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Many if not most innovations in Davis life have been the
handiwork of brash newcomers rather than old-timers. Bowers Addition and Acres
were, for example, the inspiration of recent arrival C. W. Bowers.
So, also, the landmark University House, formerly at Second
and B Streets, was the creature of a Dr. Edwin Liebfreed. Unlike Bowers,
though, Liebfreed did not even yet live in Davis the day in early 1915 when he
was visiting here and he decided the town needed a three-story hotel.
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His rapidly reached conclusion was not, though, without
seemingly solid foundation. The State Farm, then almost a decade old, was
growing. The causeway was nearing completion. The subway and state highway were
on the horizon and the route was going to come along B Street. It made perfect
sense.
It opened in September 1915, complete with two ground floor
suites, one housing the landlady and the other Dr. Liebfreed himself. By World
War I the business had been taken over by Elmine and Louise Schmeiser (Davis
natives and sisters of Theodore), but strong anti-German sentiments and the
refusal of businessmen to direct trade to them meant they did not do well.
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The sisters sold it in the mid-1920s and it was operated by
a series of owners until it became a fraternity house in the mid-1960s. Slowly,
it became of victim of what is now called “demolition by neglect” and was torn
down in 1971 to make way for a Sambo’s restaurant (itself an event and story of
note).
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| 1921, Looking East |
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| 1954, Looking East |
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| 1958 |
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| 1967, Looking Northwest |
Comment by Rich Rifkin
Hi John,
I know you have written in the past that there was strong
anti-German sentiment in Davis during World War 1. I am in complete agreement
with you on that. The widespread participation in for the Liberty League
and various comments in late 1917 and early 1918 support that point of view.
Wm. Scott reported that there were calls to tar
and feather “Huns” who didn’t sufficiently prove their loyalty to America.
German-Americans here and elsewhere were continually harassed.
However, I doubt that the reason the Schmeisers did
not succeed in the hotel business had much to do with that prejudice. First
off, the anti-German feelings seemed to be hot for only a few months, half a
year at most. Not only was the U.S. late to join WW1, but the spirit for the
Liberty League in Davis seemed to fade away a few months after the draft began
and was gone by November, 1918.
Also, the United States suffered a severe recession
in 1920. In the wake of that, businesses all over the place were failing. That
recession is what toppled the haberdashery owned by Harry Truman, forcing him
to go into politics instead.
I would imagine that business calamity had a lot
more to do with the Schmeiser's hotel failure in the early '20s than a
short-term spat of anti-German feeling in the early part of 1918. It's also
possible, and not unlikely, that the Schmeisers were not capable hoteliers;
that they mismanaged their business and did not know how to keep their guests
happy.
Again, I am not discounting the fact that for a
short time there was some anti-German feeling here. I am sure it had some
ill-effect on the University Hotel. But solid businesses can overcome
that--look at all the Jews in business at the same time who suffered much more
social prejudice for a much longer period of time--as long as they are well run
and the general economy which keeps them afloat does not collapse.
Rich
Remark by John Lofland
Hello
Rich,
As
we know, it is difficult if not impossible firmly to assess causal factors in
unique historical circumstances. For this reason, I should have qualified my
sentence to read something like: “. . . meant, according to reports at the
time, that they did not do well.”
As
well, you might more clearly acknowledge that asserting that additional
variables were likely operative in particular cases is not itself a form of
evidence. Evidence, instead, must take the form of showing that the additional
variables actually operated in the particular case.
Your
suggestions regarding a recession and administrative competence are interesting
and, I think, might have played a role. But, we do not know if either of these
things were importantly operative in the case at hand or not.
Cheers,
John
