Fess Hotel (Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company)

George Fess, Sr. was a native of England who emigrated to America in the late 1830s as a young man. He worked as a steward on a steamer out of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan. He had the hotel built on Lot 3 of Block 105, at 115 E. Doty Street (formerly E. Clymer Street) just a few blocks from the State Capitol. This part of the hotel complex is no longer standing and is now a parking garage. In 1871, he expanded the operation by having a 30-by-60 foot buff-colored brick building built adjacent to the hotel on Lot 3.

After George Fess Sr. died, his widow, Anna, remarried a Mr. Doolittle. Two of her sons, George Jr. and Edward, continued running the hotel. In 1883, Mrs. Doolittle expanded the hotel by buying an existing building adjacent (to the east of) the hotel, in Lot 4; this building was built around the late 1850s and still stands; buff-colored brick was added to its facade to match the existing hotel buildings in Lot 3. The hotel and its outbuildings sprawled across three lots (3, 4 and 11) of Block 105 by 1885, as seen in the Sanborn map. The hotel was a string of two-story brick building(s) from 113 to 123 E. Doty Street on Lots 3 and 4. A wood frame icehouse was to the rear (south) of the hotel in Lot 3. To the rear of Lot 3 were two two-story stables, one of stone and one of brick, in Lot 11.

The 1898 Sanborn map depicts the hotel's office at 115-117 E. Doty in Lot 3, with a dining room to the rear of the office, and a kitchen to the rear of the dining room. To the rear (south) of Lot 3 on Lot 11, a third stable (one-story wood frame boarding stable) and a carriage house had been added. To the east of Lot 3 on Lot 4, there was the hotel parlor at 119 E. Doty, a barber shop at 121 and a saloon at 123.

The 1901 renovations were designed by architects James O. Gordon and Frederick W. Paunack. Major changes were made on the east half of Lot 4, to create the present three-story brick building at 123 E. Doty, with its distinctive oriel bay windows, French doors, and wrought iron balconies. A new, three-story brick and wood frame addition was built to the rear of 123 containing a dining room; 123 appeared remained as the Fess Hotel, while the buildings to the west (113 to 119) became the Central House by 1902. By 1908, the former Central House at 113 to 117 became three separate stores. The Fess Hotel was now housed at 121-123 in Lot 4, with a store in the west half of 123 and the hotel office on the east half of 123; interior remodeling was done in 1908 and 1924. All of the structures in Lots 3 and 11 at 113 to 119 E. Doty were demolished by 1951 and the lots were turned into a parking lot. Fess Hotel was located in both the two-story building at 121 and the three-story building at 123, in Lot 4, by the 1950s.

Peter K. Wright and two partners bought the hotel from the Fess family in 1975. Wright was born in Buffalo, New York and moved to Madison in the late 1960s to attend graduate school at U. of Wisconsin. Wright renovated the hotel and it became very popular. He remodeled the interior to create a restaurant, elegant hotel rooms, a courtyard, and a roof garden. Wright sold Fess Hotel in 1994 and died in 1999 at age 56. Fess Hotel was described in 1999 by Paul Slogin, a former Mayor of Madison, as "the first downtown hangout for adults." While other establishments catered to university students or state politicians, Fess Hotel was geared toward local Madisonians.

The Fess Hotel building was used for office space before it became the Great Dane Pub & Brewery's flagship location downtown. The building is said to be haunted and a basement room that is perpetually cold is called the "spooky room." An employee watched one day as a set of pool cues was knocked off their rack, one by one.

Buffalo News. "Peter K. Wright, Former Restaurant Owner." Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY) March 27th 1999. Obituaries sec.

Busch, Jason. "The 7 most haunted businesses in Madison." IB Madison (Madison, WI) October 31st 2019. Online ed.

Mollenhoff, Leigh H. . NRHP Nomination of Fess Hotel. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. Sanborn Map Company. New York, NY. 1885, 1898, 1902, 1908, 1951 Vol. 1.