The innkeeper William Allen (1871-1955) was formerly a groom in Haddington, who married an innkeeper’s daughter, Caroline MacDonald (1865-1950), from Invernessshire. The Allens took over from Janet Keir who died in 1906.

The hotel developed a reputation as the meeting place of the area’s wits, with humorous poems decorating the walls.

By 1920 the tenant was George Kermack, a publican from Perthshire, and in 1921 the hotel closed as the result of a local temperance poll, as did the Buccleuch Hotel.

After leaving the Commercial Hotel, the Allens ran the Douglas Hotel.

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