The Royal Hotel

The history of the Royal Hotel goes back to 1888.  The Huron Hotel Company, anticipating that Huron would be named as the state capital, built the four-story structure.  When Pierre won the bid to be the capital, the Huron Hotel Company, like many other businesses, pulled up stakes and moved on.  The building, which cost $50,000 to erect, was not completely finished, and only partially occupied.

In 1898, John Pyle, a prominent local attorney, was a leader in wooing the ailing Pierre University to relocating to Huron.  Pyle encouraged the citizens of Huron to purchase the Royal Hotel building, which was then known as the Huron Hotel, by private subscription, amounting to a total of $5,000,  for this purpose.   The college was moved, and became Huron College, and it operated fully from this location from 1898 until 1906.

Eventually the needs of the college were more than the building could meet, and with the donation of land from the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, and a generous gift of money for a new building from the Voorhees family, the college relocated to its new campus, and the building came into the ownership of Andrew Riegel, who remodeled it for use as a hotel, named it the "Royal Hotel" and leased it to Frank L. Holbrook, who operated it at least through 1913.  Mr. Riegel sold it to John Longstaff, who sold to Mr. and Mrs. August Tams in 1920, and they operated the hotel themselves. By 1926, the building was also home to the Royal Beauty Shop, managed by Helen Rutherford; the Royal Cafe, managed by B. B. Bonesteel; and the Royal Hotel Barber Shop, managed by John Stack.

By 1930, August Tams had died, and his widow Barbara continued to run the hotel.  Around 1940, the hotel was "newly decorated" and offered furnished apartments as well.

On December 21, 1943, the Royal Hotel was destroyed by a fire, which apparently started in the basement. Luckily no one perished in the blaze.  Mrs. Tams replaced the building with a more modern structure, and reopened the new hotel under the name of  "The Tams".

Mrs. Tams died about 1960, and the hotel was purchased by the Hotel Leasing Corporation, and remodeled extensively.   It was renamed "The Inn", and later became the "Hickory House Motor Inn."  The hotel has changed ownership several times since then.

Above: the interior of the Royal Hotel.