Summer of 1900:  Rockwell- Chautauqua House becomes
THE IMPERIAL HOTEL

photo credit:  McKean County Historical Society

1880-1881 Construcation of the Rockwell House	1881 Rockwell House	1886-1990 Chautauqua House	1900 Raising of the Imperial House	1900-1933 Imperial House	1933 Imperial House burns down	2005 Today's picture of the Historical Rockwell House

 

During the summers of 1900 , a fourth floor was added by actually raising the entire building off the ground, and then building underneath. The building was slowly jacked up, a few inches at a time, and railroad ties were place under it, and then jacked again until it was a full 15 feet higher than when it was constructed in 1881.

When the building was elevated, the name changed from the Chautauqua House to the IMPERIAL HOTEL.

Located on the ground floor of the Imperial Hotel at the time of the 1933 fire were Acker's Restaurant and Saulpaugh's Newspaper, an agency owned by John D. Saulpaugh. The middle two floors were the rooms for guests, and the top floor was a penthouse apartment for the Burgess Bacon and his daughter, Margaret. A Mrs. Mary Hussey, as well as a Mrs. Audene and family, also owned fourth floor apartments.

The hotel burned to the ground in one of Smethport's many horrific fires, on January 20, 1933.