My passion is design, the minute I laid eyes on this building I knew I had to have it. So much character, I even took my daughter and showed it to her, telling her I was going to buy it and what did she think?. I then thought I would have a tea shop there, as my Mother and Father are Irish. It seemed like it could be a family affair. Shortly after I purchased the building Charles Nelson who was the State Historic Architect suggested to me that I get on the Stillwater Heritage Commission, as they needed my help. Charles and I had worked on other projects in the past together. WA Frost was one and other Twin City projects. I dove into the second floor of Excelsior building opening up all the rooms that had been separated by doors and exposing brick where it would make a difference. Then the worst happened, my Mother died and my whole world feel apart. My passion was gone and the building restoration stopped. I was lost without my Mom's encouragement. So the building was rented out, left to it's own. In the last two years, I have restored woodwork and had all but one room floors restored, new windows, painting and the fun part decorating. I had a new roof put on with a new outside rooftop deck, a new deck outside master suite, complete new kitchen, all materials out of recycled historic items. New Furnace/Central Air. Tuckpointing of Exterior. It takes you back to the late 1800's with flair of the 2000's. I am so proud of the restoration at Excelsior Escape. It's fun, open and a great piece of living history. It is centrally locating on Main Street and it's a contributing part of Historic Stillwater.

Katherine B. Francis purchased this apartment in 1987

We live in Stillwater and I sell real estate here. We raised our children here and they both graduated from school here. We go to church here. Stillwater's home, we love it! we shop locally, we volunteer and we have been involved here. Stillwater offers so much quality of living. Great restaurants, great shopping and a outstanding library. Our hospitals and medical doctors are the finest. Our schools are award winning. We are rich in history and our St. Croix River offers so much activities.

You can also rent this 'one of a kind' location for a special event. Fee for Rental is $900.00 per function, (Showers, Birthday Parties, Bachelor Parties, etc)per day.