By Jeanette Fleck
WSU Intern
Across the river from downtown, the year 1900 brought the Bismarck Hotel to Westfield. Thomas M. Buschmann had commissioned architect Augustus W. Holton to design the luxury hotel on the Depot-adjacent grounds that previously held his father’s Railroad House Hotel (built 1857, and rumored to have held Westfield’s first Christmas tree), at what is today number 16 Union Avenue. It had tin ceilings and Turkish carpets in all 60 rooms – 37 of which were sleeping quarters – and a working elevator to the roof, where live orchestras or vaudeville shows would perform for the guests. The hotel would have embodied exactly what we recognize as the Roaring Twenties, but it’s unclear if it stayed open long enough.
Thomas Buschmann died in 1908. His father, John C. Buschmann, Sr., owned a tobacco company and whip factory next door (in the building then known as Buschmann Block), and he and his still-living sons took over ownership of the hotel. However, the original owner of the Railroad House died, himself, in 1910. After these deaths, the fate of the Bismarck Hotel is unclear. It stayed open until at least 1915, and possibly until after 1925, but by 1928, the hotel was confirmed to be out of business. The tobacco company next door continued until about 1937, closing around the same time that John C., Jr., the last of Buschmann’s sons left on Union Ave., finally passed away.
In 1930, small businesses began to move into what used to be the Bismarck Hotel. Some offshoot of White Industries, whether selling magazines, greeting cards, miscellaneous gifts, or anything else. White’s stores stayed in the building for 50 years, almost to the day, before leaving the building vacant in 1980… until a string of businesses moved in and out. Notably among these were Lawry Air Freight, the Public Employees Service Organization, and Universal Vice Corp, and a fishing supply manufacturer called the U.S. Line Co. By 2000, those businesses were clearing out, and the Bismarck Hotel was once again for sale.
Meanwhile, next door, Pilgrim Candle, a small local business, had acquired Buschmann Block in 1995, moving from much smaller premises inside the Mill at Crane Pond. The large, historic building was a perfect venue for selling scented candles and other gifts. When the building next door went up for sale, Joe Shibley, the founder of Pilgrim Candle, made the purchase, and began a restoration of the hotel. Once again, the buildings are under the same ownership.
Today, the Bismarck Hotel, embossed with the words “Westfield Visitor Center,” holds Pilgrim Candle’s “Store Next Door,” as well as Soup’s On, a breakfast and lunch café. Formerly, an art studio and bookshop called the Black Dog Gallery, run by artist Jackie French Koller, occupied the far right side of the hotel, but according to the gallery’s website, she moved East in 2010. Her artwork, much of which features scenes around Westfield, is still being sold through the café.
