Directory > Keosauqua > Hotel Manning The story of the Hotel Manning actually began when Edwin Manning stepped ashore in 1837, completed a two story brick store in 1839 on the banks of the Des Moines River and helped plat the town that later came to be known as Keosauqua. The Hotel today sits on the 1839 stone foundation of Edwin Manning's Mercantile store. The store was expanded in 1854 to encompass a bank. Fire destroyed the original building in the early 1890's. Between 1897 - 1899 the second and third floors were added and the interior rebuilt to house a hotel and restaurant. On a blustery late April evening in 1899 more than 300 guests attended the gala that marked the opening of the Hotel Manning. Despite concessions of modern day plumbing and comfort the Hotel has not changed much. The spacious lobby and dining room feature 16-foot ceilings and original pine woodwork. Ten of the 18 rooms have private baths. The others share ample facilities "down the hall." All of the guest rooms are dressed with Manning antiques. In the words of Larry Fruhling writing for the Des Moines Register: "The Manning represents an unbroken link to the early settlement of the state, a root that has held firm for nearly 150 years, predating statehood, and representing something approaching antiquity in the relatively short history of the prairie states." Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
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