Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1912 — Pioneer Hotel in Lake County Destroyed by Fire. [ARTICLE]

Pioneer Hotel in Lake County Destroyed by Fire.

The old hotel at Merrillville, one of the old land marks of Lake county, was destroyed by fire last Wednesday. This hotel was built about 1840, and the Crown Point Star says it has been a road house for movers going west since that time. It was known for years as the “CalL fornia Exchange,” and had been in constant use for nearly seventy-two years. The pioneer dances of Lake county were held there, and if the old building could have told many strange stories would 'have been told, perhaps some that it would not do to print. In the early days it was a rough house many times. It was built by Dudley Merrill, who conducted it up to about 1854, since which it has changed hands a number of times. Several farms were traded for the place ir days gone by, but no landlord ever left the place rich.