Aspinock Memories: The Chickering House
By Terri Pearsall
Aspinock Historical Society Museum Curator
In the late 1830s the Norwich to Worcester Railroad came into town. In the 1850s, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad arrived in town. Both railroads intersected here. The only way you could go from New York to Boston or vice versa was through Putnam which was still Killingly at the time (Putnam wasn’t incorporated until 1855). Businessmen and visitors traveling to either New York or Boston increased the need for more businesses, restaurants, hotels, etc. to be established. The town was bustling during this time.
Hotel Putnam, The Quinebaug House and the Cargill House were three hotels in Union Block at the time. The Chickering Hotel was in 1875 and considered to be one of the grandest and most modern hotels for its time. The original building stretched from Union Square to Front Street, rising three stories and facing the railroad tracks. There were granite steps which led patrons from the hotel and train station to the road on Front Street. The granite steps can still be seen today even though they are no longer in use.
In February 1887, the newly formed Putnam Electric Light Company converted the Chickering Hotel from gas to electricity, making it to be one of the first buildings to be lit by this new convenience.
Traveling salesmen or “Salesmen for Trade,” as they were known at the time, would make room reservations and have their mail forwarded to await their arrival in town. They would stay at the hotel and hire a horse and buggy from the livery across the street during the day to make their appointed rounds to the various mills in town. Room rates in 1907 were $2 and $2.50, heated with steam, call bells, electric lights and modern improvements, even boasting of one of the earliest telephones in town.
In 1916, the hotel’s restaurant menu consisted of chowder, plain lobster, fresh boiled or mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus on toast, milk, tea or coffee and a choice of pie for 50 cents.
The Chickering Hotel was affected by many fires over the years. The hotel burned down in the early 1920s leaving the Café standing. In 1951 the Chickering Café survived the Main Street Elks Club fire. The most devastating fire was in 1966 when most of Union Square went up in flames. The Union Block, the old fire station and the Putnam Hotel on Main Street burned down leaving the Chickering Café untouched. The last fire was in 1968, The Grube Camera Shop on Front Street was leveled by fire even though Mr. Grube had built a firewall to protect his shop from any fire at the Café. The Camera Shop was lost, but again the Chickering was not harmed. Mrs. Rose Parish who purchased the Chickering Café in 1969, was known to have said: “if there ever is a fire, flood or hurricane in Putnam, head for the Chickering - it is blessed.”
Special thanks to the Aspinock Historical Society archives, Fabiola Cutler, Robert Miller and Joy Lizotte for all their research over the years.
Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.
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