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We will be adding more
features in this category in the future. If you know of a,
"gone but not forgotten", that you would like included, please
contact us.
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LAPORTE, PENNSYLVANIA |
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Mokoma Inn .
. .started life circa 1850 (left)
as Laporte Hotel and ended in1996 (in
building below built in 1899)
as Mokoma Inn . |
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Hotel Laporte . . . started
life in 1850 as Hotel Barnard (below,
left) and ended in 2001 as
Laporte Hotel, (below, right).
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Deborah Zwicker Wilson
postcard |
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HOTEL LAPORTE/
MOKOMA INN SWITCH: WHICH IS WHICH?
INNKEEPING
in the 1800s wasn’t much
different than it is today — lots of work and little money. In those days of gas lamps and plank buildings, fire was
an ever present threat. Each of Laporte’s three hotels burned in
the 1890s.
Tracking Laporte’s most
enduring two hotels is complicated by interchangeable names and
by the fact that many historic references use only the
proprietor’s name.
Laporte had two short-lived incarnations of Mokoma Inn, open only in summer. The first was on Lakeview
Avenue from 1895 until it burned in 1917. The second was a tea
room at the lake in the 1900s in a building built in 1897.
Site
is key. At Main and Muncy Streets, the last Mokoma Inn began
life as Hotel Laporte. Further down Main Street, the last Hotel
Laporte was torn down in 2001; now the site of the Pavilion.
Hotel Barnard, on this site, was built in 1898. Renovated after
a fire, it became Laporte Hotel. Proprietors included:
3/22/1899-9/30/1922 Phoebe Hassen
9/30/1922-6/30/1923 Michael Flynn 6/30/1923-2/9/1938
Phoebe Hassen 4/26/1938-4/26/1938 Eugene Shoemaker
4/26/1938-8/29/1938 Orson Bailey 8/29/1938-1/15/1943
Phoebe Hassen
1/15/1943-3/31/1947 Emmons Houseknecht
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3/31/1947-5/4/1956
Edwin Beinlch
5/4/1956-9/23/1972 Benedict Spako
9/23/1972-6/13/1979 Eugene Abernethy
6/13/1979-7/3/1985 Dale Westbrook
7/3/1985 Richard Marks
Torn Down
8/27/2001
Town Founder Michael Meylert
built the first Hotel
Laporte (Main and Muncy)
circa 1850. M. C. Lauer was its proprietor. It became Mokoma Inn
after 1930. Following are dates and proprietors for which
references can be found.
1857 - H. E. Shipman
1872 to 1879 - Jasper Clark
(lost to sheriff’s sale) 1883 -
1898 -
Russell Karns
(burned on March 25)
1899
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Frank W. Gallagher
rebuilt; this building
became Mokoma Inn
After 1903 - Joseph
Carpenter (Bea Mason’s grandfather); Persel & Ione Mason
Carpenter (Bob Carpenter’s parents) 1929 - Edward
Dennison (Pearse’s sister’s husband)
1930 -1967 David J.
and Bernice Morris and their daughter Elizabeth; Mack and
Elizabeth Morris Mathe; Mackand Mildred Peterson Mathe
1967 - Philadephia
College of Osteopathy used as a clinic
1978 - Bought by
Bowhunter’s Festival and turned over to the county. Home of
Laporte Little Theater. 1996 - Torn down;
now a parking lot.
— Judy Mathe Foley
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