The Winona Normal School was Minnesota’s first teacher-training school when it opened in 1860. The school fostered many innovations, including the state’s first “model school” program, a kind of laboratory school for training teachers. Over the years, the normal school evolved into a four-year state college and then into Winona State University.

In 1895, the Polish immigrant community in Winona raised funds to construct St. Stanislaus Kostka, the grand church dominating the city’s skyline. The church, which still serves the East End parish, was listed on the National Register in 1984 and elevated to a minor basilica of the Catholic Church in 2011.

Crescent Grange Hall #512 in Linwood Township is an artifact of Reconstruction-era Minnesota (1865–1877). During this period, rural residents united in response to economic upheaval and high interest rates. Farmers, particularly those in the south and west of the state, struggled to make a living in a volatile and unregulated economy.