It was an ordinary day. Reading about Lancaster County's very own President of the United States, James Buchanan. Story dealt with a question that was posed to Lancaster Newspaper's "The Scribbler", Jack Brubaker. A Mr. Robert Childs from Millersville, PA wanted to know about a place known as Wabank. Mr. Brubaker's reply follows: Seems that Wabank was located in Lancaster Township not far from where the Millersville Road, aka Route 741, crossed the Conestoga River. To get to Wabank one needs to turn left where Wabank Road meets Millersville Road, then drive south and take a right on Rice Road. Wabank was near the end of that road. It was in the mid-1850s that a group of investors built the Wabank House which was a hugh resort on the western bank of the Conestoga River. The four-story building had 100 bedrooms, a dining room that held about 300 people and an extensive grounds that were suitable for outdoor activities. This place was popular during the days before people took long-distant vacations, such as vacations to Caribbean islands, instead of roaming around their local establishments. The Wabank was a sprawing resort on the western bank of the Conestoga River. It had a hugh seating area that could seat about 300 people as well as extensive ground around the resort. A trip to the Wabank was considered a long-distance vacation in those days. Many people found it enjoyable to visit locations along the Conestoga river as well as the mighty Susquehanna River. Mr. James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States, was not one of those people. The newspaper...The Lancaster Examiner, a Republican newspaper who supported John C. Fremont for President, fictitiously suggested he was at the Wabank, however, and subsequent reporting has repeated that claim as if it were fact. But, it was actually Buchanan who was spending part of his summer at the Wabank and not Mr. Fremont. The newspaper wrote:..."It is also the intention of Mr. Buchanan, upon leaving Wabank, to make an excursion to the head waters of Salt River, another place of some celebrity as a fashionable resort for gentlemen of leisure. He will take passage in the boat that leaves Wabank on the 4th of November." Seems that November 4 was the date of the 1856 election. Newspapers often remarked that losing candidates would make a trip "up Salt River." The salt would come from tears shed over defeat. In this instance, any tears were shed by Fremont after he lost the election to Buchanan. It was not only Fremont that suffered, since the Wabank House also floundered. It was dismantled and transported to the small town to the north of Lancaster known as Lititz in 1863. There it was coupled with the Lititz Springs Hotel as a gargantuan resort unit. The Wabank portion of the group burned to the ground in 1873. This ended the lifetime of the Wabank Hotel! Therefore, I just missed visiting it (by about 75 years)!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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