Riverhouse has had a long history in downtown Medford

The historic Riverhouse property will soon be torn down and converted into a new space. The building has lived several lives and saw its fair share of owners and guests. The property has been a part of Medford for well over a century and will be severely missed by locals who remember the days when the building was in its prime.

The abstract for the Riverhouse property, originally known as the Riverhouse Inn and the Riverside Hotel was deeded in 1870 to Henry Hewitt Jr. The construction date of the building is unclear but Dr. Walter Zeit stated that he believed the property was built sometime around 1890. It is known that the building did not precede the Medford Fire of 1885. An artist created a map of Medford right before the fire and the building was not present.

According to the abstract, the building was constructed by either David Mc-Cartney or the Peter Fergusons and John Ferguson.

Sometime after the property was deeded to Hewitt it ended up under the names of E.L. and Katie Urquhart. The date of this exchange is unknown as well as the any other change of ownership the property went through before the ownership of the Urquharts.

The property saw numerous owners during it’s lifetime. One of them being Kate Rueth who purchased the building in 1921 and eventually handed it off to her son Grover Rueth and his wife Elsa in 1925. The family took the record for the longest period of ownership and the buidling stayed in the family for 34 years.

In 1937 Grover Rueth hired local farmer and artist Walter Kuse to paint a couple pieces for the building, one of them being a large mural. Kuse was a Medford native who spent his life balancing farming and art. He became a well known Wisconsin rural artist and painted beautiful pieces with different themes. His artwork was in several northern and central Wisconsin churches.

In 1945 until 1950, Grover rented the Riverside Hotel to the Malchows. As a child, Harvey Malchow remembers mornings of picking up buns from the local bakery and meat from the meat market for his mom to cook and serve at the Riverside hotel.

In 1952 the ownership for the building was taken over by Grover and Elsa’s daughter Jewel and her husband Jack Hoesel. Shortly after, the building was sold to Kenneth and Nevah Zemske in 1955.

At one point in 1965, the Zemske’s rented out a space in the building to Lawrence Hoffman who used it as a barbershop.

In 1976 the Zemskes sold the property to Bob and Judy Oestreich who changed the building’s name from the Riverside Hotel to the Riverhouse Inn. The Oestreich’s renovated the building into a supper club but kept some of the character it gained from being a saloon. The building also previously had hotel rooms on the top floor that were converted into apartments.

The original visitors of the building were loggers who wanted a drink after a hard days work and travellers who were passing through town. There is still a cubby in the building that guests used to store their guns in.

Over time, the building was the victim of multiple floods and has suffered a large amount of damage. Some believe that this is the reason the building is being torn down.

Ownership Timeline:

1870- The abstract for the property is deeded by the U.S. to Henry Hewitt Jr.

Unknown date- Owned by E.L and Katie Urquhart 1904- Sold to Mandel and Paulina Marcus 1908- Sold to Paul and Kuniguda May 1912- Sold to Jacob adn Martha Hartman 1921- Sold to Kate Rueth 1925- Kate hands down the property to her son Grover Rueth and his wife Elsa 1945- Grover rents out the property to the Malchows until 1950 1952- Grover and Elsa hand down the property to their daughter Jewel and her husband Jack Hoesel 1955- Sold to Kenneth and Neva Zemske 1965- The Zemskes rent out a space to Lawrence Hoffman for a barbershop 1976- Sold to Bob and Judy Oestreich 1988- Sold to Norman and Nacy Hatlestad 2001- Sold to Gary and Sherri Woller 2008- Sold to Eleanor and Dominique Nash 2011- Sold to Evelyn Nash who owned the property until 2022