04/22/2025
Maple House, Hotel and Bowling Alley, John Schmitt - Proprietor, Early 1900s.
Built in 1880, the Maple House is on the modern corner of 55th St and 13th Ave. It was one of the first things a visitor to Kenosha might see when they got off the train. But, originally, it would have had a rather bland Italianate look.
In 1889, Schlitz purchased the property, and the neighboring Seymour House. The two buildings would be connected. And in 1896, the name became Maple House. Around this time, it received a facelift and sported a turret with a Schlitz belted globe (a logo introduced in 1892).
Schlitz also owned the Schlitz Hotel, at the NW corner of 52nd and 6th Ave.
Probably because of its location, it had a phone number very early on. Almost certainly when this photo was taken, you could call to reserve a room and a bowling alley time/ You'd pick up the mouthpiece, and signal the operator by cranking the handle. The handle rotates a magneto, which sends an electrical signal down the line to the operator. The phone's signal itself would be powered by dry cell batteries. You wouldn't worry with an exchange until 1913, so you'd just ask to be connected to number 77. If you want to call outside Kenosha, there was a whole process to connect between exchanges and a whole set of line charges. Unless you were very self-important, you'd send a telegraph between towns.
In 1922, Maple House was the scene of an epic and petty brawl "which rivalled the Dempsey-Firpo engagement and without an umpire or a corner to retire to." A local named Pat Ryan ordered two fried eggs. They were delivered from the kitchen, and he ate all but a small bit of one egg. Then he went into the kitchen to complain to the cook, A.J. Graley, saying he couldn't eat the eggs. That one person who eats an entire meal except for one little scrap, and asks for their money back because they couldn't eat it, was alive and well in the 1920s. Graley seems to have been less than willing to be yelled at. Ryan called Graley a "vile name." The proprietor's wife pushed them apart and Ryan returned to the dining room, where he started yelling. The cook, Graley, followed him out, and was met with a thrown chair. Graley had an egg be**er in his hand, and, in his words, "I defended myself." Ryan ended up with seven stitches in various head wounds, bloody and bandaged, overnight at the police station. Apparently he got in some decent punches, as Graley was bruised for his overnight stay. When Judge Slater dismissed the criminal charges against each of them the next day, and imposed a $5 fine for disorderly conduct on each of them, he told them "I don't know which of you is the coming Dempsey and which is Firpo, but I advise you both to get in touch with Tex Rickard at once." This fight over eggs occurred just days after Jack Dempsey defeated Luis Ángel Firpo in what is still regarded as one of the greatest boxing matches in history.
By 1929, Maple House was known as the Hotel Wisconsin. And around 1933, it became the Schlitz Hotel. The other Schlitz Hotel was the Lakeview Hotel by this point. In the 40s, it would be owned by Guttormsen's, and would be demolished in September 1960.
This Schlitz Hotel remained into the 40s, when it became the Schlitz Tavern. Then in 1950, it was the Rite Spot (not the same as the Rite Spot convenience store or Rite Spot barber). As the Rite Spot, it became famous or infamous as a... house of ill fame. The owner never admitted to intentionally being a haven for prostitution, but he did admit that he accepted their prescience to increase liquor sales. When the bar lost its license in 1963, it was after a string of prostitution arrests. Following the shut down, an illegal gambling operation on the second floor was uncovered by the John Doe investigation surrounding government involvement in organized crime activity happening at the time, an investigation which ran into a wall when suspected members of organized crime and local government officials alike refused to participate, although a multi-year multi-state effort to press criminal charges resulted in the gambling operator being fined $500.
After the Rite Stop was closed, the building fell into disrepair and was on the verge of being demolished due to neglect when it was purchased in the late-80s and converted into office space. The adjoining Seymour House was refurbished about the same time.
