the first permanent dwelling here, it is now called the “Iron Horse” in honor of its distinctive mural.

Scanlan designed this building as a general store on the first floor with living quarters upstairs. By 1904 it was the Lanesboro Co-Op Mercantile Co. and stayed in business here until 1950. This building has also been a grocery store, a variety store, a newspaper office, an antique shop, a pool hall, a high-end clothing store called Olivia’s Attic (operated by the Drury family of Drury’s Furniture Store in nearby Fountain), and the Iron Horse Outfitters and Inn, offering motorcycle gear and accessories. It recently returned to an earlier use with a main floor grocery store and short-term lodging above.

This building also offers a fun treasure hunt. In the Great Depression of the early 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Lanesboro’s CCC camp, one of 35 in Minnesota, brought 200 young men here between the ages of 17-28. They boys in a military-stye camp a mile south of Lanesboro, but visited town once a week to eat in local restaurants, see a movie (at what’s now called the St. Man Theater), and mainly relax after a hard day’s work on local farm and conservation projects. Use your imagination to picture young guys hanging out on these sidewalks and leaning against the brick wall of this corner store.

Pen-knife in hand, more than a few left a small shadow of their time here. Take a minute to see if you can locate any of their 1930s graffiti. It’s a fun memory of days long ago on the streets of Lanesboro.