photo by Brie Cohen

Kevin Savick shows off one of the more unusual wild cat figures he owns in just one of the many rooms dedicated to wild cats. Savick owns 4,300 wild cat items and they are displayed all throughout his 2,200 square foot apartment on Broadway Avenue.

Exploring Albert Lea: Living downtown

Take a peak inside the apartments upstairs

Staff

Published Thursday, August 7, 2008

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories to appear weekly through the remainder of the summer. The stories highlight places in and around Albert Lea most people have seen or know about but rarely visit.

Russell Olson was sitting on a park bench in front of the Albert Lea Post Office enjoying a hot July afternoon. He’s close to home, as he lives in a room above the Heart of the Artichoke specialty store on East Clark Street.

Retired now after a lifetime’s work in his hometown, Olson, 65, enjoys the convenience and the camaraderie of downtown life.

“I like to walk down by the lake, and visit with the other folks who live in my building,” said Olson, who thinks his landlord, Junior Dorman, is first rate.

Olson’s buddy, Mick Severson, ambled over to the bench, winded after a long walk on a muggy day. Severson, also retired, lives at the Downtown Homes, 133 William St., in Albert Lea. Severson said his area of town is pretty quiet, except for weekend nights, when bar patrons migrate from one watering hole to another.

“They go right through the alley by my building,” said Severson, “and they get a little rowdy at times.”

Neither man owns a vehicle, which can present problems. “Getting to and from the grocery stores can be a hassle,” said Severson, “but there’s usually a way to get it done.”

Junior Dorman and his wife, Wanda, own the building where Russell Olson lives, and live in an upstairs apartment at that location. The Dormans work at Hanson Tire Co., and operate the rooming house.

“We raised our family in a big four-bedroom house on Swanhill Drive, but when the kids were gone, we just didn’t need it any more,” said Junior, “especially since we already owned a building downtown.”

Dorman’s father bought the building in 1943 and operated it as the Dorman Hotel for many years.

There are 12 rooms, each with a bed, dresser and sink, plus two community bathrooms for the tenants.

“We clean all the rooms, and provide fresh towels and bedding once a week,” said Junior, who is required to get an annual state license to operate the rooming house. “We have to comply with fire and safety codes, and provide two points of access to the rooming house area. We don’t encourage any cooking in the rooms, though some tenants have coffee makers. Most of our people are working at various factories and other businesses in the city. We also have a couple of retirees.”

Russell Olson has lived in the building for 15 years.

“I believe more people would want to live downtown if the city allowed on-street parking through the night,” Junior said. “Parking is the only real drawback here. More building owners might upgrade their upstairs apartments if there was more downtown parking to attract new tenants.”

“I will live here as long as I can make it up the stairs,” says 53-year-old Kevin Savick, who has lived in the same apartment on Broadway Avenue for 31 years. “There are 2,200 square feet of living space, for which I pay $300 a month and that includes heat and garbage pickup.”

Savick has worked for Brick Furniture since 1989, after a 13-year career with Queen Stoves.

His apartment is right across the street from his paying job, which is a good thing because Savick needs to save time. A Freeborn native, he is consumed by the study of the history of his adopted hometown.

“I prepare my evening meal early in the morning before work, and put it in the refrigerator,” said Savick.

He gets home around 5 p.m., chows down, then heads to the Albert Lea Public Library, where he works until the 8 p.m. closing, poring over microfilm of local newspapers, documents, photos and public records dating back to the 1870s. Savick makes copies of material he feels is important to his study of local history. He then heads back to his Broadway home, where he works until midnight, sorting, classifying and organizing the materials.

Six thousand pages in three-ring binders, with six to 10 newspaper stories on each page, are neatly stacked on row upon row of shelving. They share space with some 6,000 pictures of this area’s saga of development and change. Some of the photos are framed and hang, impressively, on the walls of the Song hallway on one side of Savick’s apartment.

Savick has photos of every church, school and business in Albert Lea’s history.

“I’ve been working 90 hours a week every week, for the last four years,” he said. “The inspiration was Grace Haukoos, who owned the Constant Reader bookstore next door. She taught me how to do research, cross check sources and identify changes in the business community and in property ownership. You have to do the numbers to get things right.”

Four thousand three hundred is another number in Savick’s life. Starting in 1982, he began collecting images of big, predatory cats. A stuffed bobcat on the floor, a silk-screened tiger’s face gracing the wall. Twenty-five 6-foot-tall glassed-in cabinets and a few built-ins house the collection of aggressive feline grandeur, mostly in ceramic, glass and porcelain motifs. The spacious home is kept amazingly dean and orderly by Savick, who is single.

“I have a lot of energy,” he said with a smile.

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