06/23/2025
Here is a picture of one of the hotels of LaFontaine known as the LAFONTAINE HOTEL AND STAFF taken sometime before 1910. The first hotel in LaFontaine was in 1848 and kept in a Log house run by George Moore. In 1865, H. Bannister opened a hotel and ran it until 1881. Then there was the Central House run by William Tudendrick @ 1894. At one time (1883) Lafontaine had three hotels, run by a Banister, a Lindsay and a McNeal. One had been moved from the town of America. Pictured here is the LaFontaine Hotel which was located where the fire station is today. If you notice the building behind the hotel, it is the present day LaFontaine Bar and Grill. At one time it was a drug store. Some records indicate that the drug store was a building moved from the town of America as were several others. The three-story Lafontaine Hotel pictured here burned down in November of 1910. At the time of the fire, it was owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. John Schuster. Drew Warmath observes "it burned to the ground, and today there's a fire station in its place. Irony." In 1894 LaFontaine was a very prosperous town. Businesses included the Beik saloon, 2 general stores run by H.U. Blood & A. Parker, 2 druggists, C.W. Criswell & George N. Geyer, Crumley flour & feed, 3 grocery stores Denrick & Straughn, Howard & Gruwell and F.S. Spiker, 4 doctors C. L. Dicken, J.L. Dicken, W.H. McGrew, M.E. Renner, J.S. Hale shoes and hats, LaFontaine Bank, 2 barbers T.L. Jordan and R.L. Martin, the Middleton Brothers printed the weekly newspaper the LaFontaine Review and did job printing, 2 milliners Lantz & Sailors and Powell & Dillon, photographer J.L. Leyman, McClintock agricultural implements, Martin & Co. dry goods, 2 hotels the Moffit House run by John R. Moffit and the Central House run by William Tudendrick, Reed's Notions store, Palmer's saw mill, Pullman harness, Smith & Frushour meat market, and Scott hardware & agricultural implements.
