Page 6 - Taverns Stands in Woodstock - for Flipbook_Neat

The Eagle Hotel – The Eagle Temperance Hotel (1822-1890)

Titus Hutchinson purchased the tavern from Isaiah Carpenter in 1822 and constructed a two-story
brick addition that included a reception hall and dining room. Jonas Cutting then purchased the property in
1824. “Under his administration the hotel was improved and its accommodation much enlarged, and Cutting
may be regarded as one of the best landlords who have kept public house on this corner.”

On June 27, 1825 General Lafayette visited Woodstock and stopped at Cutting’s Hall which was in a building
adjoining the Eagle Hotel. A platform had been built in front of the Hall which was elaborately decorated for
the occasion. Titus Hutchinson welcomed Lafayette and said, “We bid you a cordial welcome to this town and
village. We have formed no pretensions to rival the brilliant specimens of taste and wealth you have witnessed
in populous towns. We proffer you the homage of our hearts, grateful that you have lived, that you have pos-
sessed a spirit of enterprise and that you have labored in the Cause of Liberty.” Lafayette greeted the forty Revo-
lutionary soldiers and the citizens who stood directly in front of the platform. He was then escorted to Barker’s
Hotel at the corner of Elm and Central Streets for a meal.

It was in brick hall that Dr. Joseph A. Gallup gave the first course of lectures before the medical school in 1827.

In 1830, Cutting and Phillips made the back ell two stories, and added a two-story covered porch, or “piazza” as
it was often called at the time, across the front of the buildings. That same year the name of the premises was
changed to be called the Eagle Hotel, a popular name for a facility of this kind at the time.

5