Here is an abridged portion of an article from 1890 talking about some of the hotels in Milwaukee.
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December 14, 1890 – Milwaukee Sentinel<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n HOTELS OF MILWAUKEE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Inns Which Have Been Famous In Their Time. The\n northwest corner of Jefferson and Wisconsin streets, from which a year \nfrom now the Pfister will rise up in all its grandeur, presented a \ncurious appearance one day in 1841. It was a small clearing, surrounded \nby a thick growth of underbrush. In the midst of the clearing a young \nand stalwart Indian lay, motionless and with his eyes closed. On top of \nhis body lay prostrate a squaw, moaning and lamenting. Near them stood a\n number of Indian braves, patiently waiting for the squaw to abandon the\n body beneath her. It was that of a young chief who, the night before, \nhad killed and scalped two Indians, belonging to the Pottawatomie tribe.\n He had been pursued by friends of his victims and was about to be \ndispatched by them when his sweetheart , the fair Unacanana, leaped \nbetween him and his pursuers and threw her arms upon him. That saved him\n for the time being, for the squaw knew full well that no one would harm\n him as long as her body was in the way. The brave girl kept up her \nlamentations through the night and all day following. She and her lover \nwere destined to be saved. After sunset an unusually heavy fog began to \nenvelop everything with its misty and impenetrable shroud, and under \ncover of it the loving couple managed to make their escape, the close \nwatch of the bucks notwithstanding. The Pfister corner is also \nassociated with other historical occurrences. According to Indian \ntraditions two bloody battles between red men were terminated on that \nspot, and it is possible that evidence therof will be found while the \nwork of excavation is progressing. It was there on Oct. 13, 1844, that \nthe last Indian dance was held, witnessed by many of the settlers, some \nof whom doubtless remembered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milwaukee has always been \nblessed-if you please-with inns and hostelries. In 1844 one could find \nboard at almost any of the houses, not to speak of the several regularly\n established hotels, and the rates at the latter were not so different \nfrom those of today as one would suppose. Of course, there was no clerk \nwith the proverbial diamond pin; nor were there a host of colored boys \nwho responded quickly to the call of “front;” there were no electric \nbells in the rooms, nor bath tubs; the beds were not supplied with \nspring mattresses, but had a good straw tick resting on a few stout and \nelastic ropes stretched out underneath them; Brussels carpets would have\n been scoffed at by the landlord and boarders alike, rough pine \nfloorings being good enough for those days. But there was plenty to eat \nat all times; a numberless army of bed bugs had to be fought with then \njust as to-day, and, last but not least, the landlords knew how to \ncharge for their accommodations, the same as their successors are in the\n habit of doing. “Es ist alles schon dagewesen” applies here. When Abner\n Kirby first came to Milwaukee in 1843 the vessel which brought him from\n Buffalo anchored at the foot of Huron street, and he and the other \npassengers were transferred to the “Trowbridge,” a little steamer which \nconveyed them up the river to Chestnut street. “I jumped ashore, “Mr. \nKirby relates, “and requested one of the Indian loafers that stood \naround there to call a carriage for me. He looked at me with utter \ncontempt, and walked away. I finally flung my trunk over my shoulders \nand started to find a boarding house. Of course, runners were already in\n existence, and I was presuaded to try the Cottage Inn. the first night \nwhile there I slept on a table in the dining hall, wrapped up in a \nbuckskin blanket. The next morning I kicked up a row, but as it didn’t \ndo me any good I left and transferred my patronage to the Bellevue \nhouse.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Cottage inn” had before that been called the \n“Triangle,” because of the triangle which served for a bell. It was \nbuilt by Jacques Vieau, in 1835, at the corner of East Water and Huron \nstreets. In 1836 John and Luther Childs enlarged it and called it the \nCottage inn. It was more noisy, if possible, than ever before. The \n“hotel” was always crowded, although a miserable structure in every \nrespect. While under the management of Spurr & Taft, it burned to \nthe ground, on April 6, 1845. The entire district was built up with \nframe houses and barns, and everything melted away before the flames. \nJames B. Cross soon afterwards erected the United States hotel on the \nold site. A large business was done within its walls, until the \nrailroads caused the newcomers to patronize the west side more and more.\n At the second “great fire,” on Aug. 24, 1854, the United States hotel \nwas destroyed, and it was never rebuilt. The first real hotel on the \neast side was the Bellevue house, later on called the Milwaukee house, \non the corner of Broadway and Wisconsin street, the present site of the \nold library building. It was erected by Solomon Juneau and Morgan L. \nMartin. Elisha Starr and Sidney A. Hosmer occupied it for hotel purposes\n in 1836. The last landlord was Peter Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. A.C. Wheeler furnishes the following sketch concerning the Milwaukee house: “In 1849 the structure was moved down into the \nThird ward, and a small portion of it is still standing in a fair state \nof preservation.”\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is an abridged portion of an article from 1890 talking about some of the hotels in Milwaukee. December 14, 1890 – Milwaukee Sentinel HOTELS OF MILWAUKEE Inns Which Have Been Famous In Their Time. TRADITIONS CONNECTED WITH SOME OF THEM. An Indian’s Life Saved By His Sweetheart on the Site of the Pfister Hotel-Abner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
TRADITIONS CONNECTED WITH SOME OF THEM.
An\n Indian’s Life Saved By His Sweetheart on the Site of the Pfister \nHotel-Abner Kirby’s Arrival In Milwaukee and His First ventures-The \nCottage Inn and the Milwaukee House-The More Modern Hotels.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In\n 1841 it fell into good hands. Caleb Wall (the father of E.C. Wall) came\n from springfield, Ill., with the determination of starting a temperance\n hotel. After considerable dickering he bought the hotel from Hurley and\n Ream and commenced his operations for the establishment of a hotel on \n‘moral principles.’ The place was refitted and replenished. Before \nopening the doors a code of laws for the government of the establishment\n and its happy inmates was made out. This code, among other excellent \nthings, stated that ‘all guests of this hotel shall be in at 10 o’clock \nevery night,’ it being a maxim with the host that those who could not \ncomply with so simple and judicious a condition, were unworthy the \nhospitality of the institution. the starting of a hotel on such a plan \nattracted considerable attention. The proprieter, undeterred by \ninsinuations that his plan was folly and that the venture would not pay,\n pushed forward his project, posted his code conspicuously and swung \nopen his doors. He was firm in his resolve, and punctually at the \nappointed hour locked and barred the doors. But the guests, while they \nadmired the system, were unable to comply with its demands. Unable to \nenter by the doors they had recourse to ladders and ropes at night, by \nwhich they got in at the back windows. one night, while looking out of \nhis window, the worthy Caleb was so astonished to see half his boarders \nat work raising a heavy ladder against the piazza, that he modified the \ncode and agve them another hour. This one modification in regard to the \nhour led to others, and by insensible degrees the house underwent a \ntransit from one extreme of temperance to the other extreme of \nintemperance, until it became the most notoriously jolly and reckless \ninstitution in town-the boarders doing just as they pleased-and the old \nbuilding itself reeling night after night with the mad revelry of gay \nparties and gushing music. The temperance hotel at last rejoiced in a \nregular bar with decanters, and then it was discovered that a majority \nof the guests had suddenly reformed in one particular, and evinced a \ndecided reluctance to being out late, and some of them were opposed to \nbeing out at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n