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The Haunted U.S. Hotel
By Patty Wilson
FATE :: October 2001

Nestled in a little valley in Blair County, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Hotel in Hollidaysburg seems like a charming piece of American history-and it is. With the railroad on the far side of the building, it is easy to see why it was built where it was. However, appearances can be deceiving. The U.S. Hotel was built in 1835, the year after the canal system throughout Pennsylvania was opened. Built by James Dougherty, it was designed to cater to the westward-flowing traveler. Folks could get off at the wharf where the railroad tracks now stand and walk to the corner where the grand lady called the U.S. Hotel stood awaiting them.

By all accounts, the U.S. Hotel was one of the most popular hotels of that day. For the brief 20 years that the canals ruled commerce, the U.S. Hotel was considered a major hotel. James Dougherty prospered and married. We know that his wife gave birth to at least one child during that time. Dougherty also ran the local newspaper and was a pillar of the community. However, everything was about to change for Dougherty. The hotel caught fire and was gutted. (There are currently three possible dates for the fire, so no one can say with any measure of certainty exactly when the fire did occur.)

After the fire, Dougherty sold the building site to Engelbert Gromiller, a Bavarian immigrant. Gromiller was a master beer brewer back in Germany and he continued practicing his craft in America. He built a brewery beside the hotel, redid the hotel, and opened it once more. By now the canal system had given way to the railroads, and Gromiller "offered the best $1.50 a day house in the borough."

In the 1940s, the hotel was used by the U.S. Navy as a radio school. The bar was torn out and turned into a shower unit. The dining rooms and bedrooms were classrooms for the young men who would soon be fighting in battle.

Beyond all of this, there is little known history. Rumors and legends take over. One rumor is that there was once a brothel on the second floor, but there is no evidence of it. It is rumored that the "tunnels" beneath the brewery were used to house slaves before the Civil War, but there is no evidence of that, either.

The hotel declined through the years until it was bought in 1994 by Joe and Karen Yoder, who began restoring the building. With the help of their son, Jason, they have re-created the grandeur of the U.S. Hotel on the first floor.

One of the central three members of the Paranormal Research Foundation, Scott Crownover, wandered into the building one evening and noted the history of the place. In idle conversation he happened to ask Karen Yoder if there might be any ghost stories associated with the building, as it was quite old. Scott was only half joking, but he received a very serious answer. Karen admitted that the building was haunted. She told him about "Sarah," who haunts the small back dining room. Waitresses claim that Sarah knocks things off tables and generally creates a bit of mischief in that room.

Karen also told him about a workman who had slept in the second-floor office during renovations and had seen a woman in a white dress or gown hovering about 18 inches off the floor. The man was struck by the fact that she had no feet!

Scott hurried away to tell the group of his find. But no one was ready for what would eventually be found in the haunted U.S. Hotel ...

Read the rest of this article in the October 2001 issue of FATE

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