A talk about the Walpole Hotel will be presented by Betsey Dexter Dyer on (today) Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 7pm, in the community room of the Walpole Public Library
The Walpole Hotel was in existence for only 19 years (1873-1892) but what an impression it made. Nearly every week the Walpole Star printed the latest goings on: loud music, late night dance parties, moonlight sleigh ride groups, bicycle clubs, maybe some drinking (which was not illegal but some thought it ought to be) , definitely billiards and cigars. Some citizens approved or at least enjoyed getting the latest gossip on the place. Others did not approve. The hotel cycled through eight landlords, a couple of them fired for excessive merriment.
This lecture will also include a discussion about how small-town weekly newspapers operated at this time; the Walpole Hotel was exactly the sort of thing that sold papers and the two young editors who were hanging out at the hotel knew it. (There was not an actual newspaper office in Walpole.) If you wanted to drop off any news for the Walpole Star, you could find a box for your suggestions in the lobby of the Walpole Hotel.
