Circa 1915
McKinley Hotel – 1889
150 East Third Street
C. Shaw built the McKinley Hotel in 1889. It has been known by many names over the years such as Hotel Mack, the Bossenberry Hotel, the Seidell Hotel and the Imlay City Hotel.
The McKinley Hotel is of the Italianate Style. The tall narrow windows, the wide projecting cornice with brackets, and the hooded windows are typical of the Italianate Style, which was common for urban buildings and homes during the 1860s and 1880s.
The lobby of the current business was the original lobby of the hotel where guests would register. There is a loose panel in the woodwork on the side of the stairway in the lobby where bartenders hid alcohol during Prohibition. The hotel contained a dining room, kitchen, bar, restrooms, and a dance hall with a stage for a band. Behind the hotel is a cement block garage that was used as an ice storage building.
There were 16 separate rooms upstairs and one bathroom that was shared among all the hotel guests. It had a single bathtub, toilet and sink.
The taller window on the front of the building was formerly a doorway to go out onto the second level deck. Ropes were nailed to the deck floor to every window to be used as a fire escape. Legend says someone used one of those ropes to hang him or herself by jumping out the window. Subsequent owners of the building have had many experiences on the second floor where a ghost has been sensed. Believe it or not!
McKinley Hotel
150 East Third Street