The following article was written by Susan C. Lyman, Norwood Village Historian, and appeared in the Wednesday, June 7, 1972 edition of the Potsdam Courier & Freeman.

 

The Whitney House

 

In 1852 Robert John McGill built a three storied wooden hotel on the East Side of Main Street in Racquetteville, a small hamlet a few miles north of the Village of Potsdam. Mr. McGill was a prominent man in the area with the foresight to realize that the passing of the Northern Railroad through the farmland of B.G. Baldwin would mean the beginning of a new and busy town, and so, in 1848, two years before the completion of the railroad, he contracted for the purchase of land on which he later built the "Racquetteville House", destined to become a famous landmark.

 

Noted for cheer, courtesy and good service, it was popular with commercial travelers and honeymooners. It was long a meeting place for men of positive opinions and distinction in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. In the days of old Ben Whitney, men met and discussed politics, war and the Dred Scott decision. Here, now and then , a stray abolitionist stopped overnight while performing the good office of steering escaped slaves into Canada although it is possible that there was not too much hospitality for anything savoring of the new party launched in 1856. The coming of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad was an additional stimulus to business.

 

J. D. Tracy stopped here as did wealthy Giles J. Hall, the Jackson Democrat. Here it was that delegates came to Assembly, Senatorial and County conventions of the Democratic party. In the old days came Supreme Court Justice William H. Sawyer, Hon. Daniel Magone and Dr. Thomas Spratt, the Whalens, Murphys from down country and Whitneys from the "farups", and a younger generation of fighters in which the Sullivans, McCarthys and Kellys were prominent figures.

 

After a few years McGill sold the hotel to Benjamin Whitney who renamed it the Whitney Hotel and in 1862 advertised that its tables were furnished with the delicacies of the season. A good livery was connected with the House and a carriage was in attendance at the depot to convey guests to there without charge. Further, "a stage leaves the House daily for Massena Springs where guests may partake of the famous waters advertised as an unequal remedy for obstinate cutaneous eruptions, scrofula, salt rheum, and erysipelas as well as rheumatism, gravel and all afflictions of the kidneys and bladder." Eventually Mr. Whitney, a Democrat of the old school retired and by 1865 Prey and Nightingale were the proprietors of the hotel.

 

Sidney R. Phelps, in 1866, purchased the hotel and became the most famous landlord in the North Country. "Sid", as Chief of a large following of Democrats in the North Country, wielded his battleaxe of authority for a long period of time. He was a party delegate to the National Convention held in Chicago in 1892. He was often in hot dispute with a Bryan Democrat or some Republican who had the temerity to remark that Grover Cleveland was not the best president since Andrew Jackson.

 

In 1884 or 1885, Mr. Phelps made extensive improvements to the building by erecting a new and modern addition to the south end which contained a tower and added much to the beauty of the premises.

 

Mr. Phelps prospered in the hotel business, becoming the owner of a profitable coal shed and was instrumental in the development of the State Bank of Norwood (now the Norwood Office of the St. Lawrence National Bank) and the founding of the Norwood Electric Light and Power Company. When failing health forced Mr. Phelps to retire and sell out to Herman Jacques, former operator of the Montgomery House at Rouses Point, he was one of the most influential men in the area and one of the last of the rugged individualists in the hotel business; there are no legends about his successors which can begin to compare to those told about Mr. Phelps.

 

The next owners were the Flanagans of Malone who conducted the business for a short time, being succeeded by the Hosley Brothers of Tupper Lake. The Hosleys made improvements to the north end of the old hotel proper, fitting up extra rooms and adding 20 baths, making the most modern hotel in the section at the time. It was at this time that it was given the name. "The New Whitney House."

 

According to the Potsdam Business Directory of 1907-08, Roy C. Harris was proprietor for a time.

 

In 1910 William Gage, a dry goods merchant in Madrid, traded his store and other Madrid property for the Whitney House. During his ownership the House was again modernized and was more popular than ever becoming known for its good and generous board and did not depend on "booze and bar" for business.

 

After 11 years in the hotel business, Mr. Gage sold out to Powell and Emery. Mr. Emery took over the entire business on December 1, 1921. There was a bad fire in 1924 after which renovations and modernizations were again made.

 

At 9 a.m. Sunday morning, Jan. 18, 1925 a woman passing the Whitney House noticed fire in the third floor tower room. She immediately gave the cry "fire", according to newspaper accounts, and was heard by Mrs. A. J. Phillips who called the local telephone operator. An alarm was given to the mill station of the local alarm system and to Cortez F. Vance, then chief of the Norwood Fire Department.

 

It was a small blaze at first, originating in the unoccupied tower room, and thought to be caused by over heated pipes since the thermometer stood at 20 degrees below zero. However, a strong Northeast wind was blowing and the fire worked its way through the building. In just one hour, at 10 a.m., the hotel roof fell in and sometime later the chimney fell into the roof of the house owned by Dr. Hakins on the south side of the hotel, (in 1972 the home of Mrs. Harold Greene). The fire spread northward into the store owned by Mr. Raymo and into the F. R. Smith building which housed the Norwood Post Office (in 1972 occupied by the Morgan TV Sales and Service business). Since there had been sufficient warning Mr. Raymo had removed all the merchandise from his store and all the mail and stamps were taken from the post office to a building on Mechanic Street (now the Jarvis Barbershop) which Postmaster A.R. Collins had hastily secured to serve as a temporary post office.

 

Eight lines of hose were laid with the help of firemen from Norfolk, Potsdam and Unionville. Merchants of the village rallied round and set up a stand in the Music Hall (replaced by the present Municipal Building) to serve coffee and doughnuts and sandwiches to the firefighters, they even provided new dry caps, mittens and overshoes to those needing them. The bitter cold and the strong wind added to the suffering of the firemen. When the fire was brought under control, the hotel had been totally destroyed, Dr. Hakins' house badly damaged by water and the falling chimney, and the two buildings to the north were badly damaged. The total damage was estimated to exceed $50,000. Water was played on the ruins until Monday morning in order to prevent a possible further outbreak. A resident who was a fireman at the time recalls that it took three men to carry each ice-encrusted length of fire hose back to the fire house.

 

In May 1925, Mr. Emery hired men to clear the debris of the old hotel in order to make way for the new Norwood Inn which was to be built on the same site.

 

The destruction of the Whitney House marked the passing of one of the most colorful old-time hostelries of the North Country, and one which was familiar to hundreds of patrons.

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