Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-10
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Wnlcn Is announced as SOOH " oO SoiT
verted to general business uses. Un-
der various names the corner OF Mar
ket Square and Market street has been
hotel site for probably 126 years.
In some of the older cities of the
State there are plots which have been
continuously occupied by hotels for
possibly n longer period and certain
rural taverns near Philadelphia can
show longer histories under their own
names and in one location. But sites
in cities continuously used Tor one
establishment are rare. The hrsC
building on the site of the Common
wealth was store which had attach
ed to it n warehouse where iron made
at Cornwall was stored before being
sent to Pittsburgh. The first ancestor
of the Commonwealth was probably
the Indian Chief. Later there was u
hotel known as the Dauphin on or
near the site. But the tavern became
best known after the visit of George
Washington to this city on his way to
Western Pennsylvania to quell the
whisky insurrection. This was early
in October, 1894. In honor of the
event the hotel was given the name of
Washington and the swinging sign
showing the general which is men,
toned in some early descriptions or
the town, was then erected. Washing
ton addressed the people from the
Market street side of the hotel and the
stepping stone or horse block where
he stood was secured some years ago
and placed in the custody of the
Dauphin county historical society by
the late William A. Kelker. About
the time of the Washington visit Cap
tain Andrew Lee took charge of the
hotel and being a gentleman of many
social qualities he made it so noted
that it was as we'll identified by trav-
elers and in the conversation of the
townspeople as Lees hotel as much
as the Washington. The old brick
building endured until after the War
of 1912, when it was the headquarters
of officers who came to organize the
defense against the British in case
they got above Baltimore. Tradition
says General Jacob Brown, the Penn
sylvanian who commanded the Amer
lean army, stayed there. The Wash-
ington House was the headquarters
for many prominent State officials and
legislators and William Henry Harri-
son was numbered among the men
who stopped there. 1t was a political
headquarters then as now and SurviV-
ed a few more names until the tifties
when it was rebuilt as the Jones
House. 1t entertained General Zach
ary Taylor and Albert Edward, when
Prince of Wales slept there. The
visit of Abraham Lincoln is part of the
history of Harrisburg and the stirring
events of his sojourn and the council
presided over by Governor Curtin. and
its sequel are well known. In the
eighties the hotel passed into the
hands of one of the Leland family,
noted hotel people, and bore that
name until 1891 when the Fleming
estate, it's owners, remodeled and en-
larged it and gave it the present name.
The Mccormick estate acquired the
property in 1908.
To enumerate the part the Com
monwealth has played in political life
| in Pennsylvania would be to reprint
| the politics of the State for the last
| forty years. In our time it has been
the headquarters of most of the
| leaders, although during the Hunter
regime, Senator Cameron and Senator
Quay clung to the Lochiel. The
Jones, as it was then, was sort OF
the headquarters of the "antis."
When it was enlarged and named the
Commonwealth 1t soon. became the
center of political activity in times
of conventions, meetings of State com
mittees and of the Legislature. Rooms
Nos. 81 and 23 have been the head
quarters of Senator Penrose and of
many men who have won in strenu-
Gus battles. They are historic and
their walls could tell many a tale of
| politics, while the registers of the
| nOIeI lot the ldSI QUARTER VI d CelIuTy.
contain the names of the biggest men
in Pennsylvania and many visitors of
national fame.
| The hotels on that corner have had
some famous landlords. Captain Lee
was Revolutionary soldier and came
| here when the town was laid out. He
made his tavern the center of social
| life and the dances and entertain
ments given at Captain Lees"
Various meetings seem to have been
| held regularly and the social activi-
ties of the old Washington or Captain
Lees as it was often called, may be
repeated at the Penn-Harris gwhen it
rises on another famous old hotel
corner. The captain was a man of
much enterprise and was as noted as
q hotel man in the closing days of the
eighteenth century as was his success
sor of the nineties-James Russ.
During the recent convention of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United
States at Washington several Harris
burgers employed their leisure mo-
ments in practical jokes at the expense
of each other. One of these pranks
involved the sending of a considerable
telegram, marked collect, by promi-
nent Harrisburger to one OF his asso-
Gates in Washington. But the joke
proved boomerang for the Harris
burg end of the combination inasmuch
as the telegram was not delivered to
the victim in Washington, but was
returned to the sender in Harrisburg
collect" This little incident has fur
nished a lot OF amusement for the
group which is in the secret.
In his delightful lecture at the Y.
w. C. A. building the other evening
Mr.. Ellsworth, president of the Cen
tury company referring in compli-
m mentary terms to the place which
Mrs. Helen r. Martin had carved for
herself in the temple OF contemporary
authors. His tribute was the occasion
of lively salvo of applause from Mrs.
Martins friends in the audience.
Admiral J. William Bowman, of the,
Harrisburg Navy, has been receiving
lot of sadvice from his friends in
Harrisburg regarding a probable sub
marine campaign in the Susquehanna
basin. Mr.. Bowman is somewhat OF
practical joker himself and has ac-
cepted with resignation the sugges-