Grand Rapids Wisconsin - Magnolia House

Wood County Wisconsin

MAGNOLIA HOUSE OLD HOTEL IN GRAND RAPIDS

THIS HOTEL WAS ERECTED IN 1857
J. X. BRANDS PROPRIETOR

----Source: Grand Rapids Reporter (Grand Rapids, Wood County, Wis.) 6 May 1915; submitted by Diana Heser Morse

The "Magnolia House" which we present in this article was partly erected in 1853 and then added to in 1857 to accomodate the increasing business. It was situated on lots one and two of block one in the Josephs Wood addition to Grand Rapids in 1856, on the northwest corner Broadway, (now 9th street north) and Washington avenue, nearly opposite of Joseph Wood homestead (now F. J. Wood homestead). For many years this part of town was known as Pumpkin Hill or Starvation Hill and most of the business was transacted in this part of town.

The first part of Magnolia Hotel was named and known then as the Empire House, according to the Wood County Reporter files of 1857, J. X. Brands was the proprietor and he called and named it the Hotel "Magnolia".

In 1859, the County Board of Supervisors and the Circuit Court of the new county of Wood, which was organized from Portage county in 1856, the Magnolia Hall, on the second floor, a room 20x60 feet was the Court House, or legal residence of the new county.

For many years the Magnolia was a popular ****** as a Hotel, public gatherings and dances. If it could talk it would tell many facts that would make interesting reading and early history.

In later years the business section was moved to either banks of the Wisconsin river, mostly from the present Library building on 1st street to Vine street. The Magnolia was given up as hotel and converted into an apartment house and in which at one time 7 families with 42 children occupied this place.

In 1876, the Republican Marching club made the Magnolia Hall their head quarters and held many interesting sessions there.

The Magnolia House was built by Joseph Wood up to the time it was resized by F. J. Wood and by him remodeled into a home for George L. Williams and later sold to A. L. Fontaine who has owned the property ever since. It has been razed the second time to make room for a more modern house in 1900 on the same corner in which the writer and family now reside.

We recall in our last visit with Judge Chas. M. Webb, in relating his experience when he first came to Grand Rapids that they boarded in the Magnolia with J. X. Brand. In this hotel their first child was born, Miss Mina Webb. The changes in Grand Rapids have been many since this hotel was first erected.