Mechanicsburg Improvements: 1866

In October 1866, A. K. Rheem, the publisher of the Carlisle Herald, visited Mechanicsburg to look at improvements in the town.  He wrote the following article about his visit:

“The most important and noticeable new buildings are the Market House and the Merchant's Hotel. The former is a splendid brick edifice beautifully built and running through the entire depth of a square.

The main building fronts upon Main street and is three stories high, the ground floor being intended for store rooms, the second story for a public hall, and the third, for a Masonic Lodge room. The room to be used as a town hall will be forty by eighty feet, and when finished, will be in all respects a first class exhibition room. In the rear of this main building, and fronting along Market street, is the market house proper. The interior is a spacious, paved area, provided with every convenience for buyer and seller. On the second story, which is reached by a stairway from the street, are a number of well finished and commodious rooms adapted for business or dwelling purposes. The entire structure is the property of a joint stock company….

The Merchant's Hotel has just been completed and its gentlemanly proprietor…Major Thomas J. Kerr, is busily engaged in garnishing its spacious and cheery compartments with the necessary “fixins.” The building is elegant in form and substantial in structure.  It is built of brick, and its proportions are 42 by 100 feet. The office, parlor, reception, dining, setting and ball rooms, are all large, elegant and supplied with every modern appliance, well lighted and ventilated…This hotel supplies a want which has been long and sorely felt in Mechanicsburg, the accommodations for the business and travelling interests….

A very large number of elegant and substantial residences are being erected in Mechanicsburg, prominent among which we notice those of Messrs. R. H. THOMAS, DAVID HIGLEY, W. C. HOUSER, DR. P. H. LONG, JOS. ELCOCK, R. SENSEMAN, L. P. RODDY, J. KELLER, J. WEBBERT, G. COBLE, J. CARL, H. LAIRD and others. Mechanicsburg is rapidly growing in wealth and population, and her citizens are determined to keep pace with the times.”¹

Four months after this article was written, the editor of the American Volunteer wrote about a party he attended at the Merchant's Hotel and published it in the February 14, 1867 edition of the newspaper entitled "A Trip to Mechanicsburg: A Party at the Merchant’s Hotel in 1867."

“We had the pleasure of joining a social party which took an extra train of cars at this place, on Thursday evening last (February 7), and proceeded to Mechanicsburg, there to “trip the light fantastic” at the Merchant’s Hotel, which has recently been opened by Maj. T. J. Kerr, formerly of this place. Guests were present from Chambersburg, Newville, Carlisle and vicinity, Mechanicsburg, Dillstown, Silver Spring, Lower Allen, East Pennsboro’ and other localities in the lower end of the county.  There were about sixty couples in attendance, all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves “hugely.” The arrangements, under the superintendence of friend Kerr of the Merchant’s, were complete in all respects. A fine orchestra was engaged for the occasion, and a bountiful supper was served about midnight. The party did not disperse until four o’clock in the morning, when the Carlisle party took the cars for home, and the others went their several ways, each and all exchanging pleasant farewell greetings, and uniting in wishing abundant prosperity to “the Merchant’s,” and its courteous and accommodating landlord. The Merchant’s is a new house, constructed with an eye to comfort and convenience, is well furnished, and is under the charge of one who “knows how to keep a hotel.”

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