THE OLD TRAIN HOTEL

 

 

  You can hear the train coming long before you see it. The steady, pulsating noise of the locomotives powerful diesel engines grow louder and louder as it bears down on the crossing. Peace loving doves looking for spilled grain along the tracks franticly burst into flight as the Union Pacific coal train screams across the two lane road in the tiny town of Blue River, Missouri.

  Within minutes the caboose clears the crossing to reveal a view that probably hasn’t changed much in a hundred and forty one years. A magnificent two story building dripping with nostalgic epitomes stands out from the other twelve buildings that make up this little rural community nestled in a beautiful valley surrounded by lush pastures on one side and a river on the other.

  Situated just a scant fifty feet from the tracks, it was originally built as a hotel by the railroad in 1862 for their workers and passengers who needed a place to rest. It also provided them protection from the continuous skirmishes between Missouri and Kansas factions during the civil war.

   The infamous Jesse James, his brother Frank and Cole Younger were heavily involved in these conflicts. The Younger family owned a great deal of the land around Little Blue and local historians believe their family built most of the town. Frank and Cole were known to have stayed at the hotel many times in the1800s.

   “They preferred the bedroom at the front of the hotel on the second floor,” current owner Joan Mericle explained. “It was the biggest of the five bedrooms and most importantly, had a good view of the road and tracks with plenty of windows so they could see any one coming.”

   A photo in the Jessie James museum shows Cole sitting on the hotels huge porch and he talks about getting off the train with Frank at Little Blue and staying at the hotel in his book.

  Joan lived on the northeast side of Kansas City for over twenty years and graduated from Northeast High school in 1947. The family used to own Lynn’s grocery store at 5910 St. John. The area has many old mansions and huge homes which she always admired and loved so it only seemed natural for her and her husband Ross to buy the former hotel in 1995.

  Numerous changes had to be made to the lobby, kitchen and huge dinning room to convert the hotel into their private residence. During renovations it was discovered that the walls were made of horse hair plaster and nailed together with square nails.

   The second floor was basically left like it was when originally built fourteen decades ago. With kerosene lanterns and coal burning stoves located in each bedroom, the threat of fire was a constant problem in the 1800s so the builders installed two sets of stairs for escape routes.

    As we made our way upstairs, Joan pointed out dozens of scuff marks and gouges on the steps that were caused from men wearing spurs more than a hundred years ago when they trudged up to the bedrooms after a hard days work.

    The ancient wood floor creaked slightly as we walked from one tiny bedroom to another. Those same noisy boards might have very well woke up a sleeping Frank James or Cole Younger in the middle of the night and saved them from a would be assassin wanting to make a name for himself. It’s easy to let your imagination take over and picture either man nervously standing next to the front window during the day with gun in hand, watching the road below after hearing riders on horse back approaching the hotel. Up to four men shared two beds in each of the five bed rooms which appear to be about eight by eight feet in size. Everyone shared a large linen closet in the hallway.

   The outside of the house is equally interesting. Beautiful glass insulators that once sat high atop telegraph poles along the railroad tracks in the 1800s form a nice edging to several flower gardens. Joan loves to work in the yard and has unearthed fantastic pottery and dozens of old glass bottles buried in various spots and even had some surface in the river behind the house. She has most of the bottles on her window sills so they rattle against the glass when trains pass by. Rusty, iron rings that once held horses and mules are still visible in the rock wall on the west side of the property. The horses were kept in a large coral where the backyard is located today.

  A train station with a telegraph office once occupied the area between the hotel and tracks but succumbed to father time long ago. No trace of it exists today but the garage is thought to have been built from its foundation.

   I asked Joan why they chose to buy such an old house. “Well,” she said. “It’s a simple house but very warm and comfortable. I love history and this place certainly has plenty of it. I often think about the men and women who stayed here over the years and some times wonder what their lives were like.”

Ross likes the old place because it has a lot more personality than a new house. “Its given service and blessings to a lot of people for a long time,” he said.

  Joan’s mother, Calla, who lived to be a hundred years old spent the last ten years of her life living with Ross and Joan in Little Blue. She grew up on a farm in Clay County Missouri next to the James farm. The family was dirt poor and had a pretty rough time making it. On her eighth birthday Calla was playing with her five siblings on the dirt road in front of the farm when Frank James came riding by in a horse drawn buggy.

   “Today is my birthday,” Calla yelled out.  Frank wished her a happy birthday and continued to his house. He returned a few minutes later and presented her with a huge turkey and all the trimmings as a birthday gift. She found out many years later that they shared the same birthday and he had given her his birthday meal since her family couldn’t afford one.

   It must be a wonderful feeling lying in bed each night hearing a distant train approaching your 147 year old house and knowing that within minutes ancient glass bottles will begin gently tapping the window panes to help you drift off to sleep.