Welcome to the Hampsher

There is a little town in central Illinois that exists mainly because of the Toledo, Peoria, & Western Railroad. The railroad died in the 1940's but the town stayed. Two highways intersect it at the only red light in town. A short main street runs parallel to one of the highways; at the end of the main street stands a mustard-yellow square building. It is proud and tall, an oasis in a town of faded industry & long-time residents that stay simply because that's where they're from. But the people of the town are good people; hard-working, honest, real. They hear the echoes of the town when it was a bustling railroad town, when well-dressed gentry got off during exursions to & from Chicago, when the main street boasted an Opera house, when every train that rode the TP&W stopped to fill up on coal & water. And the people of the town feel they have a reason to stand just as tall as that square building on the end of main street. Before the railroad died, this building saw a continuous stream of ladies in nipped waist dresses, men in top hats, workers in their sooty overalls. It was the Hampsher Hotel. Today, it stands again, regal & ready for guests once more--because of the hard work of the people of the town, a man with a love for the railroad, & a united vision.