The "The Story Of The River Hills Of Southern Lancaster County" Story: Part III" Story

It was an ordinary day.  If you have been visiting with me for the past two days, you would have already read about a place that was supposed to have been built over 100 years ago that would've been called the Pequehanna Inn and would have been the biggest Inn in the United States.  But, unforeseen circumstances led to its demise and all that remains of it today are a few concrete and cinderblock foundations buried in the hills of Pequea, Pennsylvania.  But, the question for today is...what ever happened to Pequea's Riverview Hotel that at one time drew the President of the United States to its doorway.  

I recently read a story written by Lancaster Newspaper columnist Jack Brubaker, aka "The Scribbler" who told a tale of...changing twilights and tall trees that acted as grim sentinels who guarded the Hotel that sat on the East side of the mile-wide river dotted with green islands and boulders worn smooth from the washing of the river water.  The story was published on Tuesday, August 30, 1988 in Lancaster's New Era newspaper.  The Riverview Hotel was built in 1902-03 by Mr. Frederick Schoff who sold it to Mr. Paul Heine in 1904.  Those two gentlemen owned close to five miles of prime river frontage along the Susquehanna on the Lancaster County side, or east side, of the river.  The hotel entertained both locals as well as prominent visitors from as far away as Chicago and New York.  Originally the hotel had 75 bedrooms, a dining room, a few tennis courts, croquet courts and swings with canopies.  It also had a pretty lively ballroom where visitors and locals danced the jitterbug.  One of the main attractions at the Riverview Hotel was Pappy Stark and His Blue Danube Serenaders (No need to Google the group...I already did and there are no entries about them).  One thing you can be sure of was the amount of whiskey that flowed along the river, most surely going through the hotel!  According to "The Scribbler", the proprietor of the hotel at the time, a Mr. Charles Weingartner, advertised that the place had no mosquitoes or malaria and could be reached conviently by way of the trolley from Lancaster or Millersville.  

Boating on the Susquehanna River

The closeby Columbia & Port Deposit Railroad also brought passengers to the thriving hotel.  Residents could bathe in the Susquehanna River as well as fish at the mouth of the Pequea Creek.  Shad were plentiful as were small-mouthed bass and rock fish.  Eventually the river was dammed at several places for electricity production and that killed the fishing. A tour of the nearby "cold cave" was something offered at the time and is still offered today!  

One of the dams on the mighty Susquehanna River.

Then in the 1920s a different social group began to frequent the hotel and the rowdy crowds arrived.  After WWII, Paul and Mary Lungren bought the hotel and made substantial repairs to attempt to revitalize the property.  The hotel was no longer the same resort at it was years before.  The hotel eventually became a cheap place for fishermen and boaters to stay.  The Lungren's sold it to the Pequea Fire Chief, Eli Haddad, in 1970.  Three years later an alleged accidental fire closed the place for good.  Chief Haddad began to demolish the hotel, but it proved to be too costly so he had his volunteer firemen burn the hotel to the ground.  Pennsylvania Power and Light Company now owns the grounds which have been returned to a more natural state.  Oh, for the days when we could have swam, fished and danced the jitterbug to our hearts content!  Not going to happen at the Riverview Hotel anymore.  Such a shame!  It was another extraoridnary day in the life of an ordinary guy.