Program features story of the Glidden House Hotel

DeKALB – The Glidden Homestead will host a program at 2 p.m. Sunday on the Glidden House Hotel, one of the central structures in downtown DeKalb for more than 80 years.

Glidden board member Jeff Marshall will guide visitors through the history of the hotel from the time it was built in 1876 until it burned down in 1962.

“Jeff recently brought together several new historical pieces that help us understand the history of the Glidden House Hotel,” Rob Glover, Glidden Homestead executive director, said in a news release. “The hotel is largely forgotten today. But, in its day, it was a busy and prominent part of DeKalb.”

Marshall is a DeKalb native. He is a Haish relation and one of the foremost authorities on Jacob Haish.

He maintains a website devoted to Haish, called Jacob Haish Mfg. Co., that preserves the history of Jacob Haish’s company and his many contributions to society.

From noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, visitors can tour the museum and the home where Joseph Glidden and his family lived when he created barbed wire and see a working on-site blacksmith shop.

Glidden built the Glidden House Hotel in 1876. When it opened in 1877, he moved there and made the hotel his home. At one time, the hotel boasted 100 rooms. Glidden operated a space in the basement of the hotel where he and other DeKalb innovators started companies and invented devices that they went on to patent. A massive fire destroyed the hotel in 1962.

Programs at Glidden Homestead are made possible in part by the Mary E. Stevens Concert and Lecture Fund.

The Glidden Homestead, at
921 W. Lincoln Highway, is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays or by special arrangement. Admission is $4 an adult and free for children younger than 14.

For information, visit www.gliddenhomestead.org, email info@gliddenhomestead.org or call 815-756-7904.