Iowa Old Press
Rock Valley Bee, February 21, 1941, pp. 1, 5:
Dunham House Hotel
Wrecking Old Landmark Recalls Good Old Times
A half century ago Oscar Dunham built a hotel. It wasn’t Rock Valley’s first hotel—that was the building where Wagner’s pool hall and Art Vander Sanden’s filling station are now. It wasn’t Rock Valley’s first business place—for that was Matt Blau’s saloon which stood where the city hall now is. But the Dunham House, for those days, was one of the finest hotels in this part of the country.
There weren’t any buildings in Rock Valley as we now know it when the railroad built into here in 1879, according to Mrs. W. I. Murphy who came here with her uncle and aunt in 1870 as a girl of 9 years. All the buildings that were in these parts then were over on the cut-off of the Rock river in the neighborhood of Finch’s mill, as C. B. Bellesfield remembers those days.
But the Dunham House, as nearly as The Bee can learn, was built somewhere around the year 1880. The Finch mill went out in the big flood of the spring of 1881. Mrs. Murphy remembers that relatives who had come to visit the Finch family were unable to reach the Finch home because of the high water and had to stay in the hotel. The Dunham House, therefore, apparently was in use at that time.
The building originally stood where the Warren hotel is now located and was moved in the summer of ’92 to its “present” location. By “present” we mean where it was recently located, for the old landmark has now disappeared under the wreckers’ hammers and crowbars to make room for C. H. Schemmer’s new building. The last part of the old structure vanished Monday, only piles of lumber and a small cellar “marking the spot.”
Mr. Bellesfield remembers the date when it was moved because that was the year (1892) when the Warren brick block was built. The present office of Dr. C. J. Schroeder was also on the site of the Warren building and was moved at that time. His office was originally the home of the Mulhall Bros’. Bnk.
Mr. Bellesfield (C. B.) was a pretty small boy in 1881 but he remembers distinctly how his father and mother, Nels Dearborn, himself and his older sister, stood at the back door of their home, which is still his home, and hearing his father say, “There she goes!” Finch’s mill had gone down before the flood. There were then no buildings between the Bellesfield home and the considerable distance north to the river cut-off, and they could watch the flood waters from their back door.
Mr. Dunham must have sold the hotel shortly to Zeph. Hollenbeck for the latter operated it for some time and the name “Hollenbeck Hotel” was still visible dimly beneath the worn coat of paint before the building was wrecked. The H. M. Handy family, however, operated it also for many years until it finally discontinued business and at last was converted into a hospital by Dr. Huizenga.
The Bee is indebted to Mr. Bellesfield for the information that the original Rock Valley school house was located where Mrs. Dischler’s home now is. As a matter of fact, he says, the north part of her present home was at one time the town school.
This spring will mark the 60th anniversary of the date when the Finch mill was destroyed by flood waters.
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[also on page 1 of this issue]
Old Landmark Disappears
Built in 1880 by Oscar Dunham, this 60-year-old structure has disappeared to be replaced by a modern fireproof building to be erected this spring by G. H. Schemmer. The old “Rock Valley Hospital” originally stood where the Warren building now is and was a hotel operated successively by Mr. Dunham, Zeph. Hollenbeck and H. M. Handy. Dr. Huizenga later used it for a hospital building. Mr. Schemmer will sell part of the lumber from the building Saturday.
[transcribed by L.L. July 2022]