One day in the early spring of 1834, a former Riverboat captain named Botkin hung a sign on the front of the stone house he constructed along State Street.

The sign read, Manchin House, lodging for travelers.

With that, he opened the doors of a place that served as a hotel of one kind or another for more than a century.

It also became home to a legendary character that left an impression on the hotel unlike any other,

an impression that continued to haunt the place until it's untimely demise.

When the Manchin House was open, Captain Botkin chose the name randomly.

It was one used by hotels all over the world, taken from the home of the Lord Mayor of London,

and Botkin thought it was as good a name as any.

It became known all over the region for its fine food, service, and location on State Street,

appealing to those traveling by both land and water.

It wasn't the first hotel in Alton, but for a time in 1836, it was the only one open for business.

Over the next few years, the Manchin House changed hands several times.

The second proprietor was Lewis Kellenberger, followed by William Harnett, who became known as its most colorful owner.

When Harnett took over, he remodeled and re furnished the place.

Advertisements boasted of large, airy bedrooms, private sitting rooms, carpeted and furnished with the latest periodicals.

The best table the market can afford, proximity to steamboat landing, a business district, and the best hotel in all.

Harnett was also a close friend of Reverend Elijah Lovejoy, and it was at the Manchin House that Lovejoy held the final meeting

of his abolitionist society on the night he was killed.

Plans have been hatched there for the defense of his fourth printing press, a defense that failed.

The hotel also hosted many famous guests, including Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Illinois's governor's Cole and Reynolds.

At the death of Elijah Lovejoy weighed heavily on William Harnett, and the hotel closed its doors for a time,

finally reopening in the mid-1940s.

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