The Monday After: Looking back from Travel Lodge to Canton Inn

"Ahh, the Canton Inn."

That was the subhead over observations made in The Canton Repository in Spring 2020, words which explored the recent history of the motel on Tuscarawas Street W, which was demolished last week in an attempt to rejuvenate the near center-of-the-city neighborhood.

The picture painted by former Repository columnist Todd Porter wasn't pretty.

"In an effort to let people know just how much of Canton police officers' time is being monopolized by the run-down, hell hole Canton Inn," began Porter in one segment of his local news column on May 16, 2020, "police have been called to the place 45 times since Jan. 1 and that includes a very slow March and April.

"I'm sure the folks running the place used March and April to spruce the place up. Every time I drive past it, I can't help but think 'Is the coronavirus the worst thing I could catch there?'"

Sadly, one must go back a long way in history to reach a time when the property at 1031 Tuscarawas Street W could be viewed by passersby with wonder instead of worry.

Drug problems, health hazards, and unsightly conditions were not what the property was known for many decades ago.

Motel built on worthy ground

Reports at the time of the demolition noted that the Canton Inn motel was built in 1960 under the name Travel Lodge. It was located on land where the mansion of Joseph Dick, called a "Canton manufacturing pioneer," previously had stood.

The Joseph Dick Manufacturing Co., later renamed Blizzard Manufacturing, was known for making farm equipment late in the 1800s and early in the 1900s, major agricultural implements such as the Blizzard Ensilage Cutter.

In a section of former Canton resident Ted Gup's book, "A Secret Gift" about the Christmas time generosity of his grandfather Sam Stone, a chapter details the hard times on which Dick's son, Frank J. Dick, fell upon during the Depression. It also describes the home in which the younger Dick grew up.

"The mansion where Frank Dick lived until he was twenty-seven was an imposing Victorian edifice on Tuscarawas Street," Gup wrote. "It was built in 1890 of wood and stone, some of it imported from Europe. Boasting twenty-two huge rooms, it claimed eight fireplaces, five chimneys, an elevator finished in fine walnut, and, in the basement, a bin designed to hold as much coal as an entire railroad car. The dining table featured fine crystal, the chairs were carved ornately."

Indeed, the mansion is credited with being the first home in Stark County to have an elevator.

The elegant structure deteriorated over time, and had become a shadow of itself by 1942, when it was little more than a half-century old.

"Long deserted and ransacked by vandals, the towering Joseph Dick mansion at Tuscarawas St. W and Newton Avenue, like so many old big homes, appeared doomed to slow death by deterioration."

To keep it alive, the building was converted into a rental facility − 11 "modern efficiency" apartments − by A.B. Cable 80 years ago, according to an article in the Repository.

Then, late in the 1950s after the mansion was demolished, plans were developed for an even more modern Travel Lodge motel.

A "New Construction" listing under building permits published March 22, 1959, in the Repository announced the pending arrival of the motel.

"Travel Lodge Corp., new motel at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W, $160,000."

Made jobs, not news

The new Travel Lodge would open in 1960.

For years, activity at the motel was routine for such a tourist business located on what once was a main travel route, old Route 30 − the "Lincoln Highway," a transcontinental road.

Travelers stopped there to rest bodies made weary from driving. Traveling salesmen tarried, either while they conducted transactions in the area or to sleep and refuel before heading off for the next day of work. Frequently, job interviews − offering traveling sales positions, for the most part − were held by business types in rooms at the rental facility.

"OPPORTUNITY for men who are career-minded," said one advertisement for a chance to interview for jobs that was published on March 15, 1960. "Men selected will start at $200 per week. You must be neat and own a good car."

In the 1960s, the Travel Lodge was used as a landmark, without worry concerning its proximity to what was going on in the neighborhood, by landlords trying to rent apartments in the area.

"NEWTON NW. Near Travel Lodge," one Repository classified ad said in December 1967. "Large 5-room apartment. Carpeted. $85 includes heat. Adults. No pets."

Then in the 1970s the atmosphere surrounding the Travel Lodge slowly began to change. A robbery at the motel, for example, was reported by the Repository on May 9, 1970.

"Two men took $50 in a night holdup at Travel Lodge Motel at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W," a crime listing on Page 9 of the newspaper said. "Frank J. Roland, co-owner, told police the men asked for a room and then one drew a revolver and demanded the money."

Later that year, "a would-be robber at Travel Lodge Motel ... was routed Monday night by a telephone bell," according to a report in the Repository.

"The robber, who announced 'This is a holdup' and brandished a black revolver, fled empty-handed when the telephone rang."

The clerk at the hotel was able to answer the call uncontested, and then use the telephone to summon police to a location that would be a frequent destination for law enforcement officers in the future.

Motel continued to decline

Criminal activity at the motel only got worse in years to follow, as the rooms there became temporary homes and sometimes places of business for those living on the fringes of society.

Eventually, the motel's name was changed to Canton Inn. The motel was in different hands, according to an ad published in the Repository in June 1982.

"Rooms for rent. Canton Inn Motel. Under new management. Daily rates-$14.95 and up. Weekly rates-$60 and up."

But, that didn't stop the need to call police to the facility.

"Two bedspreads valued at $30 were taken Sunday," the Repository reported in June 1983, "when thieves broke into a room at the Canton Inn."

The motel became a place for short-term rentals that lengthened from weeks to months and even to years.

Some of the residents were just down on their luck, who needed an inexpensive place to stay. Others, however, were unsavory, and criminal activity at the motel became more openly committed, police reports show.

Deteriorated into disrepute

As far back as early in the 1990s, efforts had been made to clear out perceived drug activity at the motel.

"The Canton Inn at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W has discouraged the drug activity that once took place at the hotel by eliminating short-term occupancy on the first floor," reported the Repository on March 19, 1992. "That discouraged guests who wanted to take advantage of street-level windows to trade directly with the public."

About the same time, an agreement was reached between then-owner Mukesh Patel and city and county law enforcement officials. In order to keep the establishment open following alleged criminal activity at Canton Inn, video cameras and lighting were to be installed, private security was to patrol the property, an alarm system was to be placed on all doors not visible to the front desk, and other steps were to be taken.

While Patel earlier had argued that "there's no drug dealers and no prostitution here," the agreement was preceded by a suit filed in Common Please Court in September 1991 by Stark County Prosecutor Robert D. Horowitz and Canton Law Director Thomas Bernabei.

Concerning the nuisance complaint, Repository staff writer Nancy Ozimek reported Sept. 12, 1991, that the suit had maintained that "since June 3" much criminal activity had occurred at the 52-room motel.

"At least seven illegal drug transactions have occurred at the Canton Inn, resulting in the arrest of numerous individuals," the nuisance complaint said. "Other criminal activity has occurred at the Canton Inn including prostitution. Young children have been present when arrests have been made. Frequently, the subjects arrested are in possession of weapons.

"The foregoing criminal activities are of such an extensive and continuous nature that it is common knowledge in the surrounding community that the ... premises are being used by and frequented by persons engaging in the commission of criminal offenses," Horowitz and Bernabei wrote.

Ozimek's story also reported that residents and landlords from the area of Canton Inn had "pleaded with City Council ... for relief from crime and disorder."

A look at recent history

Some had defended the Canton Inn through the years, however.

"The Canton Inn is being targeted as a scapegoat for the city's prostitution problems," said one man, noting that he was a resident of the motel, who wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Repository in December of 2001. "The prostitutes work Second Street behind the Canton Inn as well a Newton Avenue. They also use the pay phone on the corner of Newton and Tuscarawas Street W, which is located in front of the Canton Inn, as an excuse to loiter in hopes of catching a 'date.' This looks bad for the Canton Inn, but it is not the hotel's problem."

Still, in a posting that still is viewable, the website tripadvisor.com gave the Canton Inn a 1 out of 5 rating. It's lowest rating was in cleanliness. Another online rating service, which at the time of the motel's demolition had listed the Canton Inn as "Permanently Closed," was not much better at 2.5 out of 5.

Three reviews offered online were far from complimentary of the motel.

"I've been in some low budget hotels before," one review said, "but this one takes the cake."

By early in the 2020s, it was clear to Canton leaders that this was a motel that had to go in order to better the area surrounding it.

A better future is at hand

In an article published Wednesday, Nov. 30, the day after demolition began, Repository staff writer Kelly Byer quoted a statement prepared by city officials. The statement noted that the Canton Community Improvement District, which worked in cooperation with community organizations to secure the purchase and remove the blight on the neighborhood that the motel was believed to have become.

"The CCIC purchased the property for the purpose of closing and demolishing it due to decades-old problems of crime, drug activity and other nuisance conditions," the city said. "The vacant land will be land-banked and held for future development in combination with adjacent land, and used for neighborhood housing and retailing."

Now Canton's mayor, Thomas Bernabei welcomed the move in a news release.

The demolition, the mayor said, "resolves decades of frustration."

So, early last week the first words of a new chapter was written in the history of the property on which the Travel Lodge/Canton Inn motel complex was built more than six decades ago. The motel will not be part of the future of that property.

One can only surmise that the new beginning for land at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W, a lot that once was the site of mansion of a leader in Canton manufacturing, might make Joseph Dick look upon it and smile.

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: Looking back from Travel Lodge to Canton Inn