Halliday House

Hartford, John

picture

Buildings
Hotels

Cairo (Ill.)

There are few visitors to Cairo who haven't heard of the historic Halliday Hotel, located on Second and Ohio streets, and overlooking the site of old Fort Defiance at the junction of two rivers. It was completed in 1859 and opened under the name \"The St. Charles.\" This hotel early won a reputation for the excellency of its cuisine and for its atmosphere of true southern hospitality. During the Civil War it was the center of military activity and the scene of much of the social life that day. Most famous of the Halliday's war-time guests was General U. S. Grant, who occupied room 215. To-day the room still contains the furnishings exactly as they were during the stay of the distinguished Civil War General. Walls of the hotel lobby are decorated with pictures of Fort Defiance, gunboats on the river, and Grant, together with some of his officers. Tradition has it that dungeon-like chambers in the cellar of the hotel were used to conceal fugitive slaves at one time, and later used as quarters for captured Confederate soldiers. At this hotel many scores of packet steamboat passengers stopped daily, for it was the largest, most luxurious and most famous of all the hosteleries between St. Louis and Memphis and was the equal of most of the largest and best hotels to be found in those places.

Items in the UMSL Digital Library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. The contents of the UMSL Digital Library are made publicly available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Although the nature of archival and manuscript materials sometimes makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item, it is the user's responsibility to use them according to all applicable terms. Please contact the contributing partner for additional information regarding copyright status of a particular digital image, text, data set, or sound or video recording.

p29-ovr-1-58

Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library