The Stillwater Hotel
Between November 1924 and the end of January 1925 Harlow and Minnie Young with the help of friends dismantled the old Beaver River Inn that sat on land destined to be flooded by the expanded reservoir. They moved the salvaged material to a lot they owned on higher ground nearby [see my post of 8/6/24 at https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-beaver-river-inn.html]. They used the salvaged material to construct a new hotel a short distance back from the projected new shoreline. As shown above, the new Beaver River Inn had a two-story section on the side facing the water with rooms upstairs. The entrance was through a story and a half building attached behind the main building. A wrap around porch provided a place to relax overlooking the reservoir and surrounding hills. The reincarnated Beaver River Inn was open for business for the 1925 summer season.
Although it’s hard to see because of the extensive later renovations, the present Stillwater Hotel is still in the very same location. Successive owners added a little here and a little there until the 1925 hotel was completely encased by the newer additions.
Harlow and Minnie Young continued to operate their new Beaver River Inn for the next few years. They were quite attached to the small vacation community that was starting to take shape on the west shore of the new reservoir, so they built themselves a snug camp on a high hill just behind the hotel. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that they were preparing to retire from the hotel business, but wanted to retain a tangible connection to Stillwater. They retired at the end of the 1927 season.
Purcell’s Stillwater Hotel: 1928 – 1950
In May of 1928 the Youngs sold the Beaver River Inn to Douglas J. Purcell; his wife, Catherine “Kate” Yousey; and their youngest son, Robert J. Purcell. For the next few years, the Purcell family kept calling the hotel at Stillwater the Beaver River Inn. By about 1930, however, they became concerned that their customers might be confused by the hotel’s name so they changed it to the Stillwater Hotel. It has been known by that name ever since. No significant physical changes were made to the hotel building during the Purcell era.
The Purcells had financed their purchase of the Stillwater Hotel by giving a mortgage on the property to the former owners, Harlow and Minnie Young. Minnie and Harlow Young both died in the fall of 1943. Pearl Smith, a niece who had lived with them in Lowville for a number of years, inherited their estate. For some unknown reason, by April of 1950 the Purcell family could no longer meet the mortgage payments, so Pearl Smith foreclosed and took back the property. She had no intention of running the hotel herself and looked for a buyer. Later that summer she sold the Stillwater Hotel to Emmett and Marge Hill.
Hill’s Stillwater Hotel: 1950 – 1972
Before buying the Stillwater Hotel, Emmett Hill worked as a forest ranger based in Glenfield in the Black River valley. In those days forest rangers were politically appointed. When he decided to buy the Stillwater Hotel, Hill wanted to keep working as a ranger, so he arranged for his political friends to subdivide the jurisdiction of Ranger Bill Marleau of Big Moose Station. The rationale given for this division was that it would be quicker to get to the fire tower on Stillwater Mountain if the ranger lived in Stillwater.
Emmett Hill had a reputation as a heavy drinker. During the Hill’s ownership the main renovation to the hotel was the addition of the current bar room. Emmett used the bar as his ranger office while his wife, Marge, managed the hotel and did the cooking. Eventually, complaints about the use of a bar room as a ranger station reached Albany. As a result, the Conservation Department decided that a separate ranger office should be built at Stillwater. The ranger’s cabin that still stands near the landing was built during 1966. Emmett Hill, always a chain-smoker, died of lung cancer in 1967. Marge Hill continued to operate the hotel until 1972.
Two developments that would prove to be consequential occurred while the Hills owned the hotel: a new road and the rise of recreational snowmobiling.
For many years visitors to Stillwater had arrived by automobile by driving the long dirt road from Lowville. After the Stillwater Reservoir was completed Fisher Forestry, owner of the cottage lots for sale at Stillwater, took many preliminary actions to try to establish a road connection to Big Moose. They succeeded in gaining permission to use the existing International Paper logging roads along the reservoir, but had no success in completing the road. Finally, in 1955 a road was cut through from Big Moose Station to Stillwater. For the first time Stillwater had direct access to the hamlet of Old Forge and the other settlements along the Fulton Chain of Lakes. It has never been paved.
The first modern snowmobile appeared in Stillwater in 1959. Winter visitation almost immediately took off. The Stillwater Hotel was soon a regular stop for snowmobilers as winter became and remains a profitable tourist season.
Mahoney’s Stillwater Hotel: 1972 – 1988
A couple from western New York bought the Stillwater Hotel in 1972. Dan Mahoney was a barber. He moved to Stillwater with his wife, Sue, and their two children, Jeff and Julie. Dan was apparently not a people person but was a good builder. Everybody loved Sue. She was outgoing, a good cook, and a good manager. People sometimes visited the hotel’s restaurant specifically to sample Sue’s sweet rolls. During the time they owned the hotel the building was expanded substantially by encasing the original hotel in a new Swiss chalet-style building. The Mahoneys also built a small motel block behind the hotel to provide more modern accommodations. In 1988 they moved to Old Forge, where Sue opened a restaurant called the Muffin Patch while Dan worked as a carpenter with their son Jeff.
Marian Stroehmer and Joe Romano’s Stillwater Hotel: 1988 – present
Marian and Walt Stroehmer from Rockland County, N.Y. just happened to be looking to buy a bed and breakfast in the Adirondacks in 1988 at the same time as the Mahoneys were ready to move to town. The Stroehmers wanted to find a place where Marian could pursue her hospitality skills and her love for fishing, canoeing, hiking, biking, and skiing. The Stillwater Hotel met their criteria.
Marian remembers that they fell in love with the beauty of the place as soon as they saw the reservoir stretching off into the distance. It snowed at Stillwater on the Fourth of July that year. Instead of being discouraged Marian decided the snow was a sign that the hotel needed a gift shop where she could sell shivering campers a sweatshirt or two.
After Walt’s untimely death, Marian continued to operate the hotel on her own. In 1994, Joe Romano became her husband and business partner. In order to improve the restaurant part of the business, over the years they expanded the kitchen, added a large deck overlooking the reservoir, and added a new dining area beyond the bar. The Romanos also updated the motel rooms and added a “honeymoon suite” by converting the former icehouse into a king guest room. They operate the hotel year-round. It continues to serve its traditional purpose as the de facto community center for Stillwater residents and visitors.
Sources: interviews with Terry Perkins, the DEC Forest Ranger at Stillwater from 1967 until 1998. Terry personally knew Emmett and Marge Hill, Dan and Sue Mahoney, and of course the present owners Marian and Joe Romano. Additional Information was provided by Marian Romano and Stillwater resident Dennis Buckley. A more detailed version of this article with footnotes appears in Chapters 13 and 14 of my book Beaver River Country, Syracuse University Press, 2022.
Illustrations; vintage postcards from the author’s collection, photo of the current Stillwater Hotel by Meredith Leonard.
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