Washington House Hotel - Morris

Morris began as a location on the proposed Illinois and Michigan Canal, which when completed, created the final link between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.

During its construction from 1836 to 1848, Morris was one of several towns around Chicago that grew up along its banks. In time, Morris would help supply canal contractors, provide housing for workers, and entice newcomers to Grundy County.

Soon, Morris would be become the county seat, and with canal business and other commercial concerns located in the area, it was not surprising that many excellent hotels began operating here, including the Commercial Hotel, the Carson House, the Kay House and the Washington House (Wagner House).

In 1867, Phil Lehr constructed a wooden hotel with a large gable roof on the north side of Main Street, between Liberty and Wauponsee Streets. Conrad O. Wagner soon purchased the building from Lehr and renamed it the Washington House Hotel.

Conrad, who was born in Prussia in 1828, eventually had two sections added to the west of the building in 1875 and 1877. The brick addition, seen here in the Then image, surrounded a quarter block with an open court in the center. The north end was one long stable filled with single stalls, and on the west side, facing Wauponsee Street, were spacious shelters for carriages and wagons.

Patterned after popular hotels in Germany, and one that Wagner remembered as a child, the building can be seen on the right side of the street.

After Wagner’s death in June 1892, his wife Angeline (Lauerman) ran the family business until around 1910, when their granddaughter Josephine and her husband Jacob Harder became the proprietors.

The then photograph shows Main Street looking west from Liberty Street in downtown Morris. The now photograph shows a view of the old hotel and stables complex looking east toward Liberty Street from Wauponsee Street. Today the building is known as the Harder apartments.

Conrad and Angeline Wagner (who died in May 1932), are both interned in Evergreen Cemetery, Morris.