The Lewiston House Hotel stood on this site as the first building Swan Petersen erected in Lewiston to house workers for the new mill around 1891. Swan and Mrs. Petersen became parents to the first baby born there and named her Louise after the new town. The building contained a restaurant, kitchen, and saloon on the first floor, while the second floor had bedrooms and a sitting room opening onto a large veranda overlooking town. The Lewiston House became the center of community life, hosting conventions, political meetings, birthday parties, dances, and holiday celebrations. Swan Petersen managed the local baseball team and was active in many business and civic affairs, but died at age 39 in a tragic hunting accident in nearby Lovells. His funeral, seen from the veranda, was one of the largest in town history, with a special train scheduled from Grayling, a procession led by an honor line of Oddfellows and Rebekahs, and his black horse pulling an empty buggy; he was buried at Lewiston Cemetery in 1901. In 1902 the hotel was quarantined during a smallpox outbreak. After the M and H Mill shut down, the Lewiston House was abandoned, then became the Town Hall in 1917, until it was dismantled in 1933 under the WPA work program.