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The Lafayette Hotel has served as a hotel, meeting spot and a place to hold celebrations for more than a century.

It’s been through many floods and has served for nearly a half of a century as the host location of the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival.

The location made a great deal of sense as the perfect spot for a business catering to travelers. The location at Front and Greene streets has always served as a meeting spot for both Mariettans and visitors. Early in Marietta’s history they came by flatboats and then by steamers arriving at the nearby Marietta Landing. Those walking up the ramp from the Ohio River were nearly led directly to the front door of the hotel at the top.

Until 1918 however, that hotel was not the Lafayette, but the Bellevue, the predecessor of the Lafayette. Two years earlier fire swept through the hotel wrecking the top floors of the hotel.

The Times from April 27, 1916, reported the magnitude of the blaze. “One of the most disastrous fires which Marietta has experienced in years gutted the Bellevue Hotel, Front and Greene Streets, early Wednesday evening. … Thousands of people watched the flames rage for almost two hours, and it was necessary to stretch ropes around the four-story brick building to keep back throngs who insisted upon pressing close to the building beneath the shower of falling embers.”

The fire, the story reported, had started in a washroom on the fourth floor and had spread into timbers supporting the roof before it was discovered. By the time Engine Company #1 arrived at the scene, the entire fourth floor was a “maze of flames.”

By the time the fire was out, the rooms on the fourth floor were gutted and most of the furnishings below were ruined by the water that had rained down. Embers were everywhere.

The Bellevue was built in 1892 for $50,000. Owned by Marvin Davis and the heirs of a Colonel Moore who indicate that they planned on repairing the structure as soon as the insurance could be worked out.

The next day’s Times reported that a “fine new hotel to be erected at a cost of not less than $100,000 on the site of the Bellevue. The preliminary plan for the building was to build a five- or six-story high building at a cost of around $100,000.

Rising from the ashes, the Lafayette Hotel that took shape would use part of the original hotel. The heavily damaged top floor was removed and two new ones built. The hotel was named for Marquis de Lafayette, who had visited Marietta in 1825.

The Lafayette Barrage! — a huge party to celebrate the grand opening of the Hotel Lafayette – was announced via a half page ad in the June 13, 1918, edition of the Times. A lot had changed in the two years since the fire though. The United States was now in Europe fighting in World War I, the opening of the hotel was billed as a “Strictly a Red Cross Benefit,” with all proceeds being used to “lend comfort to Yankees in France. Among activities advertised were a band, an orchestra, music on every floor, dinner in the grill room as well as a talk by H.C. Bayliss on “Pershing’s Army in France.”

It was reported that the event raised $1,800 for the Red Cross.

The Lafayette has adapted over the years.

Building a parking lot when travelers began traveling by cars instead of riverboats and building several additions to cater to changing needs.

The great location of the hotel means that it is frequently in the middle of any large celebration. It was true in 1892, and it is true today.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com