A Brief History
reprinted from the Washington News-Reporter, March 7, 2002
Patrick Fitzpatrick, a Catholic from Armagh, Ireland, moved from
New York City to Lexington, GA, in 1840. John H. Fitzpatrick was born in Lexington
in 1843. In 1844, the family moved to Washington where Thomas M. Fitzpatrick
was born in 1856.
The Fitzpatrick brothers, John and Thomas, were conducting a highly successful mercantile business known as T.M. Fitzpatrick & Brothers, in Lancaster, SC, when the worst fire in Washington-Wilkes history broke out on June 11, 1895.
As a result of the fire, the buildings occupying the land where the Fitzpatrick Hotel is located were destroyed. The Fitzpatrick brothers returned to their hometown of Washington and began construction on the hotel.
On March 20, 1899, the Washington Chronicle reported that "Mr.
John Fitzpatrick was here on Saturday looking after the magnificent new hotel
he is building, and also inspecting the elegant furniture which is being received.
Our people are very much gratified that he has made up his mind to add such
an ornament to our town and will always show a high appreciation."
The Fitzpatrick brothers installed the first telephone system in Washington in the hotel. They also owned the first telephone company in Washington. The system was later sold to the Dyson family who still maintain control today.
An advertisement in the Chronicle on November 14, 1899, made clear that T.M. Fitzpatrick & Brothers was very much in business using the ground floor of the hotel as display space for the sale of dry goods, men's furnishings, and groceries.
The advertisement declared, "We have got the grandest old county
and town upon God's green earth, so let us all pull together and make it the
garden spot of the South. We return here after an absence of 30 years. We were
told time and time again that Washington was dead; that we could do no business.
Was your prediction correct? No! A thousand times no! Our three large stores
are always crowded. We are doing twice the business we anticipated."
In the same year, an account in a larger newspaper calls T.M. Fitzpatrick & Brothers the largest business firm in Wilkes County, grossing $100,000 a year. (Remember, this was in 1899).
John Fitzpatrick died in 1907. Thomas Fitzpatrick died in 1911. John was unmarried. Thomas had a wife and one daughter, Marie Fitzpatrick, was is the mother of Mary Fortson Darby and Mildred Fortson Anderson, both of whom live in Washington.
Thomas Fitzpatrick's death threw the family's affairs into chaos
since he did not have a will. A complicated lawsuit, filed by his sisters,
eventually led to the sale of the Fitzpatrick Hotel in 1914 to Mrs. Alice Hynes
and her daughters. The renamed it Columbus Inn and operated I until 1922 when
it was sold to the rivals of the Fitzpatrick brothers, W.T. Johnson and Company.
Once again the name changed to the Washington Hotel and this it stayed until 1951.
Marie Fitzpatrick told of living in a suite of rooms on the hotel's second floor. Here she would watch the "young men" of Washington from the second floor of the hotel's turret. Her main interest was Lawrence Fortson, whom she married after her father's death.
Brothers built Fitzpatrick after 1895 'Great Fire'
reprinted from the Washington News-Reporter, March 7, 2002
Following the Great Fire of 1895, which swept away the entire
block of wooden structures on the west side of the Public Square, brothers
J.H. and T.M. Fitzpatrick returned to Washington to rebuild on the property
their family had owned since 1843.
The hired architects Goluke and Stewart to design the Queen Anne facade which the architectural tone of The Square and set off a spirited completion race with the Johnson Hotel several blocks away. [On the site of Regions Bank today].
The three-story structure included three storefronts and a gracious lobby on the ground floor with hotel rooms, a parlor, and a large dining room on the upper floors.
Spacious at 28 by 40 feet and with a 17-foot high pressed metal ceiling, the dining room was for many years a favorite place of Washington's citizens and visitors. Reportedly, the building even had an elevator.
Although the hotel room and dining room closed in the early 1950s,
the ground floor business spaces remained in use until recently.
The building has been virtually out of service for half a century, and there have been efforts at restoration since 1981. The property was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1982.
The Downtown Development Authority acquired the property in 1997 and began concerted effort to find a developer who would recognize the historic character of the building and its place in the community.
When negotiations failed with one developer, the DDA formally put the property on the market and the new owners answered the call.