Otis Bucklin purchased the building and land at auction. He subsequently removed the old structures and built the four story building pictured above. He operated the hotel for awhile, and then sold it to Bucklin & Fowler. The Bristol Hotel held much significance to the town, including being home to a popular barbershop (in the basement) for more than ten years. It was also home to many businesses as well.
There are many important people that play part in hotel Bristol. One of the first, was Mr. Bucklin. Bucklin kept the hotel in the building or house mentioned above until 1882. At this time, it was still known as the Bristol house. However, he did decide to sell the hotel or house to George G. Brown in the same year. Though, he was the only landlord until August 16th, 1883. Following him was George H. Fowler. He was the landlord until March 1884. Interestingly enough, after Fowler saw how Bucklin was running things, he took charge again. The final stretch involved F.D Wilson. He took charge of managing the hotel for about two years before finally turning it to Captain William A. Beckford, in August of 1888. As we inch towards the end of important people who had control of the Bristol Hotel, Frank H. Lovejoy takes his turn on hotel Bristol. He only succeeds for a few months, in which a previous owner came back into play. In February of 1889, Mr. Bucklin comes back into the hotel. He was a landlord for only one year, until 1898. The final recognized landlord of Bristol during this time was Charles L. Follansbee. He bought the hotel from Bucklin during the late months of 1898. As you can see, there was a constant cycle of owners and landlords that took place during the start of Hotel Bristol.
Compared to hotels in New Hampshire today, the Hotel Bristol had different dimensions. Charles Forest was responsible for much of the hotel’s configuration during the time. “The main building is four stories and basement, 42 x 27; hall with shed underneath 50 x 30 feet. The house contains forty-one sleeping rooms. One-half of the old building now stands on the west side of South Main street a half mile south of Central Square, and the other half is a tenement house on the east side of South Main street, north of the street or road to Calley & Curriers crutch factory.”(Musgrave, Richard Watson. History of the Town of Bristol, Grafton County, New Hampshire. ) The dimensions of hotel Bristol were relatively small. However, based on these facts and research we can begin to see how much the hotel has grown and expanded over the years.
Unfortunately, on a bitter cold January day in 1927, fire erupted at the Bristol Hotel. Unfortunately the nearby hydrants were frozen and the hotel was completely destroyed. The entire center of the village almost went down with it. The estimated cost of damage was said to be around thirty thousand dollars. All the guests who were unfortunately in the building were directed to go outside immediately in the -30 degree temperature. Help from the town of Franklin arrived to assist the local department by connecting the pump engine line from the river to the fire. Eventually, the Bristol firemen were able to unfreeze the fire hydrants and determined the freezing cold weather caused the problem. After the Bristol hotel burnt down, it was never rebuilt but a small pocket park was put in its place.
Alexyss Galvin, Plymouth State University 2020
References:
Musgrave, Richard Watson. History of the Town of Bristol, Grafton County, New Hampshire.
The Portsmouth Herald and Times