Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-31

Harris tonight. giving to the capi-
tol of the Commonwealth founded
by William Penn and the city laid
out by Joaa Harris, a son of an
early friend of the proprietor the
modern hotel which it has so long
needed calls to mind the fact that
Harrisburg being a transportation
center has always been noted for
its inns, traverns or hotels as the
time and fancy may style them.
When John Harris established his
ferry over tine Susquehanna just
! about 200 years ago places for en-
tertainment of the people who were
moving westward naturally follow
ed. Harrisburg has had many
hotels, and their locations have
marked in a most interesting man
ner the trend of business. At first
they clustered about the ferry
which was at the foot of Paxton
street and gradually moved up
Front and Second streets. When
the Harrisburg bridge was opened
Market street began to have hotels
and with the coming of the War
of 1912 the very corner of the Penn
| Harris was occupied by a tavern.
| These Harrisburg hotels have enter
! tained many famous men. Cen
eral Washington and Alexander
| Hamilton lodged in one supposed
to have been on the site of the old
/ Com IN This 10. dnninI hxy
old residents who say that he
occupied the Black Horse tavern at
the ferry. Sons of william Penn,
a French Duke, John Adams. And
rev Jackson, Zachary Taylor,
James Buchanan, Albert Edward,
then Prince of Wales and the
lamented Lincoln, Dickens, Bayard,
| Taylor. Grant, FarEagut, Porter,
Meade. are only few of the men
who have been guests at the hotels
of Harrisburg.
From the very early times Har-
risburg was noted for it's taverns.
| The story goes that one Of the
grandsons of William Penn liked
| Harrisburg life so much that he
| stayed here after the French and
| Indian war The Duke de In Roche
-Liancourt, one of the royal
dukes of France, who was here in
| 1895 and 1896 and wrote most en-
tertainingly of the beauties Of Penn
sylvania, especially the Susquehanna
valley, expressed his surprise at the
number of inns. This place." in
| his journal when referring to the
hospitality of Harrisburg. contains
no less than thirty-eight."
Eugene Snyder, the nestor of the
Dauphin county bar and native of
! Harrisburg, whose "reminiscences
| of the old days are so interesting
! and so accurate, says that the site
of the Penn Harris was occupied by
hotel called the Globe when he
was a boy. Mr.. Snyder is one of
the older generation but his recol-
| lections of the way Harrisburg used
I to look, are clear and he tells me
that the Globe was log tavern
of generous size, weatherboarded,
and noted as . place of entertain
ment. A description of the site of
the old Grand opera house which
! filed the hotel plot from the seven
| ties until 1907, written about the
time the Old Temple" was opened
says that soon after the state CAPT
! tol building was occupied on jan
uary 2, 1922, a hotel was built on
| the corner. 1t was possibly the
| Globe, but what it's name was we
have no record. Harrisburg had
many inns in those days and their
names changed with the landlords.
In any event the Globe and then the
Mansion house, kept by Daniel
Wagner, occupied the corner for
many years and the residence of
Michael Burke, one of the promin-
ent men of Harrisburg years ago,
stood on the eastern half of the
new hotel site. 1t is interesting to
note that at one time the opposite
| corner, now part of Capitol park,
contained an enginehouse of the
| Citizen Fire company, while the
post office site was occupied by
Il very noted hotel, the State Capt.
tai where such genial bonifaces as
] Omit and Prince dispensed cheer.
The Columbus corner did not be-
come q hotel site until COMPARE
| lively recent years when John Gross
built the Gross house and it was
later remodeled into the Columbus
] and went out of business for q time
because of the Grand Opera house
|
fire.
No one seems to know whether
the Black Horse tavern, about where
the Harris Park school now stands,
or the Bell tavern, which stood near
where the Reading bridge crosses
Front street, was first Both were
old-time log buildings, weather.
boarded and with the swinging
signboards which were n part of
the old tavern. In any event both
played a prominent part in early
days before John Harris laid out the
town, in 1855. The Black Horse
had a famous landlord. William
Umbarger, who later established the
Cross Keys, which was out about
Walnut and Filbert. Then there was
the Swan inn which occupied the
site of the Harrisburg hospital and
had a sign which was a target for
many n boy and occasionally for
some marksman who was shooting
on the range that people kept on
the lower river bank to race horses
and for the autumn shooting
| matches. This lower bank was a
place of amusement and on a level
with Harris park of to-day. A con-
venient tavern was a necessity in
those days, although 1t may not
he polite to talk about il just now.
The Sheaf of Wheat sign swung
| in the breeze on the site of the
residence of Mrs. A. J. Dull and the
Harrisburg club lot was occupied by
the Blue Anchor. Paxton street
being a highway to the east had
several hotels, one of them called
the White Horse. which was kept