The Commercial Hotel was a two story frame building, facing south.   Annie says her parents added eight more rooms to the building soon after they acquired it and replaced the wooden steps in front with concrete steps.  They also added a large porch across the back which was quite high off the ground.  It was here, under the porch, that Annie made her "play house."

   "The porch was high enough for me to stand under it," she said, "and I hung gunny sacks all around the sides."

   Most of the sidewalks at that time were made of wooden planks, which would buckle in the summer heat.  One had to be careful not to stumble over the ends of the warped planks.  Annie recalls stumbling over these boards when her mother sent her to buy something at Boykins Grocery nearby.

   All the children on the block used to follow the horse-drawn ice wagon along the street as ice was delivered to the various homes.   The children picked up the chinks of ice that flew from the ice pick as the ice man split the big blocks of ice into smaller blocks to fit his customers' ice boxes.

   There was a big steam laundry nearby where many people left their linens and clothes to be washed and ironed.  All ironing was done by hand.  But, Annie said, "Mamma did her own laundry by hand in a wash tub and a rub board.  There were always clothes hanging on the line to dry."

   The Fletcher family lived next door to the hote.  Mr. Fletcher had a home-made candy and ice cream shop in the back.   Across the street lived Mr. Casper, who ran the bakery downtown.

   The Nelsons later sold the hotel to Mrs. Cole and the name was changed to Cole's Hotel.  But that's another story