On Saturday, March 21, the Friends of the Old School Inc. hosted another Owen Stories event. Attendance was small but those present had lots of questions for the presenters. Nancy Amacher acted as the emcee for the evening.
First up was Tim Swiggum to talk about the historic Woodland Hotel. He began with how the Woodland got its name. It has ancient origins and it isn’t about the fact that the Woodland owes its existence to the forests in Wisconsin. The name is associated with the Owen family. Swiggum said in the 11th century during the Norman invasion, there was a man called William of the Woodlands in charge of the woodlands on the coast of Kent in England. His descendants had that responsibility for many centuries. About 1812 one of his descendants, Elizabeth Woodlands, married Dive Owen. Two of their sons came to America, Dr. Woodland Owen and John G. Owen in 1842. John G. Owen was the father of J.S. Owen, who started the lumber mill in Owen in 1893 and the grandfather of A.R. Owen who made his home in the city. The Woodland name was also given to Katherine Woodland Owen who died in 1914 before the age of 3. This information came to the current owners by Virginia Sutter. St. Katherine’s Church was also named after Katherine Woodland Owen. John Sutter was one of the main carpenters when the hotel was built.
James B. Wade was hired to manage the hotel when it opened in December 1906. It originally had 27 rooms. The post office was also housed there at the time. From 1910 to 1937, the hotel was run by Clifford Patrie and his wife Esther (Tufts) Patrie. This was during the time of Owen’s highest population. There has not been a lot written about this era but the Tap Room in the basement was designed as a speakeasy. The Lehnen family took over operation of the hotel from 1937-1965 purchasing it as part of the final sale of John S. Owen Lumber Company businesses in the community. They were famous for their smorgasbord, which the current owners are hoping to bring back at a future date. Things began to decline for the hotel when Highway 29 bypassed the city and there was no longer passenger train service to the area. In 1965 the Calloway family took over and ran the business until 1974. Swiggum said they don’t know much about that era, but there was a clock from hotel that was sold and is now in Madison. The Woodland faced challenges in the 1970s and was purchased by Jack Nikolay. He remodeled the building to include one- and two-bedroom apartments. He had eight apartments and five hotel rooms. There are currently seven apartments and six hotel rooms, including one on the main floor. Nikolay died in 2011. The hotel was put up for sale. Roger Wallace had it for about a year and it closed in 2013. In 2015, the building was purchased by Tim and Karen Swiggum, Dick Peterson, and Larry and Donnelle Hodnett. They are still in the process of remodeling the building, which they thought would happen faster than it has. They have done all the work without having to borrow money except to replace the boilers in the basement.
The building was put on the Historic Register in November 2015 and the state historic register about six months later. The Tap Room is open daily except on Monday. When remodeling they found brick under the paneling in that area and removed it. The drop ceiling was also removed allowing for the original tin ceiling to show. Pieces of the tin ceiling in the old barber shop were used to make repairs. In the future they would like to have a buffet. They also want the lobby area to be a place where people can eat lunch or write letters.
Swiggum didn’t have an answer to what the building cost when it was built. The architects, Claude & Starck, were from Madison and a main competitor to Frank Lloyd Wright at the time. They don’t know how soon the kitchen and dining room will be done. They also want to make the main floor of the building handicap accessible with a ramp on the east side. They are also refurbishing all the hardwood floors. The maintenance man who worked for Jack Nikolay died in the boiler room, so if anyone sees a ghost in the hotel, it might be him. There was a question about water in the basement during floods that occurred in Owen. The answer was there was probably water in the basement during those floods but they are working to get drainage away from the building. Karen Swiggum added that Dick Peterson and Larry Hodnett have done of lot of work to restore the building. Many in attendance had fond memories of events at the hotel.
Then Canice Parnewicz and Steve Ristola gave a historical presentation. Parnewicz said the Owen-Withee Area Historical Society History Center is located in the old city hall. It is usually open every other Thursday afternoon or by appointment.
They talked about old time coffee making. Ristola said that coffee used to be made by boiling. He got a recipe from an old Fanny Farmer cookbook. He talked about graniteware. He said that allowed coffee pots to be made in a variety of colors. By 1935 graniteware was replaced with aluminum cookware. Cast iron was also used. Coffee grinders back then ground the coffee beans coarser than today. You put one cup of beans in the pot for 12 cups of coffee and boiled it for five minutes. Egg white was put in the pot, the grounds would adhere to it so you didn’t get them in your coffee. When the coffee was done, it would be moved to the back of the woodstove where it was cooler.
Parnewicz talked about a boot jack that was rescued from the Clark County Jail Museum when it was closed. It is a wooden boot jack made in 1880. It was owned by John King, a Civil War soldier from Massachusetts, who eventually ended up in Neillsville, WI. It was noted that he was with General Sherman when he burned Atlanta and he also fought at a number of other significant Civil War battles. Ristola commented on how you could see the hand tooling on the boot jack. The boots Parnewicz brought along had belonged to the Wollum family.