Foreword: It is not surprising that a substantial number of liquor dealers owned hotels. The identification of inns with taverns is embedded in American history. Brought to the current day it is not unusual for an individual (like me) to check in, find the room, and then head down to the hotel bar to see what’s gong on. Presented here are three men, all of whom became wealthy through whiskey sales, that owned and operated hostelries in pre-Prohibition times.
At five feet, nine inches tall, Frederick Rudolph Welz was not a big man, but he carried a lot of weight in St. Paul, Minnesota, as owner of the city’s largest and most prestigious hotel and a major liquor house and saloon. An immigrant from Germany, Wells was worth the equivalent today of $25 million when he died. It was said of him: “…Every dollar which he possesses has been earned since he came to America….”
Welz launched his career in hotels in 1878 when he purchased the Circle Park House in Indianapolis, a leading hostelry and favorite of circus folks. After three years, he sold it and headed north to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he initially was in the liquor trade. In his new home city, Welz eventually acquired the Clarendon Hotel. Although that hostelry had proven unprofitable under three previous owners, Welz transformed it into a first class, money-making property. “He brought to the business keen discernment, unflagging enterprise, and a knowledge of the demands of the traveling public….” After three years, however, Welz tired of running the Clarendon, sold it, and took an extended holiday with his wife to Germany.
Upon his return, Welz brought or, some sources say, leased the Merchants Hotel, shown left. This was a premier property in St. Paul at the corner of Jackson and Third Streets, a popular place for social reunions and political gatherings. Just before the convening of the Minnesota legislature and state conventions the hotel’s rotunda and halls were crowded with politicians and onlookers.
As was his usual pattern, after five years of operating the Merchants Hotel, Welz decided to get out of the hotel business and again set his sights on St. Paul’s lucrative liquor trade. Welz took a local businessman, Robert Mangler, as a partner and established a wholesale and retail liquor business called “Welz-Mangler Co., Importers and Jobbers, Wines and Liquors.”
While still involved in the liquor house, Welz’s interest took another turn. A St. Paul family named Mehls had built and attempted to operate a large luxury hotel called the Ryan. It is shown right. Apparently not experienced at managing such an establishment and facing a economic downturn during the Panic of 1893, the Mehls went bankrupt and a bank repossessed the hotel. Welz bought it.
St. Paul newspapers were positive about the takeover, citing Welz’s past success in turning hotels profitable and noting that the new owner, despite other business interests like the liquor house, would be “giving his whole attention to the Ryan.” The economy rebounded. The Ryan Hotel prospered. To quote a biographer: “[Welz] made it the leading hotel of the city….Made the name of Ryan famous throughout the Northwest….” This time Welz stayed the course, running the hotel until 1904 when he reached 71.
Unlike many of the impoverished immigrants to the U.S. who engaged in the liquor trade, William Sheppard Norman, born in 1859, was the scion of a wealthy family of Cheltenham, England that owned and operated two newspapers as well as a large printing and lithographing business. Upon immigrating to the U.S. Norman’s business acuity led to his managing Spokane companies that provided telephone, telegraph, electric and street railway services.
Hailed for his “ability, power of organization and initiative spirit,” Norman’s next foray was into hotels. When the Spokane Hotel, shown right, went into bankruptcy in 1893, he saw an opportunity, bought and remodeled it into what was termed “the finest hotel in the ‘Island Empire.’” From there Norman went on to purchase the posh Tacoma Hotel, below left, and the North Yakima Hotel, right. Aided by his brother, Benjamin, before long William was operating a string of hotels in the West under the name of Norman Hotels, Ltd. A biographer said of him in 1912: “In a summary of his life, Mr. Norman can be accorded a prominent place among the empire builders of Eastern Washington.”
Being an hotelier took Norman into the whiskey trade. Each of his hotels contained a liquor store that Norman called “Silver Grill Cellars.” Norman claimed not to be a rectifier but said he was bottling and selling only straight goods in ceramic jugs of half-gallon (below left) and gallon size. Norman’s flagship whiskey label was “Viking,” a name he never bothered to trademark. Eventually his efforts in alcohol would conflict with Washington State’s prohibition laws and he was arrested and fined.
Forced to shut off the alcohol in his hotels, Norman expanded his investments to include mining and real estate. The millionaire utilities executive, hotelier and whiskey man lived to see Prohibition repealed in 1934, remaining active into his nineties.
Unlike Welz and Norman, Harris Franklin, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, came late to the hotel business. Moreover, unlike the other two who bought struggling properties, he built an hotel himself from money he made selling whiskey in the South Dakota boom town of Deadwood.
With a partner, Franklin created the largest liquor wholesale house in the Upper Midwest region with an annual trade approaching $125,000, equivalent to more than $3 million today. This wealth also took him into successful investments in banking, mining, and railroads, all benefiting his adopted city. Despite its development, however, Deadwood lacked a first class hotel. For years business leaders had been attempting to construct one without success. One try resulted in an abandoned foundation used for a time as swimming pool for local children.
In 1902 Franklin stepped into the situation. It was only when the whiskey dealer offered in 1902 to match any contribution to a building dollar-for-dollar that construction began in earnest. The hotel, finished a year later and considered a marvel of modernity, was named for him. Shown here, half of its 80 rooms had private baths, a novelty at the time. Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Buffalo Bill Cody, Babe Ruth and world heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan were among Franklin Hotel guests in its heyday. The Franklin Hotel became Deadwood’s pride and its owner a hero.
Note: More complete posts on each of these three whiskey men may be found elsewhere on this website: Frederick Welz, February 16, 2017; William Norman, March 21, 2020; and Harris Franklin, May 30, 2017.
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