Crosby Inn

Crosby Inn

The Crosby Inn viewed from Court St. in the winter THE CROSBY INN: In October, 1887, Colonel Richard Chenery, Calvin Hervey, Israel Wood Parker, Alden Darwin Chase, Albion H. Bradbury, Nathan Foster Houston, James Thomas Pottle, A. Cutter Sibley, and Seth Llewellyn Milliken were incorporated under the name of "The Belfast Hotel Company." The sum of $21,650 having been subscribed by thirty-two stockholders, all of Belfast; the Crosby lot, in the rear of the Custom-House, was purchased for $6500 as a site, and the erection of a house, to be called " The Crosby Inn," immediately commenced. The house was opened June 1, 1889. Its situation combined glimpses of the bay from the upper stories, trees and shrubbery, spacious grounds, and complete retirement, with close proximity to the business center of the City. It is thus described in the "Republican Journal" of May 30, 1889: The main building on the front is one hundred and ten feet long. The southern wing is sixty-seven by thirty-four feet, and the northern wing thirty-six by fifty-seven. This does not include the kitchen, or the Crosby mansion, which is converted into another wing. The building has three floors. A veranda ten feet wide extends along the entire front, with balconies at the second story. No distinct style of architecture has been followed. The veranda might be called Doric, and the upper part of the building Queen Anne. Every room has a window, and the structure has ample light: there are thirty-eight windows in the first story, thirty-six in each of the second and third stories. There are several gables in the roof, while at the eastern corner is a tower extending above the roof and surmounted by a weather vane. The building is irregular in form, the rear wall being several feet longer than the front. This was caused by making the northern wing conform to Main Street, resulting in its joining the main building at an obtuse angle. There are sixty-five sleeping-rooms in the hotel, and it contains all the modern improvements. The whole building is heated by steam, piped for gas, and supplied with water from the Belfast Water Works. The position of the building insures perfect drainage, and great care has been taken in putting in the plumbing. The building cost $40,000, and ranks with the best hotels in Maine. The architect was Mr. E. E. Lewis, of Gardiner, and the builder Mr. Israel Wood Parker, of Belfast. The first landlord was George H. Bemis, who had for clerks, Waldo B. Washburn and Charles Henry Mitchell. Mr. Bemis remained until November, 1891. Subsequently the hotel was kept open by the directors, leased temporarily to H. P. O. Wright and George W. Varney; afterwards run by the directors, under charge of Fred George White, and then leased to Wright, Varney and Thomas Haugh, who were the proprietors at the time of its destruction by fire, January 4, 1896. (See chapter xxxv, on Fires.) The following facts show the financial condition of the company. The Crosby estate took $6500 of the stock; five citizens took from $500 to $1000 each, and thirty-two citizens took from $100 to $500 each, making a total of $22,000. To complete the house the company was obliged to issue four per cent bonds to the amount of $20,000, and the bonds were mostly sold to the stockholders. For all stock and bonds the company received full par value. At the time of the fire the company had drawn and paid five bonds, to the amount of $1000. The $12,000 insurance received was paid on the bonds pro rata, leaving the balance of debt $7000. No interest had been paid on the bonds since 1895. The hotel property was repeatedly sold for taxes. In 1900, a compromise was effected by which the city received $1000 in full for its claim, and the lot was sold to Mrs. Anne M. Chenery for $6500. No dividends on the stock were ever paid, and the stock itself was entirely absorbed by the bondholders, who also sustained a loss. FIRE The Crosby Inn opened for business on June 1, 1889. This sprawling, palatial hotel was the pride of its owners and also the visiting public. The inn boasted 65 rooms, complete with steam heat, piped-in gas for cooking and water courtesy of Belfast Water Works. But the great hotel was, like all the other wooden buildings in and around Belfast, subject to fire. And on January 4, 1896, fire broke out in the attic. The inn was prepared for such an emergency and had fire hoses in place that were quickly turned on to douse the flames. But the hoses produced no water. It was reported that if water had been forthcoming, the fire would have easily been extinguished. By the time firefighters arrived the roof and tower were in flames. But even then, the cards were stacked against the future of Crosby Inn. The temperature hung at the zero mark and a gale wind pummeled the inn from the west. And then when firefighters tried to turn the hydrants on, they experienced great difficulty. A Mr. Morrison, tending a hydrant in front of the inn, later testified that he had to physically jump on the device and later, had to resort to an axe to coax the handle into the prerequisite number of turns. Despite finally fully opening the hydrants, only a little water came forth, and that was a weak, thick, muddy stream that only reached up to the second floor. But there was no shortage of water at the source, since the city standpipe contained more than an ample supply and this was noted 90 minutes previous to the fire. Finally, the water, such as it was with its components of rocks, mud and gravel, took its toll and it appeared that the fire had subsided. But that was illusory, since as the fire lessened in one place it appeared in another with renewed intensity. Then, as people were removing their belongings from the doomed building, an explosion of unknown origin occurred in several rooms, blowing the door off its hinges in one room and knocking a man down. The man managed to escape without further injury. In the end, only the annex, the kitchen and one wall of the north wing remained standing. The Belfast Age, a local newspaper, reported that after the fire, drunkenness abounded all around town and police were kept busy breaking up fights. But another ugly side of human nature was also revealed by the Crosby Inn fire. Looting took place, something unheard of until this time. Later, a sheriff's inquest failed to determine the origin of the fire and ruled it as an unknown cause.