West Newbury Historical Commission’s Monthly Tales of Our Town

August’s story concerns the Albion Hotel, now the site of the G.A.R. Library. A stately 3-story Federal-style mansion, the Albion building was West Newbury’s only structure to rival the grand homes on Newburyport’s High Street. In 1886, the horse-drawn trolley from Haverhill first arrived in Town, stopping at an adjacent car barn turnaround near the corner of Bailey’s Lane and Main Street. At the same time, the building became a hotel, on the way to its (in)famous place in Town history. The hotel lay not only at the end of the trolley line, but also in the cross hairs of a growing prohibitionist movement. Although feelings in Town had been mixed, by 1914 liquor raids proceeded apace with full Town support. During the final raid in 1915, attempts to destroy evidence failed as police deployed cans to catch beer pouring out the rainspout. The Emery Sisters bought the property and demolished the building, making way for the library some decades later.

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