122 E. Capitol Drive / Sign of the Willows Restaurant
The fieldstone that graces the front of this buildig was gathered by Otto
Weinkauf from the swamp that once stood in the back of the lot. Weinkauf built
the Sign of the Willow in 1923, after he quite his job as manager of the
Commercial Hotel in 1920. The family lived in the residential quarters
upstairs.
The structure is an uncommon variant of the Tudor REvival style with a hunting
lodge theme. The main facade of the one-and-one-half story structure ha a
cobblestone veneer on the lower story and stucco applied with the
half-timbering on the upper story. Multi-paned windows grouped in sets of four
apear at both levels. Much of the original interior of the restaurant has been retained. Dark wood
paneling and trim and plaster walls predominate throughout the restaurant. There is a cobblestone fireplace in the rear dining room.
The sign of the Willows was commonly known as Haselow’s Restaurant before becoming the Cobblestone Inn. It is now known as Palmer’s Restaurant.
If you have any historic pictures (preferably pre-WWII) that you would like to
share with the Hartland Historical Society,
