Comings and Goings at the Manchester Hotel (Part 1 of 3)
By Ray Berg
In this three-part article, we examine the history of a prominent early Manchester business, the Manchester Hotel, also known at times as the Manchester House, the Goodyear House and the Freeman House. This multi-story and multi-business building sat on the northeast corner of Main and Clinton Streets from the mid-1830s through 1938, when the front half and upper rear floors of the building were removed and replaced with a gasoline service station which still exists today. The hotel functioned not only as an overnight stay for travelers, but as a meeting center, mail hub and central gathering spot for important news, particularly in the first eighty years of its life. Herein are some stories of Manchester people and events centered about this establishment.
Figure 1 – Manchester House, bustling Manchester, early 1900s
Original Wood Frame Building
The two versions of the former hotel structure, and the current service station building, sit on all of Lot 11, and parts of Lots 10 and 9, of Block 22 of the 1837 Plat of Manchester Village, currently known as 100 East Main St. Differing accounts have the original wood frame structure built by Emanuel Case in 1832 or 1834, concurrent with the initial development of Manchester Village by John Gilbert. Case also built the original grist mill on the west side of the river under contract with Gilbert, and a saw mill on the east side. Case did not maintain ownership of the hotel, although he was the first Justice of the Peace and had his office in the hotel, which was first owned/operated by George Roberts and then by Albert Howe in the 1830s.
No frontal photographs of this original wood frame structure are known to exist, and a street view photograph from 1868 shows only a very angled view of the front. The 1856 plat map of Manchester Village portrays a two-part structure, with the larger portion on the west side set back from Main Street and the apparent hotel entrance on the smaller east side portion close to Main Street. The original design and intent of the “Manchester Hotel” was that of an 1830s tavern for stagecoach travelers, with likely primitive/shared room accommodations, food and spirits, and also acting as a central location for township and village business, mail delivery and news alerts. Township elections and other social meetings were held here, except for temperance-related meetings which were “forced” to move to the Presbyterian Church by the hotel owners, who derived considerable income from their in-house spirits sales.
The hotel hosted noted Michigan surveyor Douglass Houghton when he made his first visit to Manchester on August 13, 1837 under the order of Governor Stevens T. Mason, to survey Michigan’s geology, natural resources and potential economic development assets. Houghton’s associates Bela Hubbard and Sylvester Higgins returned in June 1839, and using the Manchester Hotel as their base, conducted extensive surveys, field inspections and interviews with local residents. These visits are recorded in ledger books in the State of Michigan archives.
Figure 2 – Celebration of 4th of July, 1839 at the Manchester Hotel
The Manchester Hotel also served as the stop for the stage coach line operated by Daniel Hibbard of Jackson between 1835 and 1860. This stage line was the only method of fast public transport between Detroit, Lansing and other towns across the two lower tiers of Michigan counties in these early years. Hibbard partnered with several others, including one named Hubbard, for these various routes, and it was noted that “Hibbard and Hubbard’s four horses would come prancing up to the hotel, and coachmen would blow their horns and with a flourish throw off the mail sack. The Justice of the Peace would then announce the current news”. Hibbard’s local business and profits dwindled when the first railroad, connecting Manchester with Jackson, arrived in 1855.
A search on Google Books can locate several references to the Manchester Hotel in the days between 1832 and 1855, including the death and burial of the eminent phrenologist Dr. B. A. Parnell in April 1847 while lecturing in Manchester (as written in an earlier issue of The Manchester Mirror), the falling of an immense bee tree filled with honey in 1832 on the hotel site, and the great pains taken to successfully save the wooden hotel during the great Manchester fire of May 1, 1853. It was noted that the fire, originating from overheating smut in the Manchester Mill, and fed by unusually high southeast winds, had burned most of the north side of Exchange Place, and “…the hotel was abandoned at one point as lost, with the furniture having been removed, (when) the wind suddenly shifted to the south, and after a few holes had burned through the roof, the fire was extinguished and the hotel saved. The barn behind the hotel was burned.”
The hotel had many owners, as well as managing proprietors, over its years of existence, and it is not possible to include them all in this article. Many of Manchester’s early prominent citizens played a role. Chauncey Walbridge, long-time postmaster when it was considered a “plum” Federal political appointment, was owner of the hotel from 1851 through at least 1856. Ebenezer Conklin was the proprietor in 1867 when the Village government was formally established by elections held March 1867 at the Manchester Hotel. Village Council meetings were held here until the 1880s.
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