My Town had a hotel in the center built around 1825 & it burned down 1929. The Hotel is the "original" building on the right side of the structure. Sometime later, the left addition was added, which had a general store & barber shop on the 1st level with a dance hall on the second floor. Our hotel was a recognized stage coach stop in the 1800's.
We (I) decided that a great Historical Society project for this years bicentennial of our town would be to recreate the village center during our centennial, (1915). Our hotel is the first to be done.
Working off of a few photographs with no records of the building structure, I loaded a couple pictures into one of my CAD programs I use in my sign shop. Figuring that 80" is a good representation of an exterior door, I was able to scale out the entire building.
When I decided to attempt this building, I wanted to "clean up" the lines a little. I wanted the building to look a little less "cobbled together" so I unified the front porch and the roof line.
The point of this build was not to create an exact model of the building- but mostly to give a representation of how it once was, considering we now have a used car lot where this large building once sat.
I still have a little trim to apply, and steps to build, but it is nice to take a couple old pictures, and craft it into something nice. The bonus to this project- I will have some more buildings to place during our seasonal Trains in the Town Hall... Glad to have the "Bloomfield House" on the display.
