The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Community Preservation Paying Off

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

December 14, 2016

What a joy it was to attend the open house on the 10th Anniversary of Hotel Lynn in Biggsville this past Sunday.

Hotel Lynn is the only hotel in Henderson County and has been a busy place in one of the county's quieter towns.

The short downtown Main Street of about 2 or 3 blocks houses a full-service Caseys Bank, a U.S. Post Office, Bi-County Insurance, Western Illinois Title Company, Heartland Capital Management, LLC, Hotel Lynn, a Community Building, a large new Horse & Buggy Museum, and out on the edge of town for your convenience items is Gibb's 66 with grocerys and newspapers available along with gasoline.

Of course, there are other businesses tucked away in the community and on its outskirts and the Henderson County Library is located in its nice facility behind the gas station.

The new HWY 34 by-pass around Biggsville has made the community an even more appealing place to spend the evening or a couple of weeks in the affordable Hotel Lynn,

The town has a group of community minded individuals who often come together to plan an event or an adventure such as purchasing a home that use to be a hotel, and turning it back into a hotel again.

"Biggsville's Hotel Lynn" brochure, explains that in 1902, Mrs. Nan Jamison purchased the building and named it after her youngest son. She ran it until1906. The dining room at that time was on the second floor and the kitchen was in the basement and food transported upstairs by use of dumbwaiter.

For the past fifty years, Franklin and Dorothy Jacobs resided in the hotel with Dorothy's beauty shop in the present lobby. The upstair rooms were rented as an apartment to young school teachers who taught at the Biggsville and Union schools.

Community members formed "The Biggsville Preservation Group" with individuals interested in preserving the Franklin and Dorothy Jacobs property and they successfully purchased the property at auction on November 5, 2006. There are 125 shares belonging to first around 30 and now more than 40 as shares are passed onto their children, or sold after a death.

Renovations and updates were done on a volunteer basis by shareholders ranging in age from 12 to 84! The hotel has been busy with social activities, clubs, hunters coming from Chicago as well as out of state renting the whole building for two to three weeks at times. I and my granddaughter Ali were the first to spend a night at this charming hotel 10 years ago and highly recommend it. There is full access to the kitchen or food can be catered

Anyone interested in joining the group can contact a member. President is Rich Lutz at Bi-County Insurance.