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Grand Hotel - Beaver Falls PA

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The four-story Grand Hotel was built in Beaver Falls by Mark Wisener in 1887, and stood at the intersection of 11th Street and Eighth Avenue. The luxurious building had sixty guest rooms and was the first hotel in Beaver Falls to feature electric lights and steam heat. (c1916)


Its final days are a bit hard to determine but it appears the Grand Hotel, pictured here in the early 1920’s, closed in 1933 or soon after in the midst of the Great Depression. I believe it was torn down and used as the site of the new Beaver Falls Post Office, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project that opened for business in November 1938. Full Size


The Grand Hotel once graced the corner of 11st Street & Eighth Avenue. (c1914) Full Size

Comments

  1. I have a ancestor named Ferdinand Fournier. I found records for a Ferdinand Fournier and his wife (Mary) in the 1910 and 1912 Beaver Falls city directories. His occupation is listed as “Propr Grand Hotel, cor 8th ave and 11th st B F” and his residence is listed as same. I believe “B F” stands for Beaver Falls.

    I also see listings for a Eulalia Fournier who’s listed as a student with a residence of the Grand Hotel B F

    I have no idea what Propr indicates but if you happen to run across anything related to the Fournier family I’d appreciate it if you could let me know what it says.

    Thanks

    Denise

  2. (EDITOR’S NOTE) Denise, I found a John F. & Mary Fournier living in Pittsburgh when the census was taken in April 1910. They have three children named Stella T., Carl Frederick, and Hilda E. Does this sound like them? Stella E. is age 12 in 1910. Looking at census records father John F. is a laborer in the steel industry in 1910 – and again in 1930. Perhaps they moved to Beaver Falls for a time just after April 1910 to run the Grand Hotel? Seems odd. Propr would be “proprietor” – the actual manager (but not owner) of the hotel. Jeff

  3. I have an old pink paper weight that has Grand Hotel, CW Calvin, prop.

    CW (Chester William) was my great grandfather and I can remember being told that he was the manager (proprietor) of the hotel. As I recall, the original hotel was torn down at the end of the depression, but there was an “annex” that was built down the street.

    But my memory is hazy as CW died when I was about 5 or 6.

  4. In 1940, my grandmother’s sister, Ruth Webster Wischermann, was a maid at the Grand Hotel. Her husband, Herman Wischermann, was a manager there then, and her brother, Ralph Webster, was a clerk there. I was always told that Herman and Ruth owned the hotel. But, I see now that the story was remembered incorrectly. They just worked there, and Herman was a manager.

    I appreciate the posting of the post cards here on the website. What a “grand” place the Grand Hotel was, indeed. Beautiful.

  5. Oh, this takes me back almost 80 years and I was awfully young then. Herman Wischerman was my uncle and the black sheep of the family. My grandparents, the Wischerman owned the Windsor Hotel. I was born there in 1935. I remember it on a corner that the side went down a hill. There was a bar at the back and my grandparents had their apartment back there. They had a backyard there and a little old bridge over a stream.. I loved going there. My grandparents died in 40-41 just 11 days apart. They willed the hotel to my mother. My mother was Belfast with MS and I can still remember when she was told. She asked what she could do with it and said to give it to Herman. She was very upset later when she was told he had turned it into a man’s hotel. Ruth was his wife,a bleached blonde and very glamorous to a little kid. I loved her. Herman was my mother’s stepbrother, her name was Pfeffer. They had some kind of pop bottling works in BF. I have a picture of a big old woodencart filled with cases of pop and being pulled by a horse(s). That was long before I was born. He fell painting a Catholic Church and died. I sure wish Ihad some family left so I could learn more.
    My uncle Fritz Pfeffer was the manager of the bus system in BF for as long as I can remember.

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