Richland History Group: The storied history of the Bakerstown Hotel

Each month, the Richland History Group will highlight notable aspects from the area’s past.

Until 2015, Richland’s Bakerstown Hotel was a well-known local landmark, but few now remember that it operated in two different buildings, one block apart. During its estimated 152-year history, it saw stagecoaches, liquor raids and a massive fire that forced the hotel to relocate.

Bakerstown began on 412 acres of what was Cunningham District Depreciation Land (granted in 1786 by Pennsylvania to Revolutionary War veterans). Around 1810, this property’s fourth owner, Thomas Baker, laid out his plan for “Charlestown” at the crossroads of the Packsaddle and Venango Trails (Bakerstown-Warrendale and Heckert Roads today).

Not long after “Pittsburg’s” 1816 incorporation, Bakerstown (formerly Charlestown) was springing to life just 15 miles north.

Travelers on either trail could stop at William Waddles’ 1823 Tavern close to the crossroads to rest, eat and resupply. Some likely stayed overnight there and, by 1851, in another establishment, Brown’s Temperance Tavern. It was customary at that time for taverns to have a few sleeping rooms.

In 1856, the Butler Plank Road was completed, and Bakerstown became a stagecoach stop. Horses would be exchanged and travelers could rest.

While 1851 and 1862 maps show that a building existed at today’s 5713 Heckert Road (the site of the first Bakerstown Hotel), two buildings north of the former Wagner’s Market on Heckert Road’s west side, neither of these maps indicates whether they actually were hotels. An 1876 map seems to specify “Hotel” for that site, but there is uncertainty.

An enlarged (and possibly older) map of Bakerstown designates the building as “Union Ho,” but the last letter could also be “q” for headquarters or “a” for hall. So the hotel probably opened in 1863 — but perhaps earlier — and it may have been called “Union Hotel” at first.

In 1891, the “Bakerstown Hotel” was used as a marker for the Keystone Bicycle Race, and it was one of three hotels expected to be “crowded with riders” for an 1897 bicycle club race. The Pittsburgh Press called the “Old Bakerstown Hotel” a “landmark” in 1905 when referencing its sale from W.R. Nelly to Saxonburg Gas Company president, G.O. Hammer (for $10,000, plus “several choice Butler Lots”). Hammer remodeled the 70 x 50 foot, 17-room hotel for parties.

In 1909, the now 21-room hotel, with a 25-horse stable, was again advertised for exchange by A. Gibson and called “the best roadhouse between Pittsburgh and Butler.”

The Allegheny County District attorney’s office received complaints of liquor being sold at the Hotel in 1915. At that time, Richland Township residents had voted against liquor licenses. Two detectives were sent to the hotel and ordered drinks while waiting on their chicken and waffle dinners. Hotel proprietor Joseph Bottles then showed the detectives his “Rathskellar” (bar in the basement) and liquor stock. After having a taste, the detectives revealed their identity. Bottles was arrested and charged by District Attorney John Dunn. Later in 1915, the hotel was listed in default.

Disaster struck proprietor M. Mendel’s Hotel in July 1922 when a fire destroyed the main building, a one-story dancing pavilion behind it and another two-story structure. A bucket brigade of 200 tried unsuccessfully to get the fire under control. Fire apparatus from Pittsburgh and Hampton Township responded, but they arrived too late to save the hotel. The fireman and volunteers spent their time saving the other structures around the hotel.

W.H. Heckert and Son’s General store across the street (the 5712 Heckert Road building is still standing) and John Houseman’s garage and house were slightly damaged

After the 1922 fire, the hotel reopened in a new location, what was once the J. C. Mahle General Store (southwest corner of Bakerstown and Heckert Roads). This is the location most will recall today. For those post-fire years, the hotel was known as a bar with bands and frequented by young and old alike. The hotel was for sale in 1955 due to the death of a partner and again in 1958 due to partnership dissolution.

Since 1958, there are references to John Brannon, Edward and Sophia Czlapinski and Walter and Janice Ezatoff owning or running the hotel (the Ezatoffs for 22 years). In 1998, the hotel was advertised as being newly “remodeled and having live bands.”

The hotel closed in 2010 and stood vacant until it was torn down in 2015. What rich history and secrets would have been revealed over approximately 150 years if only the Bakerstown Hotel’s walls could have talked!