Through various configurations and remodels, the hotel served all classes of travelers and diners under the Fess family until 1972 - one of the longest-running service establishments in Madison.

[1] It's unclear when Fess began renting rooms, but in 1871 he built the first part of the two-story cream brick structure on the right in the photo.

[1] (These first-story windows are still intact from the 1870s - giving a rare glimpse of how a typical business looked before plate glass was invented in the 1860s.

Above the second floor is a paneled entablature and above that a mansard roof covered with tin shaped to look like tile - appropriate for the Italianate-styled brickwork.

[1] In the 1890s George Jr. bought more adjacent property and in 1901 remodeled pre-existing buildings to add the 3-story section on the left in the photo to the hotel.

It was a temperance hotel through all the years the Fesses ran it, not serving alcohol, and for that reason Carrie Nation stayed there in 1901.