Globe Hotel, Jackson, Amador County

The history of Jackson's Globe hotel, from cloth or canvas house to three-story brick, is a tale that spans more than 120 years. A structure or habitation of some kind has stood on that northeast corner of Main and Court since at least 1851.

In recent weeks (spring, 1973) Logan has been researching the Globe as a mini-project within a larger work of the damage wrought by the great Jackson fire of 1862 .... Not long ago Logan asked the proprietors of the Globe how old they thought the building was. "About 114 years," the answer came. That would mean it was constructed in 1859. Logan is not sure what evidence or legend they based that judgement or guess upon, but they may be almost exactly right.

How old is the Globe? Did it survive the 1862 inferno when a town became a torch? Has it always been three stories, and has it always been "the Globe?" These questions Logan will answer, now about the venerable hotel, and ultimately, about other buildings surviving that awful blaze.

"In August, 1850, there were seven buildings in... (Jackson)... ," wrote historian Jesse Mason in our county history. None of them, it appears, were on the present Globe site. In September, 1851, however, barrister J.T. Hartley (who decamped soon after) had what is now the foot of Court Street 'surveyed. The proposed lot was bounded, on one side, by "the cloth building next north of it."

We aren't told in the field notes of the survey nor by any other record who owned that cloth house, but it may have been Frank Stampfli, the first owner of record encountered in 1854. In those days, of course, a house was not necessarily a home, i.e., a residence. It usually was a "hotel" of some kind where space on the floor or in a flea-ridden bunk was sold for sleeping, and plain fare for eating.

The first survey of Jackson's incorporated town, done in December and January, 1854-55, calls the corner house "Stamfley's Hotel." Hence, for perhaps at least 120 years, we've had on that corner a hotel! The formation of Amador county in 1854, and an economy stimulated by presence of the government seat, brought boom conditions to Jackson in 1854 and '55. Numerous substantial buildings were erected, many of them "fire-proof' brick. But Logan doubts that Stampfli during these years converted his frame hotel to brick.

By 1856, Stampfli had acquired a partner, Henry Trueb, Jr. Assessor H.A. Eichelberger assessed the value of the hotel at only $600 that year. It seems by that valuation that Stampfli and Trueb's hotel was still wooden. That same year Stampfli sold his interest to partner Trueb, collecting $2,000 for the hotel and lot fronting 34 feet on Main, and 41 feet on Court, plus the adjacent lot on the east and its out buildings.

If the other lot and frame buildings were not thrown in, a $2,000 selling price for half interest would indicate the hotel was brick. As sole owner Trueb naturally changed the hotel's name from Stampfli's to (not Trueb or Globe) but "Republic House." It would be another decade or more before it became the Globe. Another transaction in 1858, when Trueb purchased the lot next north, may give us the clue needed to judge when the original brick structure standing there today was built.

Today, the venerable Globe Hotel and lot on which it stands, fronts about 50 feet on Main street, east side. If you wonder why Logan emphasizes that seemingly minor detail, he believes that front dimension may be the clue to when the present brick - or part of it - was built. When Stampfli and Trueb owned the "house" in 1856, and when Stampfli sold to Trueb in 1858, the frontage was just 34 feet on Main.

When did Trueb acquire the extra frontage? If Logan can determine that he can probably determine when the hotel on Court and Main first became brick. The search was short. On September 21, 1858 (book C, page 633, deeds, Tony Sutton's office) the fact is found.

Samuel A. Phoenix and wife Susan sold to Trueb for $200 the "lot and building bounded south by premises owned by Trueb known as the Republic House, west by Main, north by William Rodgers, and east by the premises of said Trueb."

The lot, says book C, measured 14 feet on Main, and was 43 feet deep or long. Combining that lot to his own gave Trueb a corner lot with 50-foot frontage - as it is today - upon which to build a new brick hotel. Hence, Logan believes that sometime between 1858 and the awful fire of 1862 Trueb razed two frame buildings and erected one brick. Alas, we have no local papers from those years extant to tell us exactly when it went up.

Without those papers or other documents, Logan will have to conclude the Globe was constructed between 1858 and 1862. Then came August 23, 1862, a Saturday, and about a quarter to 2 in the afternoon. Hot ashes carelessly set against a wooden outbuilding behind Reichlings on Main, west side, midway between Water and Court, ignited.

After the first flames leaped, most of the town - including many "fire-proof' brick buildings - lay as smoldering ash and brick rubble in two hours. But did the brick Republic house survive? According to newspaper reports of the holocaust, Trueb's "Republican (sic) House," a two-story brick, was "burned out and partially insured." Notice, while weighing whether being "burned out" is the same as being burned down, that the account said "two-story" brick. That's evidence that the first two floors of the present hotel were erected first.

Also burned out was Charley Steckler's two-story brick across Court. But we learn from a letter reproduced in our Thompson and West county history that the city engineer ordered Steckler's walls pulled down. Did he likewise order the Republic house's burned out walls rubbled, too? One day Logan will find a source to answer the question. Until then, consider that Trueb's walls remained standing, and that he rebuilt the interior and the roof. On that basis Logan concludes that the present Globe (its first two stories anyway, that is, the shell) is between 111 and 115 years.

By April 11, 1863, or earlier, the new Republic house was open for business. Advertising his office there was "T.(errence) Masterson, Justice of the Peace, Township One." Later that year Trueb leased the new two-story hotel to his father, Henry Trueb, Sr., and sold it outright to him early in 1864 for $5,000.

Certain questions, nonetheless, remain. When did that third story go up? When did the hotel become "the Globe?" And what did it take to equip and outfit a two­story hotel in 1863. Logan relearned a lesson about history in writing this on the Globe Hotel. It is a lesson worth learning by you as well. What is history? It is not, as one wag put it, what you write about what nobody knows. But it is what a historian concludes did happen, inferred from all the facts known and avail­able to the writer.

Mark that well: on the facts known and available! History and history columns are written on the basis of what is known. But what if new facts are found after the writing? They may force a modification or even complete change of the "history."

What the writer wrong initially for not waiting until "all" facts were discovered? Simply answered: fault the writer if his or her conclusion from the facts does not follow, but don't always counsel waiting. Then history would never be written! Thus, history is a dynamic thing, whose dynamism, however, is not proportionate to the writer's imagination, but to his fund of facts.

Why, Logan, the long-winded digression? You'll see. He began writing this subject weeks ago. Afterwards, a new fact - a photograph - was discovered, and it compelled a new conclusion and rewriting of history. That earlier column began: "Was the brick 'Republic House' ... the forerunner of today's Globe hotel - originally built as two or three stories?

"The present owner, Frank Boskovich of Jackson tells Logan he's certain it has always been three..." "But what do we make of these facts?" that first column asked. The newspaper account of the 1862 fire told us the "two-story" brick Republic house was gutted....

"Again, after the fire of '62 when the Republic hotel was either completely or mostly reconstructed, we another description as two-story. "Maybe, the original brick Republic house, built, judged, between 1858 and 1862, was only two stories. "And maybe," that first column reasoned, "the new Republic house built after the '62 fire was three stories that is, first floor shops as now, and the two-story hotel above.

"Is that what James Carroll's ad in '66 means? A two­story hotel above street level shops? (Ah, history, name is speculation!) Then, despite these clues and other half-hints in picture and print, that the Republic house was initially two story, Logan was forced to conclude, based upon facts, known and available to him, that owner Boskovich was right.

"Whenever the present brick was built it was three stories; and probably the three-story hotel was built folowing the August, 1862 fire. "Therefore," Logan wound up that column, "must conclude that today's Globe dates from 1863 thus is about 110 years old." If Logan can recollect in tranquility the emotion predominating upon finishing that first column, it was probably one of pride. Pride in that he had refused to be impulsive, or 1eap to a conclusion based upon a fact or two. No, he reasoned conservatively, based upon facts known available that the Globe had always been a three-story brick.

And Logan was wrong. And the "history" he written in that first column was "wrong." It's the Globe, of course. Beautiful balcony, isn't long since gone. Notice the elegant, two-story brick hotel! Two stories. Two. What year? Was it still Republic house or Globe when this was taken? Dont know yet

Since Logan writes these pieces several weeks in ad­vance, there is no way of knowing the reaction, if an to last time's revelation that the Globe was once a two­story, balconied brick.

The writer hopes the news inspires you to help him out. Can you remember being told, or can you find out , when the third story went on. And, can you date that (two-story) photographzf Unless Logan hears from you he will, by poring over old papers or scanning hoary deeds, one day find out and let you know. About all of importance left in our brief annals the Globe, then, is its name. From "Stampfley's Hotel in the 1850s to "Republic House" and "Carroll's Hotel" from then into the 1870s and beyond. When was the hotel named "Globe"?

On May 30, 1868, one Andrew Douet sold to one Henry Schunk (for $2,000) half interest in lot and build­ing known as the "Republic House." The name "Carroll's Hotel" didn't last long. That same Douet sold his other half interest to David Mat(t)ley who would be the owner of record with Trueb again when town lot deeds were issued in 1872.

In the October 2, 1869 issue of the Dispatch, however, we notice an ad inserted by Schunk which started running that May 22, announcing the "Globe" was for sale. Sometime therefore between May, 1868 and May, 1869 Schunk and or Milt(t)ley renamed "Republic House" as "the Globe." Logan hasn't the slightest hint from whence the name came.

Before concluding these brief annals of one of Jackson's oldest buildings, Logan wants to tell you what it took in the 1860s to equip a two-story hotel. After the fire in August, 1862, the gutted "Republic House" was rebuilt, reroofed and ready for business. On October 21, 1863, owner Henry Trueb, Jr. leased the building to his father and then itemized its furnishings, equipment, utensils and stores (supplies), to wit: "2 dozen bar bottles, 6 dozen tumblers, 36 spring mattresses, 36 bedsteads (less than half on the first floor, probably) 72 blankets, 73 sheats (sic), 24 spreads (who rated the spreads?), 24 wash stands, 24 basins.

"All barroom fixtures, two clocks, five pictures (the ones in the hotel now?), one commode, 3 barroom tables, 5 drawing tables, 2 kitchen tables, 300 gallons of brandy and wine. "6 dozen plates, 6 dozen knives and forks, 6 dozen cups and saucers and dishes, 4 dozen soup plates and spoons, salt (tellers?). "Pans and buckets, cooking stove and furniture, 3 oil lamps, 4 dozen chairs, and 6 pigs. All personal property." All that, (but only one commode) for $150 a month.

Yesterday'S "Republic House" and "Carroll's Hotel," and "Stampfley's tent house" before that. Today's "Globe."

Though burned out and gutted in 1862, those brick walls, the lower two stories anyway, probably date from 1858.

Return to our Jackson Tour or click on our Miner to end your tour

Information, photographs courtesy of the Amador County Archives, and the Chronicling America Database