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| French Point Hotel Economy PA Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection Photo Number 390 courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Old Economy Village used with permission |
The French Point Hotel was built in 1891, during the waning days of the Harmony Society's existence, at the northern edge of what is now Ambridge--but was then Economy--approximately where Merchant St. currently intersects with Ohio River Blvd. (Rt. 65).
The hotel was one of the important buildings in the historical bridge linking Economy with Ambridge
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| "Economy Hotel (New)" French Point Hotel Economy PA Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection Photo Number 624 courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Old Economy Village used with permission |
The vintage panorama below shows the French Point Hotel on the far left. The Harmony Society's lumberyard is on the right, below the hotel. The hotel's being located near the lumberyard led to the hotel's destruction on April 23, 1902.
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| "Lumber Works. Economy PA." French Point Hotel (left) above Harmony Society's lumberyard courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library Archives |
Local historian Bill Bowan wrote information about the photo in the bottom margin:
W. K. Shafer Family purch. Hotel from Harmony Socy. 1895. Lumberyard & Hotel burned down in the same fire 1900-1901.The fire began at the lumberyard, eventually spreading one to two acres, destroying the hotel, lumberyard, and several outbuildings. The source of the fire was thought to be a spark from a passing train engine. So Bowan was right about the fire, but not the year the fire happened.
Although described as the setting for "many brilliant functions...by society people of Pittsburg and Sewickley," the hotel, fortunately, had been vacant for at least five weeks at the time of the fire. (Pittsburg Commercial Journal, April 24, 1902). The reason the building was unoccupied was that it was in the process of being converted into a sanitarium of some kind. A train car of goods for the new sanitarium was also destroyed in the fire.
Previously, the hotel had been a popular stopping point for cycling groups traveling along "the Beaver road." (The Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 22, 1898; May 13, 1899).
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Update:
The following information was written as a Facebook post on the Old Economy Village's page on September 18, 2020, by the curator Sarah Kirschensteiner Buffington. Sarah has given me permission to add it to this blog post. It contains information I didn't know until I read Sarah's post:
Did you know there was another hotel at Economy? The French Point Hotel was built in 1891 just north of Economy at what was known as French Point. That was where the Harmonists landed when they arrived in 1824 to their new land. The location of the hotel is thought to be where Merchant Street enters Ohio River Boulevard.
The following information was written as a Facebook post on the Old Economy Village's page on September 18, 2020, by the curator Sarah Kirschensteiner Buffington. Sarah has given me permission to add it to this blog post. It contains information I didn't know until I read Sarah's post:
Did you know there was another hotel at Economy? The French Point Hotel was built in 1891 just north of Economy at what was known as French Point. That was where the Harmonists landed when they arrived in 1824 to their new land. The location of the hotel is thought to be where Merchant Street enters Ohio River Boulevard.
The story of the hotel is not well known at all, and was in fact part of the testimony for the Schwartz vs. Duss court case of 1900. The "Feucht Faction" (descendants of the infamous Hildegard Mutschler Feucht always feuding with John Duss for control of the Society) claimed that Duss built the "big house" for Cyrus Reed Teed, who claimed that he was God. Teed supposedly had "spies" at Economy to learn all about the Harmony Society so that he could come in and claim all of their money. Teed did indeed come to visit in 1892. Duss on the other hand said that Jacob Henrici had the building built as a boarding house for saw mill workers.
The structure cost $10,000-12,000, had 23-26 rooms, electric lighting, hot air heating, hardwood floors, and was completely furnished. All of this was very significant at the time and very lavish for boarders of a sawmill. Who would you believe?
The building was not operated as a hotel until 1896, when Lorenzo D. Schafer leased it from the Harmony Society. It was a favorite spot for people from Sewickley to Rochester to stay during bike outings and such during the summer. The hotel was famous for its chicken and waffle dinners. It closed about 1899.
The French Point Hotel burned on April 23, 1902 reportedly as a result of a spark flying from a passing train that caught a lumber shed on fire. The flames spread quickly up the hill to the hotel. No one was there at the time, and the building was empty. There had been plans to turn it into a sanitarium. Supplies for its new purpose were sitting in a train car on a siding and also burned.
It is interesting to note that the building burned on the last day of testimony at the appeal of the court case in the United States Supreme Court.
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Since the French Point Hotel was destroyed in 1902, it could not have been one of two hotels where travelers might have stayed in 1906 as stated in the book Ambridge by Larry R. Slater.
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Ambridge trivia: Jim Holman, the current owner of the K & N Restaurant, 755 Merchant St., is a descendant of the Shafer family who owned the French Point Hotel. I know this because while I was in K & N one lunchtime, Mr. Holman came out from the kitchen to show me a framed copy of the panorama above and told me that his family had owned the hotel. He added that he had a much larger version of that photo at home.
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Thank you to Jeffrey Snedden, the writer of the "Histories & Mysteries" column for the Beaver County Times, for his invaluable help in finding information about the fire that destroyed the French Point Hotel.
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Since the French Point Hotel was destroyed in 1902, it could not have been one of two hotels where travelers might have stayed in 1906 as stated in the book Ambridge by Larry R. Slater.
_____
Ambridge trivia: Jim Holman, the current owner of the K & N Restaurant, 755 Merchant St., is a descendant of the Shafer family who owned the French Point Hotel. I know this because while I was in K & N one lunchtime, Mr. Holman came out from the kitchen to show me a framed copy of the panorama above and told me that his family had owned the hotel. He added that he had a much larger version of that photo at home.
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Thank you to Jeffrey Snedden, the writer of the "Histories & Mysteries" column for the Beaver County Times, for his invaluable help in finding information about the fire that destroyed the French Point Hotel.
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