Rose Hotel - Elizabethtown, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 37° 26.713 W 088° 18.272
16S E 384605 N 4145062
Historic hotel previously known as the McFarlan's Tavern now operated as a bed & breakfast in Elizabethtown, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WM6F3Q
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 05/24/2009
Views: 4
The Rose Hotel was built on a limestone bluff overlooking the Ohio River. by James and and Elizabeth Mcfarlan (the founders of Elizabethtown) The view from the hotel is three miles to the west, downstream on the river and three miles to the east, upstream on the river.
The original McFarlan's Tavern constructed in 1812 was a two-story, two-room building constructed of grey brick said to have been hauled downriver by flatboat from Pittsburgh. The original building is not the lobby and office of the hotel. In 1848 an addition to the east was added and with that addition the name was changed to the McFarlan Hotel it now had rooms for rent. In 1865 an addition to the west was added and the 2-story veranda was added. The summer house or gazebo out on limestone point above the river was built in 1882 and it remains in use.
The hotel did a very lucrative business during the heyday of river steamboat traffic along the Ohio River.
The hotel was deeded to James Mcfarlan Jr. in 1834 (there was a line of 5 James Mcfarlan's) and remained in the until it was acquired in 1891 by Sarah E. Rose, who had worked in the hotel seven years prior to purchasing it. The hotel was passed down to her daugher Charlotte Rose Gullet upon Sarah Rose's death in 1939. The hotel remained in the Gullet family until 1989 when it was purchased by the State of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The hotel closed at this time and underwent a two-year, $1.5 million state funded restoration. The hotel is now listed as a state historic site and operates under a lease as a bed and breakfast called the Grand Rose Hotel. - from National Register Nomination Form and Grand Rose Hotel website.