Silverado Franklin Hotel

The Franklin was Deadwood's first high-end hotel, which opened its doors in 1903 as gold mining and other industry boomed in South Dakota. The hotel's name and early success are owed to Harris Franklin, née Finkelstein, a Prussian Jewish immigrant who made his fortune in the Franklin & Baer liquor store and his investments in gold mining. Although the hotel hosted many famous visitors over the years, including Theodore Roosevelt and Babe Ruth, it suffered greatly from the end of the gold rush and the Great Depression, finally being converted into apartments in the 1930s. It got the boost it needed when the city legalized gambling in the 1980s, with the Silverado Gaming Establishment revitalizing the historic hotel, adding a casino, and helping restore interest in tourism here in Deadwood.

Harris Franklin, born Finkelstein, an immigrant from Prussia, founded Deadwood's Silverado Franklin. Franklin came to the United States with his family as a child and initially found work in New York City as a peddler. Later, he settled in Burlington, Iowa, where he married Anna Marie Steiner. The couple and their only son, Nathan, moved to Deadwood when the child was seven, as Franklin was interested in the city's liquor and gold mining industries. He sold everything and moved here, spending what money he had to buy the Golden Reward Mine just outside of town and start the Franklin and Baer liquor store with French immigrant Ben Baer.

Before long, the two of them were the largest liquor sellers in the region, and Franklin's investment in the mines had also paid off. With their wealth secured, they set out to civilize the young town. First, in 1878, they founded the First National Bank of Deadwood. They spearheaded the Whitewood and Wyoming Railroad Company, a planned line that would have run for 50 miles from Deadwood to Wyoming, although this venture was unsuccessful. Finally, after years of effort by other business leaders, Franklin successfully started work on the upscale Franklin Hotel in 1902. It cost $100,000, more than $3.5 million today, and was built in the Greek Revival style with then-unheard of amenities like electricity, a telephone, and private baths for each room. Franklin and Baer were forced to shut down their liquor store when prohibition came to South Dakota, but this did not hinder the hotel. In its early years, the 80-room hotel hosted famous guests like Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Babe Ruth, John L. Sullivan, and Buffalo Bill Cody.

As the town's industries struggled and the gold rush waned, businesses like this one struggled. With tourism all but gone, the hotel was converted into apartments during the Great Depression. In the 1980s, however, the citizens voted to legalize gambling to help fund the city's historic restoration efforts. This set a chain of events into motion that, in 2005, resulted in the Silverado Gaming Establishment to purchase the historic Franklin Hotel. After undertaking an ambitious restoration project, they turned the building into the Silverado Franklin, a high-end hotel and casino.

Stanton, Ann Haber. Jewish Pioneers of the Black Hills Gold Rush. Images of America.

History, Silverado Franklin. Accessed April 23rd, 2023. https://www.silveradofranklin.com/about/history.html.

Historic Franklin Hotel Deadwood, Accessed April 23rd, 2023. https://www.hotel-scoop.com/deadwoods-historic-franklin-hotel/.

Franklin & Baer: How Whiskey Civilized Deadwood, Those Pre-Pro Whiskey Men. May 30th, 2017. Accessed April 29th, 2023. http://pre-prowhiskeymen.blogspot.com/2017/05/franklin-baer-how-whiskey-civilized.html.

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