BY PETE WICKLUND
Journal Times | Posted: Friday, September 14, 2007 12:00 am
UNION GROVE - The once-grand Hotel Chartier has stood firm at Main Street and Mill Avenue for 89 years. But it may finally be getting ready to check in to the history books.
Village Attorney Julie Gay has served papers to the hotel's owners, Bruce and Mary Chartier, that the village plans to once again begin condemnation action on the vacant three-story, 24-room hotel. A condemnation lawsuit was going to be filed this week, Gay said Monday.
It marks the second time in four years the village has taken those steps. No follow through on razing the structure took place after the state issued a no-habitation rule in 2003. Gay said she wants village leaders to have a more up-to-date court ruling in place before trying condemnation again.
If the court authorizes the village to raze the structure, the village could try to recoup its costs through a special assessment on the property or a tax lien.
On Monday, Gay said she could not predict how long condemnation proceedings would take.
According to Village Trustee Gordon Svendsen, chairman of the village's Community Development Authority, the old hotel has fallen into such disrepair that it would take the at least $400,000 to $500,000 to correct matters.
At the time residents were ordered out of the building in 2003, the odor of cat urine permeated the hallways of each floor of the hotel. The presence of unlicensed cats and unaddressed fire, building, electrical and plumbing code violations resulted in state, county and village officials taking steps to close the hotel.
A stairwell in the middle of the building was virtually inaccessible due to garbage and buckets and a tank were being used to collect water from a leaking roof.
Grand past
The Hotel Chartier was once "the place" in the village, local historians say.
The Hotel Shephard, as it was originally called, opened to much fanfare in the winter of 1919. Wesley Shephard, a Yorkville native, began building the hotel in 1918, which, at the time, was called Union Grove's "New Public House." The building's price tag: $26,000.
Newspaper accounts from the time boast of the hotel's 25 rooms with steam heat and sinks in each room that had both hot and cold running water. Each floor had separate bathroom facilities for men and women, but no private in-room toilets.
At its opening in January 1919, newspaper accounts said 400 visitors from throughout southeast Wisconsin came to inspect the new building and to take part in grand-opening ceremonies.
According to local history accounts, the Shephards soon developed a reputation for meals that were served in the first-floor dining room, particularly Sunday dinners of roast chicken and dressing, mashed potatoes, baked squash, raisin salad and ice cream. The restaurant received notation several times in the national eating guides compiled by Duncan Hines.
The Shephards sold the hotel to Harry and Amelia Morris in the 1940s. The Morrises, who came to Union Grove from Illinois, called the hotel the Blue Bell Hotel.