A House With A History

KELTNER, MCMANAMAN, PATTON

Posted By: Deborah Brownfield - Stanley (email)
Date: 1/21/2005 at 03:13:37

Fairfield Ledger
May 4, 1881
Page 3 col. 6

A HOUSE WITH A HISTORY. The destruction of the old “North American” building Saturday night puts our old-timers into call calling up many instances connected with its erection and history. It was one of Fairfield’s old landmarks, and was erected in the spring of 1851 by HENRY KELTNER, who died at a ripe old age in this city a few years ago. About that time the then new court house was just approaching completion, and with the idea that it would greatly enhance the value of property in that vicinity…and would be the center of trade, he thought it would be a splendid location for a hotel. The house was opened with a great flourish by I. W. MCMANAMAN, as the “Clay Hotel,” but its prosperity didn’t bear out the sanguine opinions of its owner. Later it was turned into a tenement house, but again PETER PATTON tried to make a success of it as a hostelry and failed. Again it was made a home for several families, and earned, and deserved, the name of “the bee hive” from the number of people to which it gave shelter…It was a massive wooden structure, and stood firm to the last, the heavy oaken timbers enduring, solid and strong, even after the heat of the flames had destroyed almost everything else. Our pioneers can tell you many tales of it in a better way than they can be printed.