A history of the old and new Forrest Hotel of Nephi, Utah from 1880 onwards.

In 1877, Henry Forrest moved his family to Nephi, America and saw it was a thriving community. Although the Goldsbrough Hotel(where Shine Starr lived) was at second north and main, the Forrest Hotel became popular at the corner of 1st East and 1st South. They also purchased the Hague residence next to it, which was used by mid-wives to deliver babies. Henry Forrest kept a registration log, which is now stored at the DUP Museum in Nephi. From 1903 to 1906, the occupants included the BYU Basketball team;  "Moores Comedians"; "Gus Sun's Minstrels", who performed "That Missouri Girl" on stage. How about the 12 members of the "Kempton Komedy Ko." or "The Moon Shiners Daughter Co." and in 1906 there were ten members of the "Cosgrove Concert Orchestra". Like the "Sample" room at the Goldsbrough, the train brought in a lot of peddlers, so the Forrest Hotel had a room for samples of cigars, grain, clothing, soap and foods. Some of the interesting names that checked include "Miss Minnie Holden" from "Sandy Bottom Co." People from all of the world stayed at the Forrest, but we also had locals from Mona including Miss Dora Young and Etta Ellertson and J. M. Christensen from Levan. It must have been when the registration clerk turned their head, as two people wrote down "Jesus H. Christ from Heaven" and then his buddy wrote down "Dirty Devil from Hell". I guess we have always had funsters while in Nephi! When the Forrest family built the new Forrest Hotel at the corner of 100 North and Main, it was considered the finest luxury hotel in the rural western United States. As kids, the Jones boys were given a job to keep the furnace stoked with coal, and although we were forbidden to be seen in the high society areas of the hotel, we were able to take peeks of the rich and famous that stayed there. Like people, the building became old and brittle, and it was sold to Howard Clinger in 1962. He did a great job making it an excellent convalescent home titled the "Colonial Manor", and again the Jones boys were hired to patch up some of the plastering and cement that was giving way. The building has now been torn down and remains an empty lot, at least for now. When the second hotel was built, a brick "Annex" was built in the place of the old one, which was used to provide extra beds when the new hotel was full. It remains the "Annex", and the owner has nice rooms available with affordable rent, and keeps it very upscale in appearance, but you better mind your P's and Q's there, as no Riffraff is wanted, just like the Forrest family had it 138 years ago.