The Story of the Park Hotel

On the east side of the square in the small town of Carrollton, Ohio, stood a modest white clapboard building, which for 190 years sat in the shadow of the county courthouse . It was the resting place for many a weary traveler and also a social gathering place for many in the town. Built as a modest home, and later turned into a marble works, and finally a hotel, it was known as The Park Hotel.

In 1815, as Peter Bohart was laying out the village of Centreville in the backwoods of Ohio (present day Carrollton); the Roberts family built a large farmhouse for their growing family on Lot 32 of Bohart's Original Plat. The house was a simple “L” shaped house with a large front porch overlooking the square. Here the family grew larger and older and finally in 1859 sold the property.



The Aldridge Marble Works
From an Engraving, 1874



Nicholas J. Aldridge of New Cumberland, Ohio, came to Carrollton in 1850s, and opened a wood mill with his brother, Joshua. In 1857, at the age of 23, Nicholas purchased the Roberts home to house his new family and built a small store on the north end of the building. In this store he opened The Aldridge Marble Works, a trade that Nicholas learned as an apprentice from Armstrong Bathwell of Carrollton, along with mastering woodworking. The Aldridge Marble Works dominated this niche, producing nearly all of the cut marble and sandstone in the area, as well as, many of the tombstones. However, by 1877 Nicholas decided to retire from the masonry business and open up a hotel, much like his father operated in New Cumberland.

Nicholas made several additions to the back of the building and built an area above his old marble works for additional rooms and completely renovated the structure, and opened the hotel as The Aldridge Hotel. This was at the time Carrollton’s fourth hotel, following the Indian Queen Hotel, Hoopes House, and The Van Horn Hotel.



The Aldridge Hotel
circa 1880



In 1892, Nicholas Aldridge leased the hotel to Elias and Rebecca Fisher. Elias was the janitor at the new courthouse and so left the hotel business to his wife.  Rebecca first changed the name of the Aldridge Hotel to the Commercial Hotel. Mrs. Fisher then had the dining room area renovated and began to offer meals to both hotel guests and the general public. Her culinary skills soon became well known in the area and the dining portion of the hotel began to thrive.  However, around the turn of the century Mrs. Fisher’s health began to fail with her advancement in age and the doors of the Commercial Hotel were closed, and would remain so for a few years.

In December 1906, Mr. Grant Gregory made a deal with the Aldridge family and reopened the hotel. Mr. Gregory was a successful butcher that saw an opportunity in the hotel business after the Van Horn Hotel closed its doors earlier in the year. Mr. Gregory had purchased many of the furnishings from the luxurious Van Horn Hotel, and had them brought up the street to his newly renovated hotel. At this time, Mr. Gregory changed the name of the hotel once again and began to operate under the New Aldridge Hotel. However, Mr. Gregory apparently soon realized the hotel business was too much of a change from the butcher shop, and transferred his lease to John S. Shull. 

The Park Hotel
circa 1910

John S. Shull took over the operations of the New Aldridge Hotel in 1907, and he changed the name of the business to the Park Hotel. John added more staff to the hotel bringing the total number of employees up to six, and reworked the Sample Rooms. The Sample Rooms were two shallow store fronts that were available for travelling salesmen to set up displays and sell goods as they passed through town. This was a benefit to the salesmen as it was a constant draw for the residents to come look at their products, but moreover it was a guarantee to Mr. Shull that the travelling salesmen would put up in his hotel while they were in town.  

In 1915, John Shull purchased the Park Hotel from Grace Young, the daughter of the late Nicholas Aldridge.  In 1926, as his age was starting to low him down, John Shull sold the portion of the building that was formally the marble works and home of the Sample Rooms, to John J. Matecheck. Mr. Matecheck then tore down this portion of the hotel and built the three story brick structure, which still remains today.  On August 26, 1929, John S. Shull passed away and his brother, George continued to operate the Park Hotel. George continued to run the hotel throughout the 30’s and in 1944; John Matecheck purchased the complete building and business.

The Park Hotel & Matecheck Building
1932

The Matecheck’s operated the hotel until it was sold in 1954 through their estate, to Corwin Bowers. Mr. Bowers operated the hotel for the next 35 years before Attorney Rudolph E. Battista of Minerva purchased the building.  By this time the hotel was starting to show its age and was falling into disrepair. The building was then sold to Mr. Henry T. Myers, in 1990, who owned the building for six years before selling it in 1996 to the Carroll County Commissioners.

The Commissioners purchased the building in order to raze the structure to make room for a building to house records and serve as additional storage for the courthouse. However, until the funds for the building could be allotted, the area would serve as a parking lot for the courthouse. In 1997, the Park Hotel had its final checkout when it was razed after standing on the east side of the square for 182 years. This marked yet another loss of a historic building in Carrollton for the creation of a parking lot, as the plans for the records building seem to have been forgotten 14 years after the building was torn down.  

Today the Matecheck building can still be seen standing atop the site where the old Aldridge Marble Works and Sample Room addition of the Park Hotel stood. Also the site of the Park Hotel can still be seen today in the large void that it left on the east side of the square, which is used for Courthouse employee parking.

The Former Site of the Park Hotel
with the Matecheck Building to its North

References:

The Free Press Standard. Centennial Edition. 1915

The Free Press Standard. 1997

Hardesty's Historical Atlas. 1874. Chicago, Illinois, page 89.

Recorder of Carroll County. Deeds Files for Carrollton 1857, 1915, 1926, 1944, 1954, 1989, 1990, 1996.

Recorder of Columbiana County. Deeds Files for Centerville 1819-1833.