375 Cottonwood / Fox Head Hotel
Wallace Simonds built and opened the Hawthorne Hotel on this site in 1888. He
sold it two years later for $300. in 1892, it was renamed the Rossman house.
The name changed to the Tremont Hotel in 1898 when Mr. Rossman sold the hotel
to William Hanley. The Tremont House burned to the ground in September 1900,
after fire broke out in the attic. A piano located in the third-floor ballroom
reportedly fell to the cellar during the fire.
Soon after the fire, a new structure was built and the Fox Head Hotel opened
with Emil Buchta as proprietor. The sign in front of the Fox Head Hotel stated
that they were proud to offer “Waukesha Old Ales Health Beers.” Few changes have been made to the exterior, and the building appears very much
like the Fox Head Hotel did in the early 1900’s.
If you have any historic pictures (preferably pre-WWII) that you would like to
share with the Hartland Historical Society,