Mermaid House Hotel

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Mermaid House Hotel
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Location 114 E. St. Louis St., Lebanon, Illinois
Coordinates 38°36′13.5″N89°48′24.6″W / 38.603750°N 89.806833°W / 38.603750; -89.806833 Coordinates: 38°36′13.5″N89°48′24.6″W / 38.603750°N 89.806833°W / 38.603750; -89.806833
Built 1830 [1]
Architect Lyman Adams [1]
NRHP reference # 75002078 [2]
Added to NRHP December 4, 1975 [2]

Mermaid House Hotel, located on East St. Louis Street in Lebanon, Illinois, was built in 1830 by the retired New England sea captain Lyman Adams. He named it for the mermaids he reported seeing at sea.

Lebanon, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Lebanon is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,523 at the 2010 census. Like many other places in "Little Egypt" or Southern Illinois, Lebanon was named after the Eastern Mediterranean country of the same name. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Mermaid legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish

In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

The Mermaid House was visited by Charles Dickens in 1842 and received a mention in his book American Notes. [1]

Charles Dickens English writer and social critic

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.

The public-house was so very clean and good a one, that the managers of the jaunt resolved to return to it and put up there for the night, if possible. This course decided on, and the horses being well refreshed, we again pushed forward, and came upon the Prairie at sunset.

Returning to Lebanon that night, we lay at the little inn at which we had halted in the afternoon. In point of cleanliness and comfort it would have suffered by no comparison with any English alehouse, of a homely kind, in England. [3]

The Mermaid House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 4, 1975.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Mermaid House Hotel, (PDF) National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 15 February 2007.
  2. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  3. The Literature Project