Freeman Hotel exhibit unveiled

Local news, by Erin Gallup-Main, Journal Staff WriterMany Auburn residents reminisced as others learned about the history of the 104-year legacy of the Freeman Hotel at an exhibit Monday afternoon.Auburn City Historian Loreley Hodkin researched and put on the public exhibit from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday in room 10 and in the third-floor hall of the Auburn Civic Center. Photos showed the history, receipts Janice Murch found in her grandmother?s basement gave onlookers an idea of the value of money in the 1800s and a video brought back memories of times long ago.?Every businessman in those days was a volunteer with the fire department,? said Marian Vade Walsh, who grew up at the ?home away from home.?She laughed as she told Councilman O.C. Taylor and president of the Placer County Historical Society George Lay the story of how her father, the owner of the hotel, kept Wendell Robie from driving the fire truck parked across the street.?When the alarm would go off, Wendell would jump into the truck and drive like a maniac,? she said. Since her father was on the City Council, a fellow member asked him to keep Robie from behind the wheel. So the fire chief agreed to call the hotel and tell John ?Jack? Walsh about a fire, giving him a chance to run across the street and jump in the truck before Robie even knew about the blaze.Taylor, who had heard the story before said, ?Wendell went to his grave never knowing why he couldn?t beat Jack to the truck.?The Walsh family managed the hotel for 48 years and owned it from 1898 to 1944, so others shared stories of the family as well.Edward Grey said he and a group of friends ate at the Freeman Hotel at 6 p.m. every night in 1932.?On Oct. 1, Jack Walsh, who was a draft commissioner for the service said, ?You four fellows cannot get an other exemption.? I spent five years in the service after being drafted Oct. 15.?He and others said the hotel was considered the gathering place of the community.The structure was built in 1860 at the intersection of Lincoln Way, Harrison and Elm streets. It was originally named the West Hotel after owner Elliot West. It was called the Borland Hotel after James Borland bought it in 1872 and acquired the name of Freeman in about 1880 when William A. Freeman took it over. Guests came from the Bay Area, out of state, and downtown Auburn to eat there.Freeman employed the late James E. Walsh as his hotel clerk until 1890, when Walsh left to become chief deputy sheriff. The annex, added in 1899, became the headquarters for Southern Pacific Railroad engineers in the Rocklin to Colfax cut off construction job that lasted until 1912. A 1908 fire burned a large portion of the building and the Walsh brothers immediately rebuilt and moved back in November of that same year.The Freeman Hotel stayed in the Walsh Family until 1944 when due to health issues James E. Walsh and John G. Walsh sold it to a French couple from San Francisco, the Bellurots. By 1970 the aging facility was purchased by Walter Facio, a Sacramento developer who demolished it and developed the current business complex that houses a variety of stores and the downtown Post Office.The Auburn Journal?s Erin Gallup-Main can be reached at ering@goldcountrymedia.com.