The landmark previously known as The Manor House Inn and the Lenz Hotel has new owners with plans to renovate and preserve the property.
Lisa, Earl and Autumn Hamilton are the new owners of the historic Route 66 landmark located at 505 E. Elm Street in Lebanon. The property will have a new name –Manor Inn on Route 66–and some changes, but Lisa Hamilton said the owners were trying to preserve the building’s history.
“I just think it’s a really unique place,” she said on the role the property’s history played in the purchase. “I think it’s being able to own a historic landmark like this, and to be able to care for and preserve it, so that it lives on for as long as we can keep it."
“As long as we can keep it nice,” she continued, “I think it will be here long down the road, probably beyond my lifetime.”
Autumn Hamilton appreciated the beauty of the older building’s style.
Former owners Bronwen and RandyPallila and Michelle Cochran announced the sale of the historic landmark Sept. 30 on the business’s Facebook page.
The post thanked the guests they had received over seven years of service and expressed excitement for the landmark’s next chapter.
As noted in Gary Sosniecki’s September 2018 article on the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society’s website, the three-story home served Route 66 travelers as the Lenz Homotel and later the Lenz Motel from 1932 to 1975.
Sosniecki’s article noted the building had also served as a private residence and real estate office, with son of a previous owner adding a two-car garage. The most recent previous owners had reopened the Route 66 landmark as a bed-and-breakfast.
Lisa Hamilton, a local financial planner, had been looking for a space to hold her expanding business, and the property’s garage, once renovated, will hold Hamilton Financial Planning. Also planned further along for the garage is an additional rentable space.
Autumn Hamilton, who possesses a degree in business management, will likely run the rest of the Manor as a more of a traditional bed-and-breakfast with rooms and meeting spaces still available to rent.
The mother and daughter also spoke about the latter’s other food-related plans for the business, such as smoothie and to-go options for breakfast, food options for meeting or event rentals, baked goods and one-a-week lunches for the general public.
Lisa Hamilton said they planned to begin renovations on the property in January, with the property likely being closed to rentals then.
These will include the previously mentioned changes to the garage, as well as changing of the second-floor bedrooms into two bathrooms with showers for the adjacent rooms, work on the original windows, and exterior painting and repairs.
The Record took a tour of the building from top to bottom with Autumn and Lisa Hamilton, where it examined the murals on the building’s walls and saw the room the Hamiltons planned to turn into two bathrooms.
The Manor was still renting in the meantime, and Lisa Hamilton anticipated the business’s website for booking rooms – whole house rentals still require a phone call – would go online in the next few weeks.
She anticipated the hard launch of the renovated property would likely be in April.
“Trying to preserve the history, make it a neat place to stay, and it’s on Route 66,” she said.
