American Inn & Garage

The property is located on Hwy. AT at American Inn Road.
GPS: 38.461896, -90.873691

This was the era of the Great Depression and the filling station and garage were closed and the log house was standing empty by early 1937. That's when Eugene and Marguerite Meyer moved in and opened the American Inn restaurant on the ground floor of the log house on March 1, 1937. They lived on the second floor of the new restaurant. They announced their retirement on the restaurant's 37th anniversary on March 1, 1974.

The two buildings have been connected sometime after the early 1990s and undergone some other notable changes.

The log house has been completely covered by modern siding, but the windows and door on the front are in their original locations.

The gas station and garage were apparently operated as part of the business in the early years of the American Inn according to an old postcard image, but how long that lasted is unknown to me. The gable roof in the center of the filling station garage building originally extended out over the pump island allowing for a drive through between the pumps and the building. The small gabled entry extension on the front now is a later addition, originally the front wall was essentially flat from side to side.

Under the original canopy where the center entrance is now there was just a large window looking out from the office. The large window was flanked by two single entry doors which have been replaced by modern doors in the same locations. The two large full height panels on each side of the entry were the original garage doors. The stacked cupolas both had windows, the lower had two on each side, now boarded over, the upper still has one on each side as it did originally.

The garage building was a day care center in the early 1990s. When we went by in 2017 the old garage building had a sign on the side indicating it was a computer shop of some kind and the two buildings had been connected.

Photo(s): 2017

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