Photo Gallery
The Wescott House guest book page from August 7, 1873.
The SW corner of Main and Green Bay Streets in 1871 showing the Wescott House and barn.
The SW corner of Main and Green Bay Streets in 2023 showing the K&P Building and the Woolworth Building.
Notes
Declare Your Horses At The Wescott House in 1873
Today, when you check into a hotel, they ask you about your the make and model of your automobile.
The same was true in the 1800’s except they asked about your horses and wagon! We have some unbelievable items at the historical society and one we want to share is the 1873 guest book for the Wescott House. We’ve written about this historic hotel before. This hotel and livery were located on the SW corner of Main and Green Bay Streets in Shawano. The photos show what the corner looked like in 1871 and 2023.
The first photo is the guest book page from August 7, 1873. People from Appleton, Oshkosh, Milwaukee, New London, and Angelica stayed in the hotel. One column that’s interesting is, “THE NUMBER OF HORSES” you have with you. This was so the livery could keep track of you live stock.
Stores and hotels had livery operations in the back of their establishment because, when patrons came to town, they had to “park” the horses and wagons. So the next time you park in back of a store on Shawano’s Main Street, just think about the barns and livery operations that were in that very spot in the late 1800’s!