Name/Title
"Deserted Hotel Full of Memories" February 9, 1959 article of Wischmeyer HotelEntry/Object ID
NP.05.022Scope and Content
"Deserted Hotel Full of Memories" February 9, 1959 article by Pete Shimrak for The Cleveland Press Monday edition, page 31.
Includes three pictures. Leftmost picture is of a modern day young man and woman in psuedo-period clothing on one of the Wischmeyer Hotel porches. The man in a dark suit and bow tie is standing over a woman, sitting in a porch swing, wearing a light-colored dress with big puffed sleeves and a black choker ribbon. They are listed as members of the Bay Players.
The rightmost photo is of Henry C. Wishmeyer, showing some of his model sailboats he built many years prior. He is listed as a retired farmer and last of six children of one of Bay's early families.
The middle photo is of the Hotel itself, deserted and in need of repair. Trees are bare. States the hotel is opposite 26565 Lake Rd. where Henry lives and that his father built the hotel in 1874.
The article says the hotel building has been abandoned for some 40 years, after the village passed an ordinance forbidding business on Lake Rd. and the hotel had to close, soon after World War I. Henry states they hoped the law would change and when it didn't, they thought of turning it into a home but it had been in disuse for too long by that time.
Henry is quoted as saying the hotel used to attract people from all over Ohio. It could accommodate 70 guests and there were 19 bedrooms. There were dinners and dances and Henry reminisces about the past.
The hotel was built in 1874 by Henry's father around a building that had been used to store grapes and fruit grown on the 50-acre Wischmeyer farm. That building later became the hotel's wine cellar. It housed huge casks of rich Catawba wine, a Wischmeyer House specialty.Collection
Wischmeyer Family CollectionRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Whelpley, Mabel BlairPerson or Organization
Wischmeyer, Henry C.Person or Organization
Wischmeyer, Henry Sr.