Henry Fling settles in West Stewartstown in 1842 and opens a trader store. He will also operate a Hotel-tavern from 1847 to 1869. In 1861, he is 51 years old and lives with his wife Jane Fletcher 42, and son, Orlando Fling, 17, who, later on, will take over the management of the Hotel. Henry and Jane have also three daughters: Mary 12, newborn Ella, and their oldest daughter, Alice 25, born when they were living in Quebec, and now married.
Around 1869, Albert Weeks will take over the hotel-tavern, called "The Coos Hotel" in reference to the county's name. By 1870, the hotel keeper is Nichols Nelson 53, with his wife Sarah 44. Orlando Fling still lives in the hotel with his wife Mary 22, and son Henry 2. On the US census, Orlando Fling is listed as "buyer of pelts and wood".
In 1873, "Blodgett and Hart", two associates will own the hotel. In 1879, William W. Lindsey (also written "Tinsley") 57, and his wife Mary 18, are the new hotel owners and keepers (Essex County herald, Jan 10, 1879). As reported In an article from the Essex County Herald published in Sept. 1884, when the movement of Temperance was flourishing, a verbal argument took place between W. W. Lindsey and Dr. Chase, a writer and doctor of very short stature from Canaan, who wrote a negative article about “Lindsey enlarging his liquor salon”...”Lindsey attempted to strengthen his argument by force. As he weights some over 300 pounds, a veritable Goliath, it was amusing to see the parties when Chase took to his heels with the irate proprietor after him. By Hez."
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The temperance reform and West Stewartstown:
In a short article published in the Essex County herald Oct. 1879. It is reported that “Major M.T. Holden, the temperance reform lecturer (“the great story teller and temperance comedian”)...returns to look after the interests of temperance in Canaan, and West Stewartstown, NH...and he recommends these places as being the hardest places he was ever in. And this is, perhaps too true.” In an article, the following week, it is written “he was met with a very cool reception...His usefulness as a temperance lecturer is ended.”
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages started in 1784 and lasted until the war in 1861. The second wave started after the war in 1872 to 1893. The third wave from 1893–1933 is one of the force behind the "Prohibition" enacted in 1920 (the Volstead Act prohibiting the sale of alcohol), and ultimately repealed in 1933. Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement_in_the_United_States
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Floor plan in 1887 and 1893 (Main Street along the right).
Unfortunately, The Stewartstown House will burn down in 1898.
View of the Hotel from the West
(modified photo).
Hotel PIKE:
By 1899, a new hotel is erected in the same location: the "Hotel Pike” owned by George N. Pike (S. I. Map 1904). The architect credited for the construction of the Hotel Pike in West Stewartstown is the Maine architect William Robinson Miller (1866-1929) who specialized in richly ornamented French-Revival churches, hotels, and residences. It is amazing how the architecture of the Hotel Pike resembles the Kimble House in Northeast Harbor, Maine (Bryan Franklin Toles, p.174).
Note: Prior to having the hotel in West Stewartstown, in 1902, George Pike had a hotel in the town of Clark (50 miles south of Stewartstown (F. W. Rollins, p. 315). Also, George N. Pike ran a Sportsman's Cabin called the "Idlewild Camp” that could accommodate 50 fishermen along the Second Connecticut Lake. You will find excellent pictures of the time and other interesting information in the book written by Donna Jordan (see references below).
In the New England Vacation Resorts: A List of Hotels and Boarding Houses Located on the Boston and Maine Railroad. [Season, 1907, 19008) from the Boston and Maine Railroad and written in 1907 by D.J. Flanders & C.M. Burt from the General Passenger Department, you will find that it would cost $2.00/night to stay at the Hotel Pike and $1.50/night at the Cabin.
Hotel Pike
Advertising for the Hotel Pike in The Frontier Gazette from 1899 to 1903:
During a long period a dentist "Dr. C. S. Raymond 5tf" came to the West Stewartstown House (1894-1899) and then the Hotel Pike (1899-1903) "every Tuesday to practice dentistry" (as published in The frontier Gazette 1894 and 1903)
Main Street
Hotel Pike floor plan in 1904 as per Sanborn Fire Insurance's map
The Hotel Pike burned February 1904, only 4 years after its erection. The journal Essex County herald reports February 26, 1904: "One of the largest fires for years visited West Stewartstown, N. H. Last week Tuesday night. About 9:30 fire was discovered in the Morrison Clothing Store, and the entire stock of goods was destroyed. The tenement over the store was occupied by Ford More, furniture and clothing all lost. The flames soon spread to the building owned and occupied by Dr. Fling, Mrs. Fling using the first floor as a millinery store, which was quickly consumed, most of the furniture and goods being removed. Soon Hotel Pike was on fire, and destroyed, only a small portion of the furniture being saved. Total insurance $9,500.00.”
Another Hotel Pike, was built in the same location:
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This hotel likely followed the Hotel Pike mentioned just above. You will notice that it is in the same location with VanDike Mountain in the back, the same shed behind the hotel, and the same adjacent building to the right (GH Hall's house and Custom office in 1893), and with the inscription Hotel Pike on the front.
Hotel EASTMAN:
Another hotel was built after 1909, the “Hotel Eastman” owned by Frank C. Eastman (see S. I. Map 1914, and State of New Hampshire Reports year 1914, Vol. II). It presents the same floor plan as the Hotel Pike and is on the same site. It also burned down later on, likely in 1925.
Hotel Eastman
Hotel Eastman Floor Plan with its Bandstand. It was then called Hotel Eastman as per Sanborn Fire Insurance's map 1914. The bandstand is present on a map for the first time.
Hotel Eastman with Nelson Harvey,
Loverin's store (I. F. Jacobs store location in 1892),
Ida Shurtleff, and OC Jacobs' store on the right.
At one point, the Hotel Eastman was called Stewartstown House and also Hotel Phoenix:
The last hotel to burn on this site:
As reported in the Daily Kennebec journal, December 30, 1925:
“$50,000 Fire Loss In Large Hotel at W. Stewartstown, NH, Dec. 29, the Stewartstown House was burned to the ground, the hotel barn destroyed, a restaurant partly destroyed and other nearby buildings damaged by fire that threatened for a time today to wipe out the village...West Stewartstown is dependent for water pressure in fighting fire on a stream pump at a saw mill which is now not operating...The hotel, a three story wooden structure, had accommodations for 100 persons. Guests escaped without injury...The hotel is the fifth structure on the site that has been destroyed by fire.”
The day before, the same journal was reporting an article: “Piercing Wind adds to General Discomfort in Sudden Cold Wave”...with and unofficial temperature of 27 degrees below zero at West Stewartstown, NH, near the Canadian line. The wave swept into New England on the breath of a roistering wind that reached gale proportions as the day advanced.” The frigid temperature and the desire to accommodate and keep the guests warm on the coming New Year eve likely contributed to the destructive fire.
The park where previously stood the hotels with a replica of the ornamented bandstand.
References:
History of Coos County, New Hampshire by Georgia Drew Merrill; Syracuse, NY: W. A. Fergusson & Co., 1888, 1888, 1018 pages Available on line:
https://archive.org/stream/historyofcooscou00merr/historyofcooscou00merr_djvu.txt
https://archive.org/details/historyofcooscou00merr/page/698/mode/2up?view=theater
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Available on line: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3744wm.g3744wm_g053951887
New Hampshire State Atlas 1892, New Hampshire, Published by D. H. Hurd & Co. in 1892. Available on line:
About the "Hotel Pike":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Miller_(architect)
New Hampshire's Connecticut Lakes Region, by Donna Jordan
Arcadia Publishing, 16 juil. 2003 - 128 pages
Available on line (certain pages): https://books.google.com/books?id=1ics8_vCHdkC&hl=fr&source=gbs_navlinks_s
The Tourists' Guide-book to the State of New Hampshire, by Frank West Rollins. Rumford Press, Concord, NH, second edition, 1902 - 365 pages
Rumford Press, Concord, NH, second edition, 1902 - 365 pages
Available on line (certain pages): https://books.google.com/books?id=olz9I0XJhncC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
Summer by the Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950, UPNE, 2008 - 231 pages
Available on line (certain pages): https://books.google.com/books?id=HZie8msijuMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
Photos:
Many pictures: courtesy from The Alice M. Ward Memorial Library, Canaan Public Library, VT (from Dennis Fuller photographic glass plate negative extensive collection). Dennis Fuller, Canaan Historical Society, Canaan, Vermont.
