John F. Antisdel

Who was John F. Antisdel?

John Francis Antisdel was an American hotelier.

Antisdel was born in Paris, New York, but moved with his family at age six to a farm near Brooklyn, Michigan in 1835. In 1850, he moved to Detroit, Michigan and became a clerk in a hotel. In 1855, he married Sarah Parshall in Detroit. They had seven children, four of whom lived to adulthood.

In 1857, he formed a partnership with James Parshall and opened the Finney Hotel at the southeast corner of Gratiot Avenue and Woodward Avenue in Detroit. The following year, Antisdel also became the owner of the Railroad Hotel, which was located on the site where the Detroit Opera House would later be built. Later, he sold the property on which the Railroad Hotel was located for $50,000 and bought the Blindberry Hotel at the corner of Michigan and Washington Avenues, which he renamed the Antisdel Hotel. The Antisdel Hotel stood until 1890 when it was torn down to make room for a more modern hotel.

Antisdel also took over the Biddle Hotel, which was one of the largest hotels in Michigan. Many of Detroit's "leading men" lived at the Antisdel Hotel. In 1872, Antisdel purchased the Beaubien House in Detroit, one of the oldest surviving houses in the city, and his family owned or rented the home until 1943.