38. Aaron Hotailing Hotel
81 Main Street
 

38. Aaron Hotailing Hotel
81 Main Street
ca.1835, ca. 1860

The building is composed of a two-story, three-by-two bay side-gabled brick south wing, which was the first block of the large building. The building is covered by low gable roof, which is sheathed with late nineteenth century seamed metal siding. The roofline is enlivened with a broad molded cornice, which terminates in partial returns. The building rests on a brick and stone foundation with a stone watertable. Windows throughout this wing feature stone lintels and sills. Two over-two sash from a later construction phase survive intact.
 

The second block of the house is a two-story, two-by-two bay frame north section. The building rests on a raised brick  foundation, which is sheltered by a single-story porch that covers two entrances into this wing and a single entry into the brick wing. All entrances feature Italianate era wood and round-arched glass panel doors. The building is covered by a late nineteenth century seamed metal roof. This section of the house was later extended west adding three additional bay and creating a five-by-two bay frame block. A broad late Greek Revival/Italianate style entrance was established on the north elevation, which is composed a pair of wood and glass panel doors set within a frame composed of pilasters supporting a lintel. The easternmost three bays of the north elevation and entry are spanned by a single-story enclosed porch. Windows throughout the frame section of the house retain their two-over-two sash.

The Aaron Hotailing Hotel stood for generations as one of the most recognizable and socially important landmarks in the Hamlet of Coeymans. Located at the southwest corner of Main Street (Third Street) and Westerlo Street (Second Street), the hotel occupied what was long known locally as "Phil Smith's corner," at the heart of the hamlet's earliest commercial district. From this intersection northward and eastward to the dock along the Hudson River lay the oldest concentration of homes, taverns, shops, and businesses in Coeymans many dating to the years before the American Revolution. Several structures in this area were believed to have been constructed upon even earlier foundations, making the true age of the neighborhood difficult to determine.

The hotel itself reflected this deep historical layering. Its original brick section was erected around 1820 in the Federal style, displaying the balanced proportions and restrained elegance characteristic of early American architecture. Around 1860, a substantial Italianate-style frame wing was added, transforming the building into a striking combination of two architectural eras. The decorative bracketed cornice beneath the eaves and the ornate gable-end window of the newer section contrasted deliberately with the simpler brickwork of the original structure, creating a building that embodied the changing tastes of 19th-century America. Historic photographs frequently captured the stately hotel crowned with its distinctive weathervane, making it one of the most visually familiar structures in old Coeymans.

The property belonged to Aaron Hotailing (1803-1881) and his wife Charity Soop Hotaling (1803-1885), members of one of the hamlet's well-known families. Following Aaron's death, the operation of the hotel passed to his son, Richard S. Hotailing, who continued its role as a central gathering place for the community. In later years, before the First World War, the establishment was operated by Daniel O'Connell  an influential Albany County Democratic Chairman and his brother, further tying the hotel to the political and civic life of the region.

Far more than simply a place for lodging, the Hotailing Hotel served as a social and civic center for the hamlet throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Community meetings, public gatherings, organizational events, and celebrations regularly took place within its walls. Among the groups known to have met there was the Coeymans Anti-Horse Thief Society, one of many rural protective associations formed during the 19th century to combat horse theft and maintain local order before modern policing became widespread. The hotel also appeared prominently in community festivities, including Fourth of July parades and public celebrations around 1900, reinforcing its status as a focal point of village life.

Surrounded by neighboring landmarks such as the Henry Noble Johnson Drugstore and the home of Levi Blaisdell, the hotel anchored the commercial center of old Coeymans for decades. Though the building and much of the surrounding business district were eventually lost to fire, demolition, and the passage of time during the 20th century, the Aaron Hotailing Hotel remains deeply woven into the architectural and social history of the hamlet. Its memory survives through photographs, historical accounts, and the stories of the generations who gathered beneath its roof at the center of Coeymans life.

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