A Brief History

The Dauphine Hotel, circa 1880  

The Dauphine started as a two room farm house which was built by an American settler in the 1840s. The location was at a French settlement called Dauphine. The founder of the town Dauphine (its name prior to becoming Bonnots Mill), Felix Bonnot, came from France in the 1840s and eventually purchased the farm house and land. In 1870, he sold the house and land to relatives of his wife, Lucien Party. The Party's then built the Dauphine which was open for business in 1875 and is currently one of the oldest lodging establishments in Missouri.

The above photo shows the original stone wall and hitching posts. Salesmen called "drummers" would arrive via steamboat or the railroad and stay at the Dauphine. They would sell their wares in an open market on the street in front of the Hotel. The building itself is only one of two in present day Bonnots Mill that has significant French style architecture.

The Party's sold the Dauphine shortly after the above photo was taken and about half a dozen owners passed through it's doors until the Verdot family purchased the Hotel in 1890.

The Dauphine Hotel, 1900

Adelaide and Alex Verdot and their four daughters Constance, Lizzy, Louise, and Annie lived in the three family rooms of the Dauphine. Alex was a county judge and had a number of other businesses while the women ran the Hotel. Aside from the trees, little changed on the outside of the Dauphine in 120 years. Adelaide died in the early 1920s and Alex in 1928. By that time, one daughter, Constance, was married and had moved to Kansas. The three remaining sisters continued to live in the Hotel and operate it.

By 1930, they made the decision to shut down the Dauphine as a regular Hotel although they occasionally rented rooms to long term boarders. The reason for the closure was two fold: US Highway 50 was finally paved by 1930 which diverted most traffic away from Bonnots Mill. Furthermore, the Great Depression was in full swing by then so what little commerce and traffic that had passed through town virtually ceased to exist.

The three sisters, or "the Girls" as they were known by most area residents, lived in the hotel for the remainder of their lives. They never married and all lived well into their 90s. The last sister died in 1970 and their nephew purchased the Dauphine. Unfortunately, many of the original antiques were either sold or given away. However, many items original to the Dauphine, namely the iron beds and the dining room table, are original and probably predate the Verdot's ownership.

In 1979, Bob and Barbara Bregant purchased the Dauphine and began a 15 year renovation project which resulted in all of the upstairs bedrooms, the kitchen, and the dining room being refinished. They also had the Dauphine listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 which was followed by the entire town of Bonnots Mill being listed as a Historic District in 1993.

Although the Bregants did much to restore the atmosphere and look of the Dauphine during it's heydey at the turn of the century, the place still only had one bathroom and no central heating and air conditioning when Scott and Sandra purchased it in 1994. The Dauphine now has central heat and air in all the guest rooms and replica antique gas stoves downstairs. Furthermore, all of the seven guest rooms have private baths, and one even has a 2-person jacuzzi tub.  Guests will be hard pressed to find another B&B as authentic and yet comfortable as the Dauphine.