Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-03
Eurtttt1g Gtlat

NihcIy years ago, Wltnln q rev
| months. the father of Eugene
| Snyder. the lawyer, sold the lot
| whereon the Harris House stands at
Third and Strawberry streets, for
$500. The price generally believed
to have been paid for the corner
when the Commonwealth Trust
Company bought the famous hos
telry site from George Rovai recent
ly was $4,000. This is an interest
ing sidelight upon the way property
values have developed in the heart
of Harrisburg and possibly an indi-
| cation of what is to come in the way
of business movements before many
years. The Harris House will pass
from the list of Harrisburg hotels in
q few days and go to join the ghosts
OF the Bell, the Swan, the Washing
ton, the Globe, the Bulls Head, the
Jones, the Commonwealth and others
whose tables, rooms and bars
have figured considerably in the life
or the State capital in the years
gone by. THE Harris for oysters
and eating" has been the word
Y among those who knew good things
ana VINO liked to go about the taV-
erns Tor long, long time and the
big bar, the steam table and the low
ceilinged room,' which was Harris
burg's nearest approach to a chop
house, have been frequented by
rapidly moving generations of poll
ticians, bankers and business men,
journalists and newspapermen,
printers and plasterers, officials and
railroaders, in fact, men of every
walk IN Harrisburg. 1t was nothing
unusual In the last twenty or thirty
years to sit at a table and eat a
steak and onions and have next to
you some man whose word was law
IN affairs in Harrisburg, leaders of
the bar, prominent merchants who
were enjoying a FRY" while next
would be men either right "off the
engine or workers in one of the
iron mills. The Harris House has
had its ups and downs and in the
memories of the bon vivants it will
occupy quite place. A good many
men IN Harrisburg for legislative
sessions, conventions or on business
at the Capitol used to drop in for
beer and oysters and when the "low
celllng was filled they would drag
STOOL to the bar and eat salts" as
= fast as opened. The Harris House
mad feW rows, very few in fact, and
1t always closed at fixed time no
matter who was lined up in front OF
lts mahogany or sitting at the tables.
= Long before the corner occupied
z by the Harris House became n hotel
1T was a sort of legal Headquarters.
: Mr. Snyder, father of our fellow
: townsman, who is the Nestor of the
n Dauphin county bar and one of the
r oidest and most active attorneys in
f the central part of the State, sold
Dr0DerfV a nI
IS VINO was connected with the Ingram
s fam1ly. BY one of those coinci.
o dences that occur in place like
o Harrisburg which has families
o whose members follow the same
# professions, Eugene Snyder has rep
i resented subsequent owners of the
n properly in their legal affairs. The
= late Congressman John C. Kunkei
n had MS law offices in a building at
e TINS corner and it is said that the
: late Judge John w. Simonton once
y had an office there. 1t was in the
d Civil War that the property became
J. hotel John Gross, who later gave
@ his name to the Gross House which
stood on the site of part of the Co.
e lumbus, was the first bontface and
n Mr.. Snyder got him his license al
s the license court in April, 1863.
IS Gross had just come out of the army
l. and was one of the best known of
n hotel men in Harrisburg. He ran the
l. place for quite a while and was fol-
,r lowed by the late James Russ. of
If Senate fame. 1t is generally be-
3 lieved that it was the success which
1t he had at this site that gave Jim
ct Russ his start He went from there
lie to Brant's hall and then to the
l. Grand, the Commonwealth and the
l. Senate known to people all over
} Pennsylvania Then came johnny
es Bracken, long a figure in Harris
r burg's hotel and restaurant life, who
Of is said to have introduced the first
ID steam table. 1t was when Bracken
Of was landlord that it became really
famous all over Pennsylvania for
Mt the quality of it's oysters, which
ID people from Philadelphia and York
III used to say were equal to those sold
r at Baltimore. After Bracken was a
s. succession of landlords, including
le Edward Pelham, "Cooney" Kahler
is and others and then Rovai and Con-
III nella bought it. And there are a
good many men we'll known in Har-
ut risburg who will remember the
t. italian cookery which they intro
t. duced. Pete" Gonnella died a few
De years ago and since then Rovai has
0r conducted the place alone. He is
Ip planning to close the doors for the
er last time very soon and to return
n to Italy.
E. 1t probably would not he polite tc
al give the names of some of the mer
ly who tended bar" in the Harris
p- House in it's history of over half a
b. century any more than it would be
of good taste to say who used to he
among the regulars back at the
y, corner tables when the December
lie SHOWS had come and the salts had
RS their own delicious flavor. Some
l. men who are pretty well known In
Il politics and business have worked
or either at the tables or at the liquor
st or. oyster bars. The men who used
ne to gather there after $3.50 and &c
es home at 10:45 always had "Dutcl
IS, treat and there were more move!
IN in politics and deals in business
lie matters in litigation and plain ordt
nary arguments settled there than
can write. Suffice it to say that some
= of the regulars" have gone ant
those who survive will some times
J think of the way those big oysters
used to look and how fine it was t.
OF drop in around 1910 right after th'
", Court House bell rung for noon ant
ct eat n steak that was cooked to jus
,r,ax, Abot NoIl xxantad