History
In 1907 Daniel M. Bare, EdwinG. Bobb, Dr. A.L. Garber and Dr. William Eldon erected in equipped a first-class hotel as a house where travelers and boarders could find accommodations, but strictly without the sale of liquor. Mr. Hurlburt was the architect of the Eldon Inn and the Planning Mill Company were the contractors. Built during the summer of 1907, the Eldon Inn is a three story brick structure with all the modern conveniences available at the time. Its construction and furnishings cost about $25,000.00.
Some of the guests registered at the Eldon Inn on its first day, November 5, 1907 as taken from the original register were: D.N. Randolph, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; A.M. Bobb and Miss Mary Bobb, City; A.D. Kauffman, City; H.O. Medin, Chicago, IL; A.R. Flint, Altoona.
During the years since the Eldon Inn opened its doors there have been four leasers: Simon Kauffman (1907-1940), Mary E, Eberhardt (1940-1944), Jesse Replogle (1944-1945), J. Lester Williams assumed the lease in 1945 and operated the Inn until 1961 when he purchased the property from the Garver estate.
The main floor of the Inn housed dining rooms. This was the place to go for Sunday dinner. Meals were as low as .50 and desserts were a favorite among guests. The lower level of the Eldon Inn housed Frank Earhart’s barbershop. The barbershop was accessed from the rear of the Inn on Girard Street. The Red Rooster was a sandwich/coffee shop which was opened in the late 1940’s or 1950’s and was also accessed from Girard Street. Both are now closed.
In January 1966 the Roaring Spring Community Library moved into the Eldon Inn and remains there today.
The Eldon Inn opened in 1907 and housed guests from Pennsylvania as well as many other states. Located in the Roaring Spring History Room are two of the original Eldon Inn Registers. Deryck W. Holdsworth, Professor, Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University and his assistant Dave Fyfe compiled lists of all hotel guests. The PDF document list names, towns, meals, horses and latitude and longitude locations for each guests home town. There are approximately 2000 entries from two ledgers with over 800 pages.
The maps below indicate traveling patterns of guests. Guests included traveling salesmen, baseball teams, traveling minstrel shows and other vaudeville people.
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- Eldon Inn Ledger. Click the ledger for a larger version.
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- Map of Eldon Inn Guests. Click the map for a larger version.
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- Map of Eldon Inn Guests. Click the map for a larger version.
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- Map of Eldon Inn Guests. Click the map for a larger version.
Photos
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Guests of the Eldon Inn between 1908 and 1909 (XLS)