Wade’s Douglas House Hotel & Tavern

Location: Center and Water Streets, Douglas
Date: 1863

Jonathan Wade lost his job, his fortune, and his home when his mill at Singapore went “belly up” in the 1840s, forcing him to move on to greener pastures by building a new village called Dudleyville (which would later be the southern part of Douglas). He started with a lumber mill. Wade built a hotel, a handsome Michigan-style Greek Revival building known as the Douglas House (later called the Eagle Hotel) that was one of the area’s finest stagecoach inns. It included a dining room, barroom, stables, and accommodations for forty to fifty persons, and it was the scene for many Saturday night dances. At the same time, the Wade clan carried on a political feud with a new family in town, the Dutchers, who owned the north half of the town. Center Street became the dividing line between the two little empires. See also site number 29.