19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, April 11, 1914: Nothing much doing.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day Grandma went to shopping in nearby Watsontown. Did she walk past the Mansion House? It’s still around—though it’s morphed over the years from being a “modern” hotel to being a bar and grill.
Just love this connection from past to present.
Thanks–I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Great that it is still there. Have you been inside?
No, I’ve never been inside. I guess that it just never was a popular spot for my friends to go. Next time I’m in Watsontown, I should eat there. It would be interesting to see what the interior looked like.
Very interesting, I would imagine.
I also think it’s nice that you have an ad for it when it was “new”, and it’s still there!
It’s amazing how this building has aged pretty well across the years.
The Mansion House is a beautiful building. I wonder what it looks like inside (and how that has changed since 1914!).
Next time I get to Watsontown, I’ll have to try to remember to visit the Mansion House. Maybe I can take some photos to share.
That would be great!
Old buidlings, if still in use, have usually gone through a few transformations. It’s great you got to find a little about this place’s past.
I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it, but you’re absolutely right. Buildings often evolve and transform over time.
I really like the ad, I think the history of buildings is interesting.
I’m glad you liked the ad. I also thought that it was interesting.
Isn’t it wonderful how some old buildings remain to remind us of why and how they were first there? I can just imagine the people who wandered in and out back then, and hope that 100 years from now someone else will imagine the same thing about 2014 visitors.
It would be awesome if the building was still around in another hundred years. I actually think that the exterior of the Mansion House is in better shape now than when I was a child, so maybe there is hope. 🙂
What’s remarkable to me is the “water in every room” amenity. Amazing how far we’ve come in 100 years in so many ways.
This “water in ever room” feature makes me wonder if every room had a bathroom–or if it was just a sink (with the bathroom somewhere down the hall).
I think it’s so cool, how you fill out stuff, when she didn’t have anything … you do it so well.
Great, that it’s still standing.
Thanks! I have a lot of fun pulling together the posts–and it’s always wonderful to hear when someone especially appreciates it.
I don’t see today’s buildings lasting 100 years!
Diana xo
I don’t know. . . Maybe I’m an optimist, but I think that some modern buildings will last a hundred years.
I know here in Calgary, they are built to last 70-80 years. I wonder how long most skyscrapers will last?
I’d feel better about the hotel if the name Crippen wasn’t connected to a famous murder case!
Until I read your comment I had never heard of this murder case. I then googled it. Harvey Crippen sounds llike a pretty creepy person.
It must have been a sought-after place to stay in its day.
It does sound like it was nice back then–though there was also at least one other hotel (Watson Inn) in Watsontown a hundred years ago, and maybe the Mansion House Hotel needed to keep up with its competitor. The Watson Inn also still exists, and this is what its website says about its history:
Originally named the Cooner Hotel, the Watson Inn was built in 1857. At that time, a livery stable was located behind the hotel, and horseback riders would race from the hotel down Main Street through Watsontown. The turn of the century brought many improvements to the hotel with the addition of electric lights, steam heat, and other “modern” conveniences.
http://www.watsoninn.com/