History 21 The Podcast - 4.03 Deb Wallace at Ticknor Hill Bed & Breakfast
With a round “tower” column and a stately presence, the 157 year old Ticknor Hill Bed & Breakfast has been welcoming guests since 1997. For 25 of those years they were greeted by Deb Wallace. In this episode, she sits down in her own parlor with Rebecca to talk about how she purchased the property with her husband, tips of running the business, and what the future might hold for the beautiful home as they decided to sell.
Host Rebecca Desens, ACHS Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator
Ticknor Hill
Born in 1827 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Heman Ticknor came to Anoka in 1855. He opened a dry goods store, which grew into a tobacco shop, and finally a drug store. He ran the business until his death several decades later. Heman served as a member of the Masonic Lodge and maintained an active public life in Anoka.
Heman married the widowed Anna (Sweeney) Greenwald in 1865, and together they had one daughter. In 1867, Heman wanted a new, bigger house for his family, so he purchased a full block between Second and Third Avenue, south of Main Street. He had the new home built facing the Rum and Mississippi Rivers to the west. Heman and Anna lived there until their deaths in 1897 and 1906, respectively. Three more generations of the Ticknor family would live in the house that Heman built for them.
Rozale Ticknor, the daughter of Heman and Anna, was born in 1866. Known by her nickname, “Zale” for much of her life, she attended local schools, although ill health shortened her time at Anoka High School. In 1887, Zale married attorney John H. Niles. Together they had one daughter, whom they named Natalie Ticknor Niles. Moving back to the Ticknor home in 1896 due to Zale’s ill health, she and John made some major changes to the house in 1901. Likely wanting a fashionable Third Avenue address, the couple had the front section of the house removed and brought around to what had been the back of the home. They moved the back section it replaced to face Second Avenue, while the section in the middle remained unchanged. They also added an extended porch, projecting bay window, and the round tower.
visit the ticknor mansion now! It’s a bed and breakfast
National Register Tour Around Anoka County
Follow our National Register tour with Clio and find all the National Register of Historic Places in Anoka County! The tour will give you driving instructions and stories at each location.
Anoka County Library Minute
Further Reading:
Since this episode’s subject is a bed and breakfast owner, it seems like a fun opportunity to highlight the library’s collection of cozy mysteries set in B&Bs. For those uninitiated to the genre, a cozy mystery is a subgenre of mystery. Characteristics of a cozy mystery include amateur sleuths solving the murder(s), quaint small towns, and violence that is on the mild side or that happens “off-stage”.