H O T E L S, T A V E R N S, & H A L F W A Y H O U S E S
The following article was found in a envelope located at the Watertown Daily Times. It is undated and I therefore have no basis upon which to determine if the article is under copyright laws. The article, no doubt, was published in the Watertown Daily Times, the newspaper out of Watertown, Jefferson County, N. Y. The article came under the heading of “The Roaming Reporter,” was written by Roy E. Fairman, and was entitled, “Few Old-Time Hotels Still Stand in North.” (by Shirley - 11/28/2001)
Note - August, 2002 - I received a note from a reliable newspaperman in which he wrote: "I believe this is in error as to the source. Roy Fairman was a reporter and editor for the Syracuse Herald-Journal, where this article came from - not the Watertown Times! ......."
Few Old-Time Hotels
Still Stand in North
By ROY E. FAIRMAN
RECENT SALE of the Getman House in Theresa recalls to the minds of old timers a score or more Jefferson County hotels of which it has been contemporary, only a few of which are still operated as hostelries.
The land on which the Getman House stands has been used for hotel purposes since 1819, (a) matter of 127 years. In that year Leray de Chaumont, a French emigre, who owned much of what is now the town of Theresa, built there the first public house in the town. It was operated by George Stephenson until late in 1821, when it was destroyed by fire said to have been caused by the carelessness of a Negro maid, who lost her life in the flames.
In 1824 Gen. Archibald Fisher erected on the site the original part of what later became the Getman House and operated it for many years. It was known as the Brick Tavern and was the first building of brick construction erected within the limits of Theresa. The bricks were made and laid by Benjamin Barnes, first brick maker and mason in the town, who had arrived there only a few months earlier.
HIS KILN was on the opposite side of Indian River in what has for many years been known as Brooklyn. Mr. Barnes later changed his vocation from that of a brick maker to that of a Methodist preacher.
The Brick Tavern continued under that name through a long line of landlords until 1876 when it was purchased by Elias Getman, who enlarged and improved it and changed its name to the Getman House. For many years it has been known as one of the best village hotels in the North Country. It was especially popular with traveling men in horse and buggy days.
DRUMMERS whose itineraries took them through northern Jefferson County made the Getman House their headquarters. There they hired teams at a livery stable, packed their big sample cases into light wagons and drove to stores in nearby hamlets and crossroads, returning to the Getman House to travel in a different direction the next day. Sometimes salesmen carrying different lines of merchandise would share the expense of such a livery rig.
Since the Getman House took its present name, it has had but three proprietors. Elias Getman operated it until 1907 when it was sold to the Davis family. Raxford Davis sold it to James Shaughnessy. On March 15 the historic old hotel will pass into possession of Thomas B. O’Driscoll and William P. O’Driscoll, brothers and overseas war veterans.
THE AMERICAN House, s frame structure, also in Theresa, was opened as a public house in 1842, and for many years vied with the Getman House in popularity.
Brownville has the distinction of having what is probably the only site longer in use for hotel purposes than that of the Getman House. The first public house in Brownville was erected in 1805, the year Jefferson County was created, on the site of the present Brownville Hotel, a stone building constructed in 1820 by Henry Caswell. It has been operated as a hotel ever since. One of the most prosperous eras was that following the opening of the electric railroad between Watertown and Brownville. Scores of farm families would drive to Brownville, stable their horses in the hotel barn, and ride the remainder of the distance to Watertown by trolley. Barn and bar trade at the Brownville Hotel flourished as a result.
WATERTOWN has at least three hotels dating back to the mid 19th century. The Woodruff House and the American House were built in 1849 and the Crowner House in 1853.
The Crescent House at Chaumont is a veteran hotel, having been built in the 1870’s as the Chaumont House, and later long known as the Peck Hotel.
The Crossman House at Alexandria Bay dates back to 1848, although that hotel in its present size has been in use only since 1872. The Orleans House at LaFargeville also in an old timer.
Those are about the only in Jefferson County left (which) were contemporary with the Getman House during its earlier years. The Theresa hostelry has seen pass out of operation such one time standouts as the Dollinger House at Redwood, the Thousand Island House at Alexandria Bay, Hotel Windsor, Waltham Hotel; Clayton; (sic) Hotel Frontenac, Round Island; Columbian, Thousand Island Park; Fine View House, Fine View; all of which except the Alexandria Bay hotel, were destroyed by fire; Union House, St. Lawrence Hotel and Jerome Hotel, Cape Vincent; National Hotel, Chaumont; Three Mile Bay Hotel; Earl House and Eveleigh House, Sackets Harbor; Underwood House, Dexter; Otis House, City Hotel and Kirby House, Watertown; Grabber Hotel, Depauville; Gunns Corners Hotel; Scoville’s Hotel on the Watertown-Clayton rd; the Pamelia House at Pamelia Four Corners; Henderson Hotel; Adams House; Elmhurst Hotel, Carthage, and Halfway House at East Hounsfield.
AUTOMOBILES, which eat up great distances, have reduced by great numbers the number of persons seeking rooms in village hotels, and tourist homes and roadside cabins have tended to cut down such hotel patronage still more. Coffee shops and roadside dining rooms have cut deeply into hotel food trade.
But the Getman House, one of the oldest of village hotels in Jefferson County, is still going strong.
NOTE by Web Hostess: When I was about 5 years of age, my grandmother gave me a tiny vase upon which there was a photo of Theresa’s Getman House. As with most anything ever given me, I have kept the vase and it sets on my knick-knack shelf here in Ohio. It wasn’t until I started doing genealogy that I realized that this Hotel was very old hotel and one with which my Hosner ancestors were undoubtedly acquainted. See photograph of the vase on the Child‘s Gazetteer Index of Town Histories.
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The next article was also found at the Watertown Daily Times office. This one held a handwritten date of Sunday, June 30, 1940. Because it was found in the Times office, this most likely appeared in the Watertown Daily Times.
East Hounsfield Library, Pioneer Rural Effort,
Occupies Historic Building, Once State Inn
EAST HOUNSFIELD. -- Distinctive in its location, far from even a hamlet as a thoroly (sic) rural institution in setting and service, and holding the honor of having brought about tax exemption for such organizations thruout the state, East Hounsfield free library and its association is started upon its 32nd year with steadily increasing volumes and plans for additional improvements.
Its home is as historic as its record. It occupies one of the few surviving stage taverns of a past century; the Blanchard “stand” of plank road years, later the “half way house” of unsavory reput, won from a varying career as tavern, inn and place of carousal by the Cleveland family, early godfathers and godmother (sic) of the library.
Today the service reaches out over a five-mile radius, with a traveling library based in Star Grange hall at Sulphur Springs to supply good reading matter to that portion of Hounsfield township. Among its more than 3,000 volumes of fiction, educational and reference works are many valuable contributions received from friends.
Upon its shelves the visitor finds volume 1 of Harpers monthly magazine, representing the first issues from June to November, 1850, with recurring volumes in sequence all bound and numbered. There are volume one (1853) of Putnam’s magazine and of Scribners (1887), as examples. The library possesses three complete sets of standard encyclopedias.
It was on April 1, 1909, that the state regents accorded a provisional charter to the East Hounsfield Library association, following it by an absolute charter and a subsequent amendment granting power to carry on “kindred agencies of social, educational and civic uplift.”
Two of the first trustees are still in service as officers of the association, President Harry A. L. Potter and Secretary Frank B. Taylor, both of Hounsfield. With them in applying for a charter were the late Justice Claude B. Alverson, Miss Flora Cleveland of this city, and Bert J. Ives of Hounsfield.
Mrs. Mamie Ives is the present librarian, with Mrs. Brown, custodian, as assistant. Frank B. Walton, is vice-president and L. M. Mereand, treasurer. With the officers, Raymond Ives serves as a trustee.
In 1913 the old hotel was sold at auction and the Clevelands saw opportunity to remove it from the list of liquor dispensaries and provide a home for the library, then located in the Christian church. Merritt Cleveland engaged a “blind” bidder, who obtained the property and Merritt, Milo, Steven and Flora Cleveland, taking title, made the presentation to the library association.
In its early years the tavern had borne high repute. Under the management of William and Susan Warren it was widely known to the stage traveling public, and when a postoffice was established at East Hounsfield, Warren became postmaster with the postoffice on the end of the bar.
Regulations eventually forced its removal to another part of the hotel and finally, when the government decreed such service could not be given in a building where liquor was sold, it was moved to a residence. When Silas Snell bought the property he rechristened it the “39th Separate Company Tavern” in recognition of the Watertown militia of which he was an ardent member.
As a library some changes were made in the erstwhile inn, but much of it still is preserved as of yore. Two first floor rooms have been merged to form the library proper. The bar has been converted (and women) and the hotel dining room is retained for its original use.
The Baraca and Philathea societies, now dormant, formerly had rooms on the upper floor, but the Ladies’ Aid society of the East Hounsfield church still maintains its quarters. Rooms for the home bureau unit are contemplated together with an antique room to display the many relics owned by the association.
The hotel ballroom is retained as an assembly room, provided with a stage at one end for dramatic and entertainment presentations.
There is a dual organization. The East Hounsfield Library and Religious society, preceding the library association proper, still functions with quarterly meetings. Its membership fee of 50 cents per year includes the library body, where dues are $1. The literary society brought the first library, held in a small bookcase in the librarian’s home. It was this that later was moved to the church. When the association found itself possessed of a hotel, it encountered tax problems. Local assessors kindly cut the valuation, but a substantial tax remained. Secretary Taylor sought the intervention of Sen. Elon R. Brown and Assemblyman H. Edmund Machold and through their assistance an amendment to the library law was enacted, adding three words, “and rural districts,” among the tax exemptions extended to such institutions.
Gov. Whitman vetoed the bill, but the following year it became a law. With East Hounsfield, seven other so-called rural libraries in the state thereupon were saved the burden of tax.
The next problem was financing. The state regents duplicate any sum raised for purchase of books up to $100, but a grant of $300 comes each year from the township as (a) result of a town election. The property embraces five acres, caretaker and family having its use together with house rent.
Membership includes several former residents now living in Watertown, among them Miss Kate Warren, first librarian; Leonard L. Allen, widely known as state grange historian, and Misses May and Stella Lewis, retired Watertown teachers.
Retention of the realty is conditional upon its use as a library. Should it cease to function for that purpose the property revents to the Clevelands’ estates.
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Don't forget to read about the East Hounsfield Library which was once a Half-Way House -- See Mark Wentling's site on that subject.