Historic 1850's immigrant hotel

Washington House Museum and Visitor Center
1622 Jefferson Street  Two Rivers, WI 54241
920-793-2490    Toll Free 888-857-3529

FREE ADMISSION OPEN DAILY
November though April: 9am to 5pm
May through October: 9am to 9pm

18 different sundae flavors are offered at this replica
of Ed Berners' Ice Cream Parlor where he invented
the Ice Cream Sundae.

Manitowoc Area Visitor And Convention Bureau

The Washington House was built as an immigrant hotel in the 1850s. That era saw an influx of European immigrants to the nation and to Two Rivers, especially Germans locally. The population more than quadrupled from 1848 to 1850, when we had 924 residents. The Washington House was built at about the same time as its neighbor, the Waverly Inn. Many other boarding houses were built around this time due to house all the new workers coming by ship and horseback.

Incidentally, Suettinger Hardware had been around for about three years when Washington House was built – and it’s still here – the longest existing business in Two Rivers. Schroeder’s Department store was founded several years later in 1891 – and it too is still around, next to Washington House, and is still run by the same family.

These were the early days of sawmills, the leather tanning industry, manufacturing, and agriculture around Two Rivers. Commercial fishing was also big, and that had brought a large contingent of French Canadians. The Frenchside Fishing Village across the river from Washington House is on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the original homes and fishing buildings are still around – and many of the descendants of those original fishing families still operate fishing operations today. Most businesses used the harbor, and we still have the original harbor lighthouse at Rogers Street fishing village.

Washington House still has its original decorative tin ceiling. The murals in the ballroom were added in 1906 by unknown artists. They are mostly about life in Wisconsin. Also on display is work from Two Rivers native Lester Bentley. Bentley did portraits of President Dwight Eisenhower, three Wisconsin governors, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and the recruiting poster for the Coast Guard's women's unit in World War II.