This Old Ohio Hotel Was Visited By Abe Lincoln & Buffalo Bill
The Old Stagecoach Inn, also known as the Palmyra Center Hotel sits vacant as it has for the last 26 years; well, kind of. See, it has been owned for some time since the 90s, but due to unfortunate circumstances, a lot of the desired repairs were never able to happen. The building has continued to deteriorate over the years.
The inn was originally built in 1832 on the Portage-Columbiana stage road (now known as Tallmadge Rd.) as a two-story Greek Revival-style red brick building. The structure was built by Francis Lewis with bricks fired in a kiln across the road from where the building stands. Francis Lewis was a prominent businessman and farmer of Palmyra. After building the hotel, he would also operate it for some years. Lewis would cure and store meat from hogs he had purchased in the hotel’s basement. He would ship the meat on the Ohio River, as well as by way of the Ohio Canal. Unfortunately, Lewis died while on his way to Cincinnati on business.
Over the years, the hotel would go on to be home to a variety of businesses, including an inn, a saloon, blacksmith shop, several stores, a physician’s office, harness shop and a post office. The hotel would also switch hands numerous times, with owners including John Lewis, D. E. Wilson, John Breeze, Tib Jones, Wade Wilson, Gerald Williams, Harry Six and Portage County sheriff James Jones, among others.
Old hotels such as this used to be very important places not just for travelers, but for locals living within the town as well. These hotels were places where people of the town would gather to collect their mail brought in on the stagecoach, or get updated on the latest news from the outside world. Residents of the town would also meet and exchange conversation and stories with travelers. Since the town of Palmyra had two major stage lines – one from Cleveland to Wellsville, and the other from Cleveland to Pittsburgh – it became an important stop not just for travelers, but for freight and the changing of horses.
The Stagecoach Inn eventually became a very popular spot, and is rumored to have been frequented by some big names in US history. It has been said that Abe Lincoln gave a number of speeches at the front of the inn during his campaign to become the 16th president of the United States. Among Abe, another notable person said to have frequented the inn included William F. Cody (otherwise known as Buffalo Bill) and his Wild West Show comrades.
The inn had at one point become a haven on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves. They were able to hide away in a hidden door in the back of an upstairs closet, which lead to the attic above the freight station on the west end of the building. Of course during that time, the door was most likely only known to the building owner, and possibly one other person. Later in its life, the building would operate as a speakeasy for some time during prohibition.
In 1888, fifty-six years after its construction, the inn would become a lodge for the Knights of Pythias fraternal organization, who would soon add a third story to the structure. The addition of this third story was to provide a separate room for the organization’s monthly meetings. The Knights of Pythias spent a fairly lengthy amount of time occupying the Stagecoach Inn, all the way into 1960.
The Knights would often open their doors to the homeless and destitute families, but during these harsh times, more often than not, many were already too far gone and it’s believed that unfortunately many lost their lives within the walls of the old inn.
The inn would go on to serve the rest of its life during the 20th century as a private residence as well as a store, being first purchased by the Geiger Sisters, and then later by the Wilson Family.
The inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 1976 as the Old Stagecoach Stop. In the 1970s, the building switched hands once more when it was purchased by Nicholas Stone, an antique dealer, escape artist and magician, who had plans to restore it. Before purchasing the building, Stone had traveled for years performing his magic acts, escaping from bonds while submerged in the waters of lakes or ponds. Nick and his wife Betty had come from Akron, where they owned and operated six different antique shops. Upon purchase of the building, it was in need of quite a bit of repair. Some renovations took place over the next decade or so, until Mrs. Stone’s death in 1984. After her death, Nicholas had sold off most of his antique collection to a man From Youngstown. He did however hold onto his collection of locks and keys, and displayed them in the old inn. Around 1987, he had decided to put the building up for sale.
It sat vacant until September 20, 1994 when it was purchased once again, this time by Douglas Rice. He too had plans for restoration of the historic structure. Unfortunately he began facing quickly progressing structural damage of the now deteriorating building, which caused too many problems in his efforts to make much progress in restoration. With issue after issue arising as he continued in his attempts, it seemed that the building was too far gone. The kitchen floor had collapsed into the basement several years ago. Douglas continued to host history tours and would open the inn to ghost hunters. Unfortunately these tours have had to stop as he has become too ill to continue hosting them.
Today, the building still features much of the original craftsmanship from 1832, including door knobs, keyholes, a welcome sign and stairwell. Two original windows remain as well, which can be easily distinguished from others on the building, as each window contains 24 panes of glass. In some rooms, even the original wallpaper remains, though most of it has been aged, destroyed or is rotting away, hanging by a thread. Old paintings and photos remain hung on the walls, most likely in their original frames.
As of January 2020, the future of this former hotel is uncertain.
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