Monroe Hotel Had a Rich History

GRINNELL, CHAPIN, CAPPRON, CARR, GIFFORD, CHRISTIAN, HALL, HISER, BISSELL

Posted By: Marilyn Norris Holmes (email)
Date: 3/10/2009 at 10:58:56

Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Sept. 22, 1994

IN OLD GRINNELL

MONROE HOTEL HAD A RICH HISTORY

One of Grinnell's most imposing structures, the former Monroe Hotel, has a history that is intertwined with that of the community since before the turn of the century.

While the hotel is no longer standing on its site across from the train depot, many Grinnellians recall the silver dollars in its floor, or remember eating dinner on linen tablecloths in the hotel's elegant, high-ceilinged dining room. Others in the community may recall the rumors of the Monroe Hotel's involvement with the underground railroad that freed slaves from the Confederate South, while still others remember only the hotel's seedy last days, when it was a large and gloomy building at the corner of Park Street and Third Avenue.

The big three-story hotel, once part of a mini-chain, sat on what is now the site of Grinnell Area Housing's MonroePark Apartments. It was convenient to the Rock Island Railroad station and clearly visible from the business district through Central Park.

It was constructed in 1899 on what had been the front lawn of the home of J.B. Grinnell, the town's founder, which was located farther north in the same block between Third and Fourth Avenues overlooking Central Park. A deed in the name of Julia Chapin Grinnell, Mr. Grinnell's wife, stipulated that the front lawn could be used as a lawn, as a site for a dwelling or for a hotel if the hotel was at least three stories high and not less than 75 feet in its western frontage.

ESTIMATED AT $25,000

The hotel was built by Mary Gertrude Cappron and her husband I.B. Cappron, who designed the building, and was constructed by S.E. Scales of Waterloo, whose original bid of $25,000 escalated to $50,000 before completion of the project. The land cost $3,120.

The large three-story building with a wide porch around the southwest corner had two sets of three dormer windows on the roof, each facing one of the streets on which the building cornered. It actually was an L-shaped building which contained a well-known dining room as well as the hotel. The lobby, famed for its floor inlaid with silver dollars, was in the southwest corner of the building with a large oak staircase, restaurant and kitchen. The remainder of the building housed guest rooms. A coal-fueled steam heating plant was in the back.

The hotel was built in two parts, the original part being the south part. When the J.B. Grinnell house was removed from the property, an addition including an apartment was constructed on the rear as was a porch. In fact, the myth of a tunnel under the Grinnell house, fueled by Mr. Grinnell's abolitionist activities, seemed to have transferred itself to the hotel at one time as the additon brought the hotel closer to the location of the Grinnell home.

SCANDAL ATTENDED

A slight scandal attended the construction of the hotel because, although the Capprons supposedly collaborated in plans for the hotel, Mr. Cappron's name soon disappeared from its records and in a Nov. 5, 1899, issue of The Grinnell Herald it was recorded that Mr. Cappron was seeking a peaceable settlement of their marriage as he did not feel he could return to Grinnell. He had been discovered by members of the family in Chicago with a certain Mrs. Carr of Des Moines, a former employee, apparently "under conditions not sanctioned by Holy Writ," The Herald said.

Mrs. Cappron took charge of the hotel and in the transfer of property was listed with her daughter Phoebe Estelle Gifford as owner.

At the time the Monroe was constructed, it faced one of the original hotels built in Grinnell, the Chapin House, also an imposing structure, on the south side of Third Avenue, built and operated by the Chapin family, of which Mrs. Grinnell was a member. It was located in a park-like setting adjacent to the original Union Staion, the formal name of the old depot, which served two railroads, the east-west and the north-side lines.

PURCHASE CHAPIN HOUSE

In 1903, Mrs. Cappron and her son-in-law F.H. Gifford of Marshalltown purchased the Chapin house from G.M. Christian and the two hostelries became the Cappron Hotels, to be consolidated under one management and to be operated after Jan. 1, 1904, by the Giffords.

Mrs. Cappron was quoted at the time as saying that "operating the two hotels under one management will help bring business to the city as they will maintain their reputations as having a most excellent table and clean comfortable rooms. No expense will be spared to give Grinnell the best $2 a day hotels in the state."

The arrangement included the purchase of a small farm near the city where they planned to raise all their own vegetables, some of their fruit, their own poultry, their own pork and part of their beef.

Mrs. Cappron's somewhat unusual character was immortalized in a book by James Norman Hall. Hall, author of "Mutiny on the Bounty" and other books, attended Grinnell College and worked at the hotel in his student days.

TRAVELING MEN STAY

The importance of rail travel was responsible for most of the business of hotels in that day and location, and the hotels catered to a booming business in traveling men. It was estimated that 30 to 40 men made Grinnell a regular stopping place on Sunday nights before they began their week of making calls. Another possible myth was that the hotel's waitresses were expected to "entertain" the traveling men.

As time went on and rail travel decreased, the hotels fell upon hard times, the Gifford family lost the hotel and it came into the hands of Grinnell College. George Hiser, a Chicago, Ill., resident who was married to the Giffords' daughter, was hired in 1933 in the depths of the depression to manage the Monroe and they lived at the hotel.

In 1940 he was married to Velma Bissell, a speech and language professor at Grinnell College, and they also lived in the hotel. The porch, which had been added to the hotel, was enclosed as part of their living quarters. They lived there until after World War II, when they purchased an acreage on Penrose Street, which became VelHi Kennels where they bred and showed boxer dogs. Mr. Hiser's son Gifford Hiser also lived at the hotel. Mr. Hiser retired in 1960.

FALLS INTO DISREPAIR

The hotel slowly fell into disrepair and in 1970, after 71 years, it was earmarked for destruction by an Iowa City finance company which owned it by then. Although no effort was made to salvage the architectural features of the hotel, portions of the cherry woodwork from the hotel may be found in several Grinnell homes, including that of Val and Randy Courter at 416 West. St.

And what about the silver dollars in the floor?

None were there when the state fire marshall contracted with Larry Criswell of Grinnell to take down the building as a fire hazard in 1970.

"There were actually only 35 to 40 silver dollars there although they were spaced out to make them look as though there were more," Criswell says. "When they first went in, they were new and shiny and people thought they had dropped them and bent down to pick them up."

The hotel served the community faithfully in many ways. Its restaurant with its private dining room was well known and served a large clientele for Sunday dinners, family reunions, wedding rehearsal dinners, women's club luncheons and meetings. It housed visitors and speakers at Grinnell College and to other segments of the community.

And the impossible unspeakable thrill of stepping into its lobby to walk upon a floor inlaid in silver dollars was transmitted to several generations of young Grinnellians.

NOTE: I remember the Monroe Hotel,as a kid. I was awed at the silver dollars inlaid in the floor. I also have an old photograph of my Great-Grandfather, Jud Gilbert and friend, Ed Elliott, sitting in a horse-drawn buggy in front of the Monroe Hotel, at the corner of Third Ave. and Park St. In upper left corner of the photo you can see part of the J.B. Grinnell house. --Marilyn Holmes