Newville’s Big Spring Hotel -1860

The Big Spring Hotel was situated near the Newville Depot on the Cumberland Valley Rail Road. It was enlarged and improved by its owners, the Ahl brothers, in 1860. By May 1860, a three-story brick addition to the back of the hotel was almost finished.¹

Although no architectural plans of the hotel survive, a description of the hotel was sent by a correspondent to the Shippensburg News and was reprinted in the November 22, 1860 edition of Newville’s Star and Enterprise.

“It is a fine brick structure, 50 by 80 feet, with a basement in which is a fine Saloon—the first floor containing the Bar room—well supplied, of course, with the best liquors; two large dining rooms, parlor, reading room, two large halls, kitchen and scullery; the second floor contains two large parlors (convertible by means of folding doors into a ball-room 50 by 20 feet,) five family chambers and four smaller chambers, with a hall the whole length, and a bath-room in the rear, also a fine iron piazza extending the whole length of the front; the third floor containing seven fine chambers with conveniences for heating in the winter, and nine smaller chambers. The whole house is under a slate and tin roof, and is surrounded by a handsome observatory, 12 feet square and elevated about 10 feet above the apex of the roof, from which can be seen “all out of doors…”

In June 1959, demolition of the hotel began. The caption underneath a photo of the building crumpling in clouds of dust ran: “CHEWS UP OLD HOTEL. Bucket teeth operated by cables on crane rip part of the old Big Spring hotel in Newville. Wrecking of old landmark will provide space for new construction of creamery.” The Hershey Chocolate Company purchased the site to build a milk receiving station.²