Willimantic's Gleaming Hotel
Established in 1877 by entrepreneur Seth Chauncey Hooker, the Hotel Hooker was and continues to be remembered as a key landmark within the scope of Willimantic’s history. Between its lavish two-story balcony to its grand scale size, it was for a long duration of time both a picturesque and mainstay feature of the burgeoning downtown area. Beginning as early as the late 1800’s, this property was viewed as rather noteworthy given the fine upper-class guests who frequented it; often claimed as a temporary home by proprietors interested in coming to see the success of Windham’s all-too famous mill industry. Since in some periods Willimantic saw approximately fifty trains passing through the city, the hotel served as a premiere spot, drawing in not only these more prominent figures, but the heavy traffic that coincided with the largely effective train networks going through the city, especially the ‘Air Line,’ which connected Connecticut towns to the major cities of Boston and New York.
Considering, too, the reverence and importance placed on material culture within the span of the nineteenth-century, the opulence and extravagance of the hotel, with its many accommodations and luxuries, quite satisfactorily lived up to the desires of these very prominent and wealthy individuals. Not only did it have one-hundred rooms, but it was in many ways looked upon as a pioneer within the hotel industry, given that it was one of the very first recorded lodging sites to possess electric lighting within the region of Eastern Connecticut.