KEOSAUQUA (MCT) — For the past 110 years, the historic Hotel Manning has overlooked the Des Moines River.
Since 1991, Ronald Davenport and his wife, Melinda, have welcomed visitors to the small hamlet of Keosauqua and the historic hotel, which is built in the steamboat gothic style, so named for the steamboats that once plied the river bringing commerce and settlers to Iowa.
After nearly two decades, the Davenports have decided to sell the business, which includes the historic building, the 14-room two-story Riverview Inn and a five-room single-level motel.
“I’m 73 years old. I’ve been here 18 years, and I’m kind of tired. I’d like to retire, retire. Maybe do some more traveling in the summer,” Davenport said Monday while leaning back comfortably in an antique wooden chair in the lobby of the historic hotel.
In the meantime, Davenport emphasizes it will be business as usual.
“We’re open, fully operational and don’t intend to make any change to our business operation,” Davenport said.
This will be the second time Davenport has decided to retire, the first being when he purchased the hotel.
Davenport is asking $650,000 for the business, buildings, land, equipment and furnishings.
"Key in lock," he said. "It's a fair price really ... but something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, of course."
Davenport paid $300,000 for the business in 1991 and built the two-story Riverview Inn annex in 1993 for $350,000, he said.
For the buildings and property, which includes two parcels, the Van Buren County Assessor’s Office lists a tax value of $342,200.
The majority of the hotel’s business comes from tourists — hunters, family reunions and people participating in events such as the annual September End of Summer Motorcycle Rally.
While the business is profitable, it’s not profitable enough for Davenport to hire a full-time staff to run it for him. Instead, he and his wife run the business and live on the first floor of the historic hotel.
The couple also run a travel agency and tanning salon out of the hotel, as well as serve a Sunday buffet breakfast every week from Mother’s Day through mid-October. The only thing store-bought is the chocolate pudding, Davenport said.
Interest in the property has been low in the month since Davenport listed it, said Realtor Nick Boley of Boley Real Estate, which is just down the street from the hotel.
“There are not a whole lot of people in that market. But we’ve had more interest than expected, really,” Boley said.
Entrepreneur Edwin Manning, one of the founders of Keosauqua, built the hotel, which took two years to construct. But for decades prior to that, Manning ran a mercantile store on the site.
Manning first stepped foot on what is now known as Keosauqua in 1937 and built his store two years later. In 1854, he expanded the store to include a bank, according to a pamphlet about the history of the building.
At that time, the riverfront was a place of bustling activity with steamboats bringing settlers to the state.
But then came the railroads, which killed off much of the river traffic, Davenport said.
By the 1890s, the focus of the town had shifted away from the river. During that decade, the mercantile store was hit by two fires and Manning decided to move it to the bustling downtown area, Davenport said.
One of Manning’s sons convinced him to build the hotel, using part of the remaining walls and foundation of the store.
More than 300 guests attended the hotel opening gala in April 27, 1899. Schubert’s Mandolin Orchestra of Ottumwa regaled the crowd with music, and a local chapter of the women’s group PEO served dinner.
Today the lobby of the hotel looks much the same as it did a century ago despite being flooded four times, the worst of which was in 1901 when the building was under seven feet of water.
The major cosmetic differences are wallpaper that now covers the walls rather than the plaster being painted white, and the woodwork is stained rather than painted brown, Davenport said.
Manning died in 1901, and his family eventually lost the hotel and most of their other assets in the 1920s, when the bank the patriarch had started was forced into bankruptcy, Davenport said.
The hotel was eventually purchased by a widow, Bertha Myers, who in turn sold it to local restaurant owner Mable Miller in the 1940s.
Miller operated the business for years as a boarding house and in the 1960s added the single-level motel annex.
Then in the 1970s, Van Buren County’s economy began to shift toward tourism, Davenport said.
Miller got a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior National Parks Service and completed a major restoration of the building, which was placed on the national register of historic places in 1973, Davenport said.
Miller’s son-in-law, Dick Marit, took over operations in the late 1970s. The hotel had numerous owners in the 1980s.
In 1989, two men from Galena, Ill., purchased the hotel for a reported $130,000. One of the men, Raleigh Powell, happened to be both a musician and a chef. He opened a restaurant with singing waitstaff that drew customers from miles around, Davenport said.
But Powell had health problems and decided to sell the business, just as Davenport began looking to retire, the first time.