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Top Attractions in Rochester

Plummer House

The Plummer House is the former residence of Dr. Henry Stanley Plummer and Daisy Berkman Plummer. Located in Rochester, Minnesota and originally called Quarry Hill, the English Tudor mansion stood on a 65-acre estate which included a greenhouse, water tower, garage, and gazebo. The house is also called Henry S. Plummer House. Dr. Plummer, a Mayo Clinic partner and founder, worked very closely with Ellerby and Round, the architects of record, on the design of the house. The house includes many innovations that were quite novel for their time, including a central vacuum system, underground sprinkler system, intercommunications system, dumbwaiter, electricity and gas lighting, the first gas furnace in the city, garage door openers, heated pool, water tower, and two underground caves going into the house and the water tower. The 5 story home is over 300 feet long, with 49 rooms including 10 bathrooms, 9 bedrooms and 5 fireplaces. After the death of Dr. Plummer in 1936, his wife, Daisy Berkman Plummer, and their two children, continued to live in the home until 1969. In 1971, Daisy Plummer and family gave the house with all its furnishings to the Rochester Art Center with the understanding that it would be operated as a Center for the Arts. Daisy Plummer envisioned her home to be used for music recitals and dance performances, as well as a setting for artists to create and show their work. This unique and generous gift, along with a small endowment, was a legacy of the generous spirit of the Plummer family. The Plummer House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Today, Rochester Park and Rec maintains the building, and 11 acres of original estate, as a private rental facility. In the summer, the beautiful gardens make the Plummer House a popular venue for weddings. Visible from much of south west Rochester, the Plummer House and its water tower mark the summit of a Rochester neighborhood nicknamed Pill Hill, so called because it typically houses many Mayo doctors.

IBM Rochester

IBM Rochester is the facility of IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, not to be confused with the IBM Global Services facility in Rochester, New York. The initial structure was designed by Eero Saarinen, who clad the structure in blue panels of varying hues after being inspired by the Minnesota sky, as well as IBM's nickname of "Big Blue". These features and the facility's size has earned it the nickname "The Big Blue Zoo" from employees. The building was first dedicated in 1958, but has been expanded considerably since then. The mile-long facility is best known as the plant that produced the AS/400 computer system, which later was rebranded as the iSeries and now System i. RS/6000, now System p, and hard disk development has also occurred at the site at points in the past. Actually, PureSystems are mainly assembled at this site. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, although having been spun off from IBM Storage Technology, remains on-site, leasing otherwise unused space from IBM. Along with the Mayo Clinic, the IBM plant is one of the biggest employers in the Rochester area, reportedly numbering around 5,000 in 2002. The AS/400 division at the plant received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990. In November 2004, the facility claimed the top spot in the TOP500 list of fast supercomputers with a prototype Blue Gene/L system containing 32,768 processors. It clocked in at 70.72 teraflops. The manufacturing output of the site is so great that if it were a separate company, it would be the world's third-largest computer producer. The IBM 5110 personal computer was developed and manufactured in the facility. Groundbreaking for the facility took place on July 31, 1956. When it was first completed, there was 576,000 square feet of floor space. There is 3.1 million square feet today on the main campus, more than half the size of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Employment at the site has gone through several cycles of growth and collapse, but is over twice what it was in the 1950s. Rumors have appeared over the years suggesting that the structure was designed to look like a punched card from above, but this is more due to the facility's expansion over the years rather than an intention by Saarinen. The plant, which is near U.S. Highway 52 in the northwestern part of Rochester, was recognized in 1990 by the National Building Museum as one of the significant contributions of IBM to the built environment of the United States, along with IBM's New York City headquarters and the IBM building in Atlanta, Georgia.

Avalon Music

Avalon Music is a historic three-story red brick building in Rochester, Minnesota. It opened in 1919 as the Northwestern Hotel. The Sam Sternberg family operated it as a kosher restaurant and hotel for Jewish travelers, including many visitors to the Mayo Clinic nearby. In 1944, Vern Manning bought it and renamed it the Avalon Hotel. As the only hotel in the area which welcomed African Americans before desegregation, its guests included Duke Ellington and boxer Henry Armstrong. It became a local focus of the Civil Rights Movement and opposition to it; both a march for racial equality and a cross burning occurred at the property on August 23, 1963. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It has since been restored as retail and studio space, and houses a shop for musical instruments and audio equipment.

Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit medical practice and medical research group based in Rochester, Minnesota. It employs more than 4,500 physicians and scientists and 58,400 administrative and allied health staff. The practice specializes in treating difficult cases through tertiary care. It spends over $660 million a year on research and employs over 3,000 full-time research personnel. William Worrall Mayo settled his family in Rochester in 1863 and opened a medical practice that evolved under his sons into Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic is widely regarded as one of the United States' greatest hospitals and ranked No. 1 in the country on the 2016–2017 U.S. News & World Report List of "Best Hospitals" of the United States, maintaining a position near the top for more than 25 years. It has been on the list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" published by Fortune magazine for fourteen consecutive years. It continued to achieve this ranking through 2017. In addition to their flagship hospital in Rochester, Mayo Clinic has major campuses in Arizona and Florida. The Mayo Clinic Health System also operates affiliated facilities throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (MCCMS), formerly known as Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (MCCM), is the educational arm of the Mayo Clinic based in Rochester, Minnesota. The college is divided into five schools: Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (MCSOM): the flagship school, which offers M.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. (jointly with MCGSBS) training Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (MCGSBS): offers master's, Ph.D., and M.D.-Ph.D. (jointly with MCSOM) training in biomedical sciences Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education (MCSGME): the largest school of graduate medical education in the United States, which offers over 270 residences and fellowships in all medical and surgical specialties Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences (MCSHS): offers training for over 50 health sciences career fields Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development (MCSCPD): offers over 500 courses in continuing education for medical professionals
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