In 1842 the first hotel, a two story brick building that extended 40 feet along the north side of the square, called the Western Exchange Hotel, was built by Allen Bainbridge, who also had a tobacco factory and warehouse on the northwest corner of the square.
The Western Exchange building, which John Paschal built for Allen Bainbridge in 1842, sat where the old Denison block now stands. The bricklayers got paid 75 cents a day for their work and Willis Aikman, as a boy, was paid 25 cents a day to occasionally help. Willis would later build his own brick home out of brick that he and Shannon Holland manufactured by hand, 200,000 in total.
Joseph Huffstutter had a little dry goods store in the corner of the Western Exchange Hotel, which then occupied the place where the Denison block now stands. Chesley McCoy, in the 1905 Souvenir History, stated that he was married in this building. In Goodspeed’s history it is stated,”the Western Exchange, a brick building on the corner where Goodall & Campbell’s store now stands.” Of course, now, means 1875.
Sam’s Notes: I have discovered so little about this building that I wanted to condense all that is known about it in history books. I have summarized all I have found in this post. I don’t believe there is much doubt that the Denison block referred to, is the block where the Bank of Marion stands now. This is confirmed as being on the north side of the square as stated and the C.H. Denison building occupied the exact spot where the Bank is today. I have found no records of this building having been demolished by fire or otherwise, yet the building is spoken of in past tense in all three historical texts which were 1875, 1887 and 1905. Forty feet of width in that block had to mean either the spot where the Bank is or next door to the West. Perhaps someone knows details about this or we will eventually pick up more details on it as time goes by and add to the story.
(Data from Goodspeed’s History (1887), History of Williamson County by Milo Erwin (1875), 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 02/31/2013)