Then and Now: Archeology at Fort Stanwix
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The Stanwix Hall Hotel

The Stanwix Hall Hotel was built in 1844, the same year the enlarged Erie Canal was moved to the heart of Rome. This hotel served as one of the leading canal hotels in the city and was a center of community activity for decades.

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In 1838, John A. Ford, the operator of the hotel at Barnard's Tavern, purchased a neighboring grocery property. The Stanwix Hall Hotel was built of brick between 1843 and 1844 on the site of Barnard's Tavern, the same year that the enlarged Erie Canal was moved to the City of Rome. In 1845, the hotel and adjoining properties were purchased. The roof was raised on the existing brick hotel, the older neighboring buildings torn down, and the hotel enlarged to encompass the corner of James and Whitesboro Streets.

 The Stanwix Hall Hotel around 1890.
1906 New Century Atlas showing the Stanwix Hall Hotel and surrounding buildings.

Stanwix Hall Hotel was a persistent landmark at the corner of James and Whitesboro Streets until the 1970s. Other hotels including the Mansion House, Doyle's Hotel, the Luiera Hotel, and the Randolph Hotel were present at various times. The historic block was one of the main commercial areas of Rome offering services for travelers and merchants. The hotels and express offices are indicative of the importance of transportation in the development of Rome. This block was the central place for this type of development.

Hotels with a lobby, room service, and individual rooms for guests were a new invention in the early nineteenth century. Before about 1830, most travellers stayed in taverns if they needed public accommodation. The first hotel in the modern sense was the Tremont Hotel in Boston, which opened in 1829. Other true hotels opened shortly afterward and spread across New York in canal towns and elsewhere. The lobby of the Stanwix Hall Hotel from a historic photograph.
The privy from the Stanwix Hall Hotel found at the site. The archeological excavation for the Willett Center found remains from the Stanwix Hall Hotel. The hotel privy was found in the rear yard of the hotel and its contents revealed a tremendous amount of information about life at the hotel in the second half of the nineteenth century. Read more.
In 1900, the Stanwix Hall Hotel was the site of the presidential debate of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt against William Jennings Bryan and former Vice President Adai Stevenson. McKinley and Roosevelt won the election and Theodore Roosevelt became president after McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Read more. Vice-presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt standing outside the Stanwix Hall Hotel in 1900.

To see some hotel menus from around 1909, click here.

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