of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 299-300
MUSCATINE HOTEL. Frederick Miller, a Pennsylvania German, and blacksmith by trade, moved to Bloomington with his wife and seven children in 1844, and through Stephen Whicher, agent, bought a lot and double log cabin on the northwest corner of Fourth and Mulberry streets, for which he paid $400. Later he built a brick structure in which he opened a blacksmith shop. The population of the village at that time was 1,400. Much of his work was for farmers from Linn, Johnson, Cedar and Jones counties and even farther. He soon converted the blacksmith shop part into hotel quarters but built another shop on the corner of the lot on the alley and Mulberry street, put out his hotel sign and opened the business of blacksmithing and hotel keeping. In 1848 or thereabouts Mr. Miller built the Muscatine Hotel, then two stories high. When Mulberry street and the court house square were graded, it left the hotel six feet above the level of the street, necessitating an under story to the property, which, with additional improvements, is as the house now stands. This was a busy hostelry up to the time of the advent of railroad transportation.
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