For a somewhat modest rural community hotel, J.J. Joyce's Manhattan Hotel and Farmer's Rest looks relatively prosperous with Victorian era tower and trim and very large windows; the attached shed is of later date and is ramshackle by comparison. The signage above the porch makes it clear that it is the local watering hole as well: Congress Lager, Wines and Liquors, surely for on-premises consumption but perhaps also for sale for home use.
The hotel shed predates the automobile as the signs say Water Your Horses Here. The hotel is also a Telephone Pay Station, advertises tobacco, and has a hand-lettered sign which appears to say Station Wear (?) For Sale, so the establishment may also have sold sundries to locals and guests. If J.J. Joyce, Proprietor, is in the photo, he or she must have been hands-on and not interested in making an ego fashion statement. The two little boys have a rather nice large toy horse which at today's collectors' price would have set them up quite well in the currency valuation of their own day.