The Old Mercantile

Let me remind you again that all of the houses in St Elmo are private property so be polite and be careful whose windows you look in. You are liable to find somebody in their drawers.

The next stop has been many things. It started out as a hotel in 18?? And was burned to the ground in one of the many fires in St Elmos History. It was rebuilt as a Mercantile in 18—right on top of the ashes of the hotel fire, This caused a great deal of problems for the current owners Jim and Linda Latimer who have had to lift the building and replace the support beams with beams that they took out of a local mine. The old beams had been rotted out by the acid that was in the ash.

This building still has a two story outhouse (not used) around the back. The second story was for when the first story outhouse would get covered up with snow. 6 to 8 ft drifts are nothing unusual to St. Elmo so this was a back up plan so the one of the guests wouldn’t have to spend his winter in the privy .

Look for the picture of the brass band. Now step off of the sidewalk and look to the left and you will see the same background as in that photo. A great look at Maumee circa 1890's.