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Property Location
Property Features
The Hanson House/Grand Hotel is a two story commercial vernacular building with Italianate details. This imposing five bay, two story brick building anchors the west end of the industrial area of East Main Street. Shouldered segmental arch lintels cap the windows, which are also segmentally arched. A heavy brick denticulated and corbelled cornice breaks into a round arch in the center of the building. The first floor has been substantially altered. Various construction features of the former hotel building include a rectangular shaped plan configuration, a brick exterior, a brick trim, a flat roof, and a post 1926 addition or alteration. The building is in good condition.
Architectural Significance:
As a good example of a commercial vernacular hotel it helps define the variety of architectural styles found in the concentration of transportation/agri-industrial - related buildings on the east end of East Main Street.
Historical Background:
In October of 1891, the Stoughton Hub ran an article describing the Hanson House - a new hotel then being built by Gregor Hanson, brother of owner H. T. Hanson. [D,F]. It had a kitchen, bar-room, laundry and servants bedrooms in the basement, office, ladies' parlor and twelve bedrooms on the street level, and twenty-seven bedrooms on the second floor. [D]. In 1892, two story wood porches were located on the front and back of the brick building. [C]. In 1893 the name was changed to the Grand Hotel. [G]. The Diamond Laundry opened in the Grand Hotel in January of 1894. [H]. Carl Ellingson retired as proprietor of the hotel in February of 1901 and sold the property to Marshal and Bissell. [I]. By May of the same year, G. F. Carley pruchased the hotel. [J]. H. T. Hanson was the proprietor of the hotel in 1904. [B]. It was then leased to Samuel Peterson in September of 1906. [E]. Mrs. Julia Thomson ran the hotel in 1915 [A], and Mrs. Carl Bratvold ran it in 1928. [K].
Historical Significance:
One of two originally in the immediate area (the Revere Hotel was across the street slightly to the east), this hotel building is indicative of the activity in Stoughton from the 1890s through the 1920s.
August 2013: New shop windows and signage.
August 2019: Appearance unchanged.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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