Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Decrepit Swam" Story

This map shows the location of several
buildings. #6 is Thaddeus Steven's home
and law office, #5 is what used to be
the Kleiss Tavern, #1 is the
Convention Center entrance, #4
is the Swan Hotel with #3 the
carriage house behind it
opening onto Christian Street. Click on
the image to enlarge it.

It was an ordinary day. Traveling through center city Lancaster after buying my cream-filled Long Johns at Central Market and snapping a photo or two of the front window of Strawberry & Co. where they have some of my photos displayed in their front window. A block south of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the square of Lancaster City stands the boarded-up and broken-down historical Swan Hotel. One of my high school classmates, Howie M., owned the hotel and tavern for years after he had graduated from high school. Not sure what ever happened to him or to the hotel, but the south-east corner of Queen and Vine Streets is a real eyesore. The Swan was constructed as a private hospital in 1824 by a doctor who lived next door to the the undeveloped lot. The hospital was meant to be used to care for residents of the city as well as visitors to the city who became ill. It served that purpose until sometime in the 40s when it was converted into a hotel and tavern. In the late 40s it was frequented by the President of the United States, James Buchanan who at times would sit in the upper parlor by an open window on the second floor to be seen by the vast crowd of people who would gather below. As written in the "Papers read before the Lancaster County Historical Society in 1923," it was said: When the President entered the spacious parlors of the hotel he found them crowded with ladies. The greetings were warm and many. The President extended his hands to the ladies, and bowed to kiss and bless the children. I can find no names of the early owners of the hotel and tavern except for a Captain J.M. Johnson who was one of the early owners who died in 1868. To the rear of the building is an empty lot which now serves as a parking lot. Directly behind and fronting on Christian Street, a street running parallel to Queen St., is a carriage house. The ground floor of the carriage house had an elevator to raise the carriages from Vine Street to the Christian Street level for storage. The carriage house is actually two small buildings and has been without roofs for several years now. The carriage house property was cleaned of debris not long ago and in the debris was found an old sign with "Swan Hotel" on it. The sign is believed to date to the 1850s, long before Victorian-era renovations moved the front door of the tavern to the corner of Queen and Vine. The building remained in use until 1995 when I assume Howie sold the building. In 1997 a site selection committee for the city of Lancaster chose the Swan Hotel as the best location for a new city police station but was later rejected by a new mayor and City Council members. The building is now owned by the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority and would like to renovate the property in the near future. Plans call for the re-establishment of a restaurant in the large Swan building with the building being named the Swan Hotel Tavern. Directly across the street on the northeast corner of the intersection stands a row of buildings that includes the former residence, law office, and Kleiss Tavern owned by powerful political leader, U.S. Congressman, and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens' home and law office in 2011 were named by the National Park Service as a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site. On the southwest corner of the intersection is the original Southern Market House that was constructed in 1888 and is now Lancaster City Council Headquarters. This historical corner of the south-north corridor into Lancaster could be an inviting entrance into the city, but as it now stands, it looks like crap. When I visited and took photos the rear of the corner Hotel shows a variety of layers of brick, wood and Formstone from years of renovations. All windows and doors are boarded shut and the rear carriage house is in ill repair. My hope is for the renovations to start soon and this corner of Lancaster City to be returned to the glory that it once knew. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.