The two-story apartment building on Main St. at Cornell Ave. has changed hands many times since it was built more than a century ago. In addition to serving as a hotel, it housed a teen recreation center and village library for many years, and provided the setting for community dinners and bazaars even after the hostelry closed.
The site was occupied by a “public house” from the earliest days of the community, as the first tavern in the village was kept there by George Foote some time before 1795, according to one early account of the village.
A hotel, known as the Green Hotel, was reportedly built on the spot sometime about 1840. Whether its name came from that of an owner or from the color of paint used is not entirely clear, but it apparently burned down not long before the Mansion House – now the Pillars—was built. One of its owners was a Mrs. Mattice, according to a newspaper account, and the owner at the time of the fire was given as a Samuel McMorris.
A report in the Hobart Independent in August, 1906 describing the construction of a new hotel to replace the destroyed structure, states, “Samuel McMorris, who for a time ran the Commercial Hotel here, secured from the people of the village $1,000 in subscription to start the enterprise. The cost increased as the work progressed (!) and difficulty in raising money on mortgages followed. At one time several thousand dollars in mechanics’ and builders’ liens were recorded against the property and it was finally sold at mortgage foreclosure, and passed into the hands of James R. Cowan and Jacob Lawrence of Hobart and Samuel Brice of Oneonta, who in 1906 sold the property to Mrs. W. S. Brazil. Prior to that, the hotel had been leased by an S. W. Utter, who “conducted a first class hostelry,” according to the article in the Independent. When Mr. McMorris saw the load was too great for him, he left town. “Several mechanics lost heavily for materials furnished and work done on the property.” (The building was later reported to have cost $12,000 to construct.)
Price was $7,000