Algoma's Stebbins Hotel.............

Algoma's Stebbins Hotel athe northwest corner of 2nd and Steele Streets, ca. 1910

In 1905 When Frank Slaby remodeled the hotel at the Northwest corner of 2^nd and Steele in Algoma in 1905, he renamed it Stebbins Hotel in honor of distinguished city resident DeWayne Stebbins. Stebbins was a Civil War hero who was reported to have saved the life of General - later president - U.S. Grant. "Big Steb," as he was called, served as Ahnapee Record editor and state senator. Stebbins had died a year or two before.

It was during 1857 when David Youngs and George Steele, the Wolf River proprietors of what is now downtown Algoma, approached Capt. Charlie Fellows with an offer of any lot in the tiny village if he would build a luxurious hotel costing at least $1,000. Youngs and Steele had lots to sell. Investors needed a comfortable place to stay if they were going to be induced to buy property in a forward thinking pioneer community of only a few hundred residents.

Fellows agreed and hired local residents Andreas Eveland to dig the cellar and James Keogh to put up cellar walls. Fellows hired Racine carpenters even though such carpenters as George Beuitling, James Parker and Joseph Anderegg were already living in town. Hand shaved cedar and pine shingles were locally made. Hall’s sawmill was in existence on the South Branch of the river, but Fellows brought most building materials from Racine.

1857 was a time of economic uncertainty in the U.S. Hotel business was not appealing to Fellows and did not meet his expectations. Fellows’ Lake Michigan freight business was also suffering when he called upon his father-in-law John LV. Yates and Capt. Bill McDonald to run the place while he tried to keep his shipping business intact. Finally Fellows sold the hotel to Dave Youngs who sold it to Frank Feuerstein who sold it to John Weilep who made money. John Ihlenfeld bought the hotel and he sold to Mr. Grimm who sold it to Frank Slaby.

Although the hotel has undergone changes in the last 100 years, it was Slaby who moved the original hotel back to where the kitchen is now and constructed what is there today. The hotel was one Wolf River’s first frame buildings.

The Stebbins is Kewaunee County’s longest, continuously operating business. It’s had a most impressive history.