ANTIQUE GE REFRIGERATORS

History

While all evidence of the palisades and the black houses of Picketed Point have been effaced in the advance of progress and time, this important chapter of the early history of Marietta and Ohio will never be forgotten, nor will the romance of the past ever dim or fade.

Here on the banks of the Ohio River today, you can view the same magic beauty that fascinated early settlers in 1788, as evidenced by inscriptions in the letters of Rufus Putnam, "a country of the most pleasant climate and of the rarest beauty and enduring charm."

The Lafayette Hotel draws its name from the visit in 1825 of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution. Lafayette landed at the "point" on a boat named Herold. The towns people did not know of his plan to visit here and were unprepared for his arrival. A prominent early Marietta citizen, Nahum Ward, entertained him at his home. Lafayette continued from Marietta through several communities to his final destination of Boston, Massachusetts. A plaque near the Hotel marks the spot where Lafayette came ashore in Marietta and today the locals boast that the first tourist to visit Marietta was the Marquis de Lafayette.

The Bellvue Hotel was built in 1892 where the Lafayette Hotel stands today. It was 4 stories tall, had 55 steam heated rooms, a bar, a call bell system in every room and advertised hot and cold baths. The rate was $2.00 or $3.00 American Style. The Bellvue was destroyed by fire on April 26, 1916, at 5:40 p.m. Pictures of the fire are on display in the vestibule by the Lafayette's Gun Room Restaurant.

The Lafayette Hotel, built by Marietta businessmen, opened on July 1, 1918, and was incorporated as the Marietta Hotel Co. which owned the original building, additions, and real estate. Reno G. Hoag was hired as manager with a salary of $150 per month plus room and board for his family.

When Mr. Hoag was named manager in 1918 his eighteen year old son, S. Durward Hoag, also began working for the hotel. He helped unpack furniture and fixtures which came by boat from Cincinnati on the river packet, Liberty, a week before the opening on April 26. Eventually, Reno Hoag purchased the contents of the hotel for $25,000. For a number of years, Reno and Durward began buying stock as it was offered to them and in 1924, incorporated. Together they operated the Lafayette, making improvements and changes as the times dictated. The old Mansion House, which was built in 1835, was purchased by the hotel froThomas McCurdy and Christina McCuley. The house stood directly behind the Lafayette and was demolished to build a 30 room addition to the original hotel, The Hoag Addition.

Reno Hoag died on March 4, 1944, and S. Durward Hoag continued to run the hotel until he sold the Lafayette on December 17, 1973, to local businessman, Harry J. Robinson.

Mr. Robinson saw a need for larger facilities to accommodate meetings and banquets. He also had a passion for the preservation of big bands and ballroom dancing. In 1978, the Sternwheel Ballroom was added at a cost of $650,000. Mr. Robinson's business insight continues to benefit the Hotel and the local community by allowing the hotel to attract small and medium-sized conventions from around the state. The Grand Ballroom still plays host to big band music and ballroom dancing. Harry Robinson operated the Lafayette Hotel until May 30, 1984.

From June 1984 to July 1989, the Lafayette Hotel was operated by a limited partnership comprised mostly of out of town investors. During this period, the property suffered extreme financial set backs and remodeling over runs and was eventually turned over to the mortgage holder, Bank One, Columbus. Bank One continued to operated the property in receivership until a buyer could be found.

In May 1991, the Lin Family from Columbus, Ohio, formed the Lafayette Hotel, Inc., and purchased the property. Since then, guest rooms, the lobby and the Grand Ballroom have been redecorated and major improvements have been made to heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. More importantly, the property has been linked to Historic Hotels of America through the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Gun Room Restaurant
The Rufus Putnam Dining Room was opened on January 31, 1931. All known direct descendants of Rufus Putnam were invited as complimentary guests to the grand opening.

On August 17, 1946, the Gun Room Dining Room was formally opened to the public. Displayed on the walls is our famous collection of long rifles. Also displayed throughout the Gun Room are a boat's telegraph, steering arms, steamboat instruments, a bell, a compass and bell pulls. The pilot wheels were made for the Navy in World War II, but were never used.

The Gun Room is known as one of the area's finest dining rooms. Over the years, the spelling and name of the restaurant has changed from Gun Room Dining Room to Gun Room Restaurant and the current logo is displayed bel

In the case of water heaters, there's four possible reasons to use a union: 1. To buffer between the steel of your tank and the copper of your water lines; 2. To make installation easier; 3. To make installation "possible": 4. To make future replacement easier. Let's address all four. 1. To buffer between steel and copper: Unions designed for this are called "dielectric" unions and are meant to introduce a rubber isolation washer in order to keep steel, and copper apart. When steel and copper come together and especially when a conductor like water is introduced, you've effectively made a battery that can cause premature failure of your pipes or heater from corrosion. There are alternate items that also cancel the battery effect, besides a union. For instance, some installers merely use PVC threaded nipples to go from your steel heater's threads, to copper, which is an effective dielectric buffer. My answer to that is "Niet niet," as a Russian may say (No No!). PVC threaded nipples are weak, due to the threads being cut into them and from potential stress from possible movement of your tank later on. I've seen too many PVC nipples leak, particularly where screwed into steel. 2. To make installation easier; more poppycock. You are installing a fairly "permanant" device, and ease of installation should not pre-empt reliability. Unions are a potential source of leaking, and particularly this type shown is prone to leaking. That's because they have "flats" on them that need to be on the same plane as one another, a feat that your heater and pipes will fight you on! There's 4 "flats" in this union shown, when considering both sides of the rubber washer, and both sides of the plastic collar which is suppose to seal the nut. That's 4 seperate joints, all in one fitting. Thought of in another way, that's 8 surfaces that need to "not leak." In this picture, the pipe and union halves are decidedly misalligned. I would have preferred to use a more modern dielectric galvanized nipple instead of a union. These galvanized dielectric nipples I speak of (not shown) have plastic linings that keep the water from bridging steel-to-copper.I could not find the desired nipples at Lowe's or Ace so I was stuck using the unions. Nonetheless, if properly installed and left alone, unions are fairly trustworthy. 3. To make installation possible; Unions' primary purpose is to make it possible to slide two otherwise immobile halves, together side-to-side. With the floor keeping your heater from being moveable down-wise, and possibly your celing or joists keeping your pipes from being moveable up-wise, your only choice may be to "slide" your heater's hot and cold openings, under your home's corresponding pipes. Unions allow this. Couplings, do not, unless you use a special coupling often referred to as a repair coupling. 4. To make replacement easier; More poppycock I say. Chances are when you buy another new heater 12 years from now, it will not line up with your "convenient, quick disconnect" unions. Your goal should be permanancy and reliability, not temporariness and quickness of disassembly later on. The housing bubble of the 80's ushered in down and dirty, quick methods of hooking up appliances with flex fittings and unions so that installers could deliver and hook-up dozens of heaters in homes, in a day. It became such common practice, that many homeowners and even your younger installers nowadays, believe that is the "correct" and "best practice" method, lol. The reality is that flexible corrugated copper is only a fourth as strong as rigid copper. Hoses are more prone to chemical breakdown and rupture. Not to mention all three (unions, flexible corrugated copper, and hose) all rely on rubber washers. We've all had experience with dry rotted hose washers, not to mention they have two sides, meaning they create a situation where 4 surfaces must seal. Hey, they all work, but all things being pure, I prefer galvanized dielectric nipples, connected directly to rigid copper pipe via what's called a female sweat adapter. No thin-walled flex pipe, no washers, no rubber hoses. Don't sweat it if your home uses any of the above though, they all are proven effective. It's just more a matter of frequency of failure, and how each method has greater or lesser chance of failure, even if however they all are within an acceptable range. By the way, none of the above is to be confused with flexible copper tubing that comes in a coil. Tubing is also ok to use, however, there are some things that use odd size tubing, such as refrigeration, so don't confuse the diameters. Copper tubing of the proper diameter can accept sweat fittings. I would trust the tubing over hoses or corrugated, however, tubing has drawbacks too.