Hotel Stebbins: 158 Years and Still Going Strong!

Rumors fueled by recent news items revolve around the possibility of a new multi-story hotel and conference center in Algoma. If talk is credible, the new facility would be in the heart of the early “hotel district,” now humorously referred to as Algoma’s financial district.  Not long after first settling, the area around 2^nd and Steele laid claim to a number of hotels, however there were several more within a few blocks.

From Kewaunee Enterprize, 1859

Early settlers frequently had traveling strangers stay the night with them until 1856, a mere five years after first settling, A.D. Eveland often had overnight guest and then he began advertising. Tiny Wolf River boasted Eveland's hotel on 4th Street near the river. Eveland was so successful that Mathias Simon built his Metropolitan House on the north side bluff overlooking the entrance to the river. Simon’s structure remains today as a private residence.  Then Mrs. Jane McDonald Loval/Lovell, opened the Union House, an early frame building constructed in 1857 by William Henry and Rufus Ames. Just south the southwest corner of 1st and Steele Streets, Mrs. Loval’s welcoming sign attracted

guests as they trudged up the hill from the harbor’s entrance. As a devout member of the Church of England, Mrs. Loval made good use of her Scotch-Irish brogue in maintaining order during the boisterous winter when the hamlet saw men, including sailors, come to town looking for employment in the big woods. Jane Loval’s husband Jack was one of those sailors.

Wolf River was growing and by 1858 had an astounding five hotels. Speculators David Youngs and George Steele - the men who platted the original town – needed a good hotel if they were going to promote the sales of their land. During the spring of 1857 Youngs and Steele, who was on one of his semi-annual trips from Chicago, offered Capt. Charles Fellows his choice of lots in their new plat if he'd build a hotel costing at least $1,000. Fellows chose the lot on the northwest corner of 2^nd and Steele where a portion of the original hotel remains. Fellows’ hotel was named the Tremont House, likely putting it in the same league as the elegant and famous Boston lodging with the same name.

Capt. Fellows’ Tremont House was a frame "skyscraper" with an attic. A.D. Eveland dug the cellar and furnished stone for the Tremont's foundation while James Keogh built the cellar walls. Other than the shingles made in the area, most building materials were brought from Racine aboard the Whirlwind, the master of which was Capt. Fellows. Racine carpenters Mr. Wood and Mr. Adams did the bulk of the work for three dollars a day plus board. It was work that lasted into the winter of 1857-1858. 

Mary Frances Fellows and her father John L.V. Yates oversaw the construction as Capt. Fellows was away conducting his shipping business much of the time. Freights were low and cargo hard to acquire. Fall-out from the Dred Scott decision plunged the country – especially the northern states - into hard economic times. Squire Yates assisted his daughter and son-in-law by moving into the unfinished hotel in the fall of 1857 and keeping boarders and travelers. But after the building was finished in the spring, lack of business reflected the poor economy. Mary Frances, served as matron of the Tremont House during and following the Civil War, however she spent each summer and fall with her family at Foscoro where her enterprising husband had purchased a sawmill and bridge pier.

Hotel business didn’t appeal to Fellows who hired managers that included some of Wolf River and Ahnapee’s most illustrious citizens, Seymour Palmer, E. Shaw and Capt. Bill McDonald. Capt. and Mrs. Fellows later built a home almost next door to the hotel, just south of the intersection of 2^nd and State Streets, the site of the bowling alley today. After Fellows sold the hotel, it was owned by a succession of the community’s residents, later becoming the Ahnapee House, Weilep’s and eventually the Hotel Stebbins, which remains today. It was said John Weilep was the man who turned the business into a money maker.

Today’s three-story brick and stone front section was constructed in 1905 by Frank Slaby who acquired the building in 1898. When Slaby built the new front, the original structure was moved back and to the north along 2^nd Street. Slaby renamed the business to honor State Senator DeWayne Stebbins who died a few years earlier. Over the years, the hotel has been the home of barbershops, a tailor shop, restaurants and a radio station. It is the oldest continuously operating business in Algoma and in all of Kewaunee County. If walls could talk, the remaining section would have plenty to say even though the building has been significantly refurbished and remodeled over its 158 years. The picture on the left appears to date to the Armistice in 1919. Part of the old section at right contrasts with Slaby's addition.

J.R. McDonald built his Kenosha House across Steele from the Tremont in 1858. It became the site of some of the village’s noteworthy entertainment in addition to holding a number of other ventures. Michael McDonald ran his auctioneering business from the Kenosha. He and William Van Doozer operated a mercantile, and J.R. and George Elliott conducted a law office there. The fledgling Ahnapee Record began publication on the second floor in 1873 and four years later Celestin Capelle and his father-in-law, Mr. Dagneau, opened a new store. A year later Maynard Parker purchased Dagneau’s interest to form a new partnership. Franz Schubich’s furniture store was in the building in 1881, followed by Haney Implement in 1887. Frank McDonald ran his photography business in the building until 1887 when he relocated to Kewaunee. McDonald’s existing photographs of Ahnapee are truly local treasures. Joseph Jakubovsky bought the building in 1888 only to have it destroyed by fire in July. McDonald’s building was always filled to capacity and if its walls could talk, it would certainly reflect politics and secrets, local and far beyond.

Advertised as being near the bridge, Meverden’s Sherman House was built across 2^nd Street from the Tremont just after the Civil War when Ahnapee was on the cusp of a boom. The business didn’t last long as the place burned down in 1870 after an attic stove pipe started a fire. By the time contractor Michael McDonald constructed the frame building, the area had seen the rise of brickyards and a few structures were veneered with the new brick. But, some of those buildings also saw destructive fires.

William Bastar's hostelry on the northeast corner of 4^th and Clark, was being called one of the finest hotels in the country in 1883. According to the paper, it was carpeted, well furnished and decorated, offered fine entertainment and the best quality culinary products. The Record said Bastar's accommodations were fine for both men and their horses. Bastar’s establishment sported a sample room in which salesmen could display and hawk their wares to city merchants, a saloon, pool tables and an upstairs gallery. The paper said the hall presented a "magnificent appearance" and was one of which Ahnapee could be proud.

The upstairs hall was converted into rooms for guests and it was not until just after 2000 that new owner Scott and Paula Talamadge “found” it as they were refurbishing the old building. With its curved ceiling, gas light medallions, bandstand on one end of the room and multiple windows, the paper’s glowing comments were easy to understand. One can only imagine the social events held there.

One can imagine something else. During the refurbishing Mr. Talamadge saw something he thought strange. From a perch above the small

bandstand balcony, he saw a number of boxes in about the center of the room, between the curved ceiling and the roof. It was an unusual place for storage. On closer examination he found tubing and other remnants that could have only come from Prohibition. It appeared that the tubing was accessed through the medallions (see left) surrounding the hanging light fixtures.

Bastar was born in Bohemia in 1840, coming to America with his family in 1856. A respected businessman, he was an active participant in community affairs, serving as a notary public, school board clerk and county treasurer. Bastar sold to Louis Kirchman although the hotel has had a number of owners and remains today as the Steelhead Saloon.

William Boedecker's Wisconsin House, located at the southeast corner of 4th and Steele, would later house Boedecker Bros. and Johnson’s drug stores, Koenig’s jewelry, Algoma Produce, Asa Birdsall’s real estate company, Groessl Pharmacy, Groessl-Nesemann Pharmacy, Dr. Komoroske's dental office, Rupp's floor coverings, H & R. Block and more. Joseph Knipfer seems to have been the first recorded person to build on the site in May 1860, however there is evidence to suggest it was the site of Christian Weidner/Wagner’s store before the site was platted.

Boedecker, a carpenter in Two Rivers, had been a hotel proprietor since his arrival in 1871 when he announced that he would take in strangers. His second hotel was erected in 1875 after an April 15th fire destroyed his frame building. Immediately after the fire, Boedecker hired Haag and Simon to construct a temporary building in which to keep his lucrative saloon business going. That the saloon was built in just two days, April 18 and 19, 1875, attests to its popularity. After the hotel was enclosed with brick in August, Leopold Meyer put on a tin roof. Also popular was the hotel’s fine food – from the kitchen overseen by Boedecker’s wife Margaret - and its horse drawn omnibus, which shuttled guests from the dock to the hotel. For awhile Martin Bretl was operating the hotel which was renamed the Hotel Algoma when the city adopted its new name, however it was called Hotel Martin when Frank McCoskey bought it in 1903. The building remains.

Cream City House in background

Charles Henneman's Cream City House, built in 1866 on the southwest corner of Third and Steele, was also destroyed by fire, one that started in a basement bake oven on April 19, 1887. The small, low-voiced, well-groomed Mr. Hennemann found fame with his sumptuous pies for which he charged one of Edward Decker's shinplasters, rather than the nickel the pies cost before the Civil War.

Henneman's marvelous accommodations and exceptional meals were noted in articles over the years. It was said he knew how to keep a hotel and his wife was known for the fine table she set.

It was also said Mr. Hennemann tried to increase his stature by marrying a large wife, an image conjuring up Jack Spratt and his wife. George Wing wrote about the summer day when a Steele Street butcher came flying out of his shop yelling with the exacting Mrs. Hannemann right behind him brandishing his meat cleaver. It seems the butcher had sold Mrs. Hennemann a pork chop that did not meet her standards.

In more recent memory is the old DeGuelle tavern and liquor store on the southeast corner of 1^st and Steele. Dating to the early 1860s when the building served as a small boarding house or hotel, the building was demolished in an upgrade of Algoma’s marina and harbor park. The original building was yellow brick that most likely came from Franz Swaty’s brickyard in what is now the Lake St. hill. Directly east of DeGuelle’s tavern was a little yellow brick home owned by Swaty’s daughter Julie. When Joe Villers bought the property in 1876, he hung a sign saying “Rosiere House.”

Telesfore Charles/Challe changed the hotel’s name to St. Charles House when he bought the place a few years later. The St. Charles House Hotel got very little mention in the local press, however its sale to Mr. Houart in January 1898 after eighteen years of business prompted the paper to take note.

It was not only the proprietors of Ahnapee's hotels who felt they were doing their best: the January 30, 1883, Kewaunee Times reported “that without a doubt Ahnapee had as good hotel accommodations as could be found in any city of its size in the entire state.”

Today’s hotels include the historic Stebbins, Algoma Beach Motel that had its start with Hans Chapek in the 1930s, Scenic Shores, Harbor Inn, River Hills and Barbie Ann Motel. If the Kewaunee Times were still in business, it would probably make the same comment. 

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? c. 2001;  Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin,  Vols. 1 & 2, c. 2006 and 2012; Algoma Record Herald, Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County c. 2010; Yours Truly, from Kewaunee County, c. 2013.