Julius Miller purchased Lot 1, Block 11 for $600 from the Bemidji Townsite Co. on Nov 4, 1901. I doubt that he ever built anything on that corner, as he built a cottage for him and his wife at the corner of 10th and Beltrami. In 1905, he went to Rochester to consult the Mayo brothers about stomach trouble and learned that it was cancer and that an operation was too unsafe. He died a year later.
In May of 1905, the newspaper reported that the Bemidji lodge of Free Masons had decided to build a two-story structure on the corner of Fifth Street and Beltrami Avenue. They planned to rent out the first floor for store purposes and use the second story as a lodge room. Plans for the building were that it would be 24 feet in width and 90 feet long and would be provided with all modern conveniences, including steam heat, electric lights and water works. The proposed cost was $5,000, but when completed, the total was $8,000.
Masonic Lodge was tax delinquent in 1908, owing $197.85 so perhaps they were struggling a bit. By 1910, the building housed the Crookston Lumber Reading Room and a Turkish Bath on the first floor.
When the Masonic Lodge constructed its grand new building on the corner of 5th and Bemidji Avenue just a block away, the Bemidji Pioneer moved into the ground floor of the former lodge.
On July 3, 1920, the Bemidji Pioneer reported:
MOVING PLANT TODAY: Owing to the necessity of dismantling the large paper press so that it may be moved this afternoon, the Pioneer has been reduced to a four page paper today. The entire news plant of the Pioneer is being moved to its new location in the former Masonic block between noon today and Tuesday and the daily paper will come out on Tuesday as usual. The readers of the Pioneer are asked to bear with any omissions or delays for the next three of four days and are assured every effort will be made to get into smooth running condition as the earliest possible time.
The Pioneer stayed in the building for over 50 years. About 1975, it became Q’s Hallmark Pok-A-Bout cards & gifts and then Julie’s Hallmark Shop until at least 1999.
I don’t recall all the businesses since then. I think it was a bicycle shop and at one time a computer business. A’ sign in the window today says that it will soon open as a Thai Massage Spa.