 |
April 9, 1903
Ground has been broken for an Opera House on the site of the Walton House which burned 2 or more years ago. The property is owned by Philip Burkhart who will employ Frank Hoskins to erect the proposed structure main part which will be 50 X 70 ft with stage 25X38 feet.
Village Lockup - Lyons Falls Inspected 9/21/14. Population of village about 800.
This lockup consists of two latticed steel cages situated in the basement of the opera house which is a two story frame structure. The basement story is largely abode grade and is also used as a hose room and for band rehearsals. The side walls are of concrete, lath and plaster; the ceiling is of pine, well varnished. The floor is wood. The room has five windows which seems ample to sunlight and ventilation.
The building is also lighted by electricity and heated with a furnace. There is also a coal stove in the cell room.
The village has a water system but no regular sewage and there are no sanitary facilities in connection with the lockup. The cells are furnished with steel bunks, mattresses and confortables. The cells also have iron buckets in metal cases.
The justice has stated that an average number of arrests in a year does not exceed ten or twelve. He also stated that an officer was employed to keep the lockup clean and under supervision when occupied but that no policeman was regularly on duty at night.
Recommendations:
1. That the village water be installed in the lockup.
2. That someone be made responsible for the cleanliness of the lockup at all times and that it be kept under supervision during the night when occupied.
Respectfully submitted
Clifford M Young, Inspector
State Commission of Prisons 1914
Memories of Huzzy's Hotel Will Long Linger On
Huzzy's Hotel is gone. The fire that destroyed the 105-year old landmark on April 22 1977 has left only a pile of charred rubble. There were, mercifully, no causalities--no one had lived in the hotel's rooms for over a year. But a favorite gathering spot for many an area resident has ceased to exist.
If Huzzy's Hotel is gone it will not soon be forgotten. We called the other day on John Huzzy who had bought the hotel in 1938 and worked there since 1926 when his father bought it.
We found him in his comfortable home across the street from the hotel, perhaps still a little stunned by what for him was the passing of a way of life, but cheerful nonetheless. Would he rebuild the hotel and start again? He gave us a quick, sharp, sidelong glance. "After putting 50 years at it? No. I wouldn't think of it." he snapped.
But though he is not willing to start all over again, John Huzzy has few regrets about the last 50 years. As he sat in his living room on a quiet warm day of early summer talking about his hotel he seemed to remenber only the pleasant things--the good times, the laughter, the friendly faces of those that gathered regularly at the bar. He is a man who likes people.
"I kept the place as it had always been, right up to the end," he said. "Didn't want any changed--the old bar, the gun cases, the pictures pretty much stayed the same for 50 years. I think folks around here wanted it that way."
John, who is not 67, remembers the old days when traveling salesman made the hotel their headquarters and he'd drive them around on their calls in an old Model-T or a cutter. Fall brought the hunters, spring the fishermen. "We've had people here from all over the world--Japan, South America, Europe..
The old registers were saved from the fire, as were some of the books of accounts, which date to the day his father first g=began to run a saloon in 1904. A good deal of business was "on the cuff" and the notation 'pd. by death' freguently closes out an account. We noted an entry far back in time that listed 'two meals and horse--50 cents'. Others showed a supper at 35 cents, a dozen bottles of beer, $1.00.
Was it a pretty tough business, keeping ordder in the old days, we asked? "No. Oh the lumberjacks and river drivers sometimes raised the dickens -- but I'd handle them." How? we asked. "Like this," said John putting up his fists in the best John L. Sullivan style. Though he has never weighted over 145 at well over 6 feet tall, there is a sinewy muscle in his forearm that still commands respect. "I's warn a man twice -- buth the third time he caused trouble, that was it. He was finsihed and I'd allow him in no more," he says.
While most of his life was spent in Lyons Falls he served in WW II in this country and England. An expert rifleman, he was quickly detailed to teach recruits in the Black Hills of South Dakota. An it was in England that he found his wife Marian, who is a teller in the Lyons Falls National Bank.
Even when the rubble of the hotel is cleared and the place where it once stood can no longer be distinguis...
|
|
