Modoc of McFarland

Last update:

08/10/2006

The Modoc of McFarland

The first Rock Island Eating House.
It burned down in 1911.

After the railroad was extended into McFarland during the spring of 1887, immediate plans were made to add other facilities at this location because of the junction which would eventually branch to Denver. By 1888, the Rock Island Railroad had constructed an eating house to accommodate rail passengers, (not all passenger trains had dining cars), train crews, workers, and the general public. This eating house served many meals in McFarland until it burned to the ground in February of 1911. The fire had started in the kitchen and was soon out of control. Much of the furniture in the downstairs was saved and the 16 girls who worked there and lived upstairs, managed to remove most of their clothes and belongings.

The Modoc Hotel and Eating House. Built in 1912

The Rock Island wasted no time in dealing with the loss of its McFarland eating house. New side tracks were built behind the depot and two rail dining cars were moved in and connected in the middle by a wooden structure. One of the dining cars was used as a lunch room and the other as a dining room. This was only a temporary eating house to be used until a new one could be constructed.

By June of 1911, work had begun on the new building, but it was November of 1912 before the elaborate hotel and eating house was open for business. The new Rock Island Hotel at McFarland was named "The Modoc" after the famous Modoc club of singers from Topeka known through out the USA. At one point, the name "Wabaunsee" was favorably considered. Total cost of the building was $78,000 and the furnishings $27,000.

A view of the Modoc grounds and platform

The Modoc was a three story structure of concrete, brick faced and fire proof. The windows contrasted the brick with white frames. The hotel had 26 guest rooms on the 2nd floor and rooms for the employees on the 3rd floor. The first floor had a lobby, dining room, and lunch counter. The grounds around the hotel were sowed with imported German blue grass. Golf links and lawn tennis were outside attractions along with Mill Creek flowing nearby to the south. Heat and light were furnished from the Rock Island power plant. To the front of the building was the railroad platform where passengers entered or departed the train. The building was bordered on three sides with a wide porch.

The Modoc Dining Room

The main dining room had french glass doors when entering from the platform. The woodwork was in old oak. The windows were draped with silk cretonne and had adjustable shades of light holland. The walls were wainscoted in brick and Cane stone to the ceiling. The illumination was by indirect light reflected from panels in the beamed ceiling. The tables were round and the chairs were specially made with a green leather seat. The chinaware was Burley German in a neat pattern. The silverware was Gorham. All of the ground floor was heated, cooled and ventilated by the Sturtevant system of air washing and temperature regulation

The Modoc Lunch Counter

The lunch room had revolving chairs with the counter brick faced, marble topped, and had a brass rail to the front. The floor outside the counter was of red tile and on the inside cork. Behind the counter was a plate warmer and hot closet with a glass display case with ventilated glass shelves. The office was located at the lunch room entrance with the register at one end of the counter and cashiers desk and cash register at the other end.

The kitchen was light, airy and clean. It was equipped with a range, broilers, steamers and dishwasher. The hood over the range was mechanically ventilated with fans. Ashes were dumped into a chute directly under the range. The kitchen had mosaic tile floor with white enameled walls In the pantry was McCray ice boxes with pipe refrigeration to be installed later. Between the broiler and bake shop was a McCray refrigerator with tow compartments, one to serve the broiler, and the other the baker, and the cooling was by brine tank in the center with 90 percent ice and 10 percent salt, changed once a day.

The room rates were $1 and $1.50 with the latter having a private bath. Each bed room had hot and cold running water, electric light, telephone, pictures, truck rest, costumer, rocker, desk, clothes closet with shelves, glass pitcher and the dressers had a scarf, pin cushion, German Burley china tray, match safe and candle stick. The carpets were Bigelow Axminster and the walls were tinted to match. The windows had lace curtains and adjustable shades. The transoms were glass. There was a knotted fire escape in every room. The twin light in the ceiling was controlled by a thumb knob at the door.

The employees quarters on the third floor were almost as good as those for the guests. The halls were white enameled and the beds were double decked. There were 31 employees when the Modoc first opened.

The bathrooms had ceramic floor, white enamel walls and door, porcelain tub and bowl, female seat, metal framed mirror, glass shelf, metal stool with cork top, and silver towel rods and brackets. In the halls were separate toilets for men and women which were finished in marble.

The basement had a concrete floor with a storeroom, a Reinhold ice cuber, ice cream freezer, and coffee grinder hooked to an electric power shaft, vegetable bins, helps laundry and dry room and a combination Kewanee water heater and garbage burner.

Extending across the front of the building was an electric sign, "The Rock Island Lines", and under this another sign which said "The Modoc". In the evening the signs could be seen from long distances with the light also illuminating the platform in front of the building.

The Modoc was the finest hotel on the Rock Island Line when it was built, and there was only one larger in Kansas, The Bisonte at Hutchinson, operated by Fred Harvey on the Santa Fe. The Modoc was managed by the J. J. Grier Hotel Company and was considered one of the finest hotels west of the Missouri River.

As the use of railroad service diminished, so did the glamor of the Modoc. Passenger trains no longer stopped for meals and the dinning room eventually closed. The lunch counter continued to serve the local workers and public into the 40's. In 1949, the old two story depot was torn down and operations were moved into the dinning room of the Modoc. In 1953, a depot building was moved in on two gondola cars from Peck, Kansas and placed in front of the Modoc by the B&B gang. The Modoc was no longer used and sat empty and was for sale until it was torn down and salvaged in 1956. The once glamorous building had fallen into disrepair and the railroad did not want to pay taxes on a building no longer used.

Today, only brush and weeds grow where the Modoc once stood in its glory. It is another part of McFarland history, which has disappeared along with the railroad known as the Rock Island Line.