1901 Sinclair Lewis Landmark Where the Brothel Upstairs Never Quite Closed
500 Sinclair Lewis Ave, Sauk Centre, MN 56378
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
$90–$180/night for hotel rooms
Access
Limited Access
Three-story brick building with stairs; no elevator
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1901 · Sinclair Lewis Literary History · Minnesota Hotel History · Queen Anne Commercial Architecture
The Sauk Centre House burned to the ground on June 26, 1900. Contemporary newspaper accounts suggested the fire was intentional, and local sentiment about its passing was reportedly ambivalent. Ralph and Christena Palmer purchased the lot the following year and commissioned a three-story brick hotel they named The Palmer House — the first building in Sauk Centre with electricity, a distinction that made it a landmark of a different kind.
The building opened in 1901 with 24 guest rooms. Vienna stained glass windows were installed in the lobby and restaurant, giving the Queen Anne commercial structure an interior elegance that distinguished it from purely utilitarian Main Street commercial buildings. An expansion in 1916, designed by architect Roland C. Buckley, added 20 more rooms. A 1993 remodel reduced the total to 19 rooms with private bathrooms.
The hotel's most durable cultural connection is Sinclair Lewis. Before he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Lewis worked two summers as a night desk clerk at the Palmer House. The experience informed his 1920 novel Main Street — a sharp, nationally debated critique of small-town American conformity — in which the Palmer House appears as the 'Minniemashie House.' The street the hotel sits on was later renamed Sinclair Lewis Avenue in his honor.
The hotel's upper floor housed a bordello operated by a man identified in local accounts as Raymond. The specific details of this operation are not documented in formal historical records reviewed for this entry, but the brothel is a persistent element of the Palmer House's oral history and is referenced in the hotel's current paranormal marketing materials.
In December 2025, the hotel was purchased by Dave and Winifred Schrader, continuing its operation as a hotel, restaurant, and pub.
Sources
The boy with the ball is the Palmer House's most reported figure. Multiple witnesses across different visits and decades have described a child moving through the hotel's corridors bouncing a ball — the sound of it, the figure itself, appearing at the edges of vision and sometimes directly in front of people. He does not respond to being addressed.
A tall man wearing a hat has been reported in many of the hotel's rooms. This figure is associated with what investigators describe as intelligent activity: glasses moving or being thrown in the bar area, objects relocated between rooms, a presence that seems to respond to the environment rather than simply replaying a fixed sequence of behavior.
On the upper floors — where Raymond's top-floor operation was housed a century ago — a woman in a wedding dress has been seen. The connection between this figure and the building's brothel history is speculative, documented in local accounts but not verified through formal records.
The children's play area on the premises is associated with juvenile manifestations that investigators attribute to what may be Carlisle Palmer, the original owner's son.
The hotel held its first formal paranormal seminar in January 2008, bringing in television personalities Chris Fleming and Patrick Burns alongside other investigators. This formalized what had been informal local knowledge into a documented investigation program. Ghost Adventures featured the Palmer House in Season 8, Episode 4; The Dead Files covered it in Season 9, Episode 4.
Reported phenomena include unexplained knocking from several rooms, drastic temperature drops, disembodied voices, and objects moving without human agency. The hotel actively documents these reports.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay in the 19-room Queen Anne commercial hotel where Sinclair Lewis worked as a night desk clerk and later fictionalized as 'Minniemashie House' in his Nobel Prize-winning novel Main Street. The top floor reportedly housed a bordello run by a man named Raymond — his presence is said to remain in rooms on the upper level. Reservations by phone only at (320) 351-9100.
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