Last week it was announced that the City Of Columbus was purchasing the Gilmer Inn in downtown Columbus. The now run down motel was built in the early 1960s as a then fashionable Downtowner Motor Inn. It was constructed on the site where the historic Gilmer Hotel stood for over 100 years until it was razed in 1962.
The block where the Gilmer Inn stands is one of the earliest building sites in Columbus and the site of the Gilmer has held a hotel or tavern since 1822. In the middle of the block, Gideon Lincecum built Columbus’ first frame house in 1819. When the Columbus Post Office was established in 1820 it was in that house.
Rev. George Shaeffer arrived in Columbus in 1822 and later wrote a description of the town as it then appeared. He described the block along Main Street where the Gilmer now stands: “On the north side of Main Street, west end there was a one story store kept by Capt. Kewen. The next building was a small retail whiskey shop; the next Barry’s Tavern, a two story house of pretty large dimension, a frame but unfinished; it stood on the corner where the Gilmer Hotel is kept.”
In the early 1830s the building on the corner was no longer Barry’s tavern but was the Eagle Hotel. Keeler’s 1849 map of Columbus showed the Eagle Hotel still there. By 1860, John Gilmer had begun construction of a large, brick, four story hotel at the former site of the Eagle Hotel.
“Uncle Jeff” Kirk was brought to Columbus as a slave in 1833 and in a 1907 newspaper article recalled working on the construction of the Gilmer. He told of working with another laborer one stormy day. They were attaching “rain drains” to the building’s wall. Suddenly lightening struck the gutters badly burning his arm. It so frightened the other worker that the man ran off and “Uncle Jeff” never saw him again. As Kirk approached his 100th birthday, he was viewed as an iconic figure in Columbus, beloved by Black and White alike. When the Civil War erupted the interior of the new hotel had not been completed,
In April 1862, the bloody Battle of Shiloh occurred just north of Corinth. Thousands of wounded were sent south to Columbus.
The Rev. James Lyon described the horrific scene at the Columbus railroad depot after trains carrying wounded from Shiloh arrived. He described there being more than 3,300 wounded soldiers “stacked like cord wood” around the depot. Large buildings, such as the then unfinished Gilmer Hotel, and even some private homes took in the wounded. The Gilmer overflowed with about 800 wounded soldiers crowded into every possible space.
As the war progressed, Columbus became one of the largest military hospital centers in the South. The Gilmer equipped with 450 beds was the largest of three military hospitals established in Columbus.
After the Civil War ended the first three floors of the Gilmer were completed as a hotel and it opened as The Gilmer House Hotel. It was soon called simply the Gilmer Hotel and became a center for social life in Columbus.
In 1907, the Gilmer was showing its age and underwent a major renovation. At a cost of $35,000 the fourth floor was finally completed, hot and cold running water was provided in all rooms as was steam heat, private toilets were installed in 23 of the 65 rooms, telephones were placed in each room and an electric elevator was installed.
On March 28, 1921, the Kiwanis Club was organized at the Gilmer. The Rotary Club, which had been organized only two months earlier, was meeting at the same time a block away at the Bell Cafe. The Rotarians had a letter of congratulations carried down the street to the Kiwanis meeting. In 1940, The Gilmer served as the headquarters of the first Columbus Pilgrimage.
Over its 100 year life the Gilmer Hotel played host to many people whose names still draw attention. Guest who stayed there included such notables as Will Rogers, Jack Dempsey, Clark Gable, Bob Hope and Doris Day. The stories that little piece of ground on Main Street could tell.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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