Articles in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (#2 here) and Post-Gazette report that the new owners of the Mountain View Inn plan to raze the 85-year-old portion of the historic hotel and will reopen the 59 rooms in the newer section as Mountain View Village.
The developers who bought the 14-acre site also plan a strip mall on a vacant parcel on the property with a restaurant, dry cleaner, bakery, and drive-thru restaurant.
The inn opened in 1924 along the Lincoln Highway but closed in January when the bank placed the property in foreclosure.
Lincoln Highway News 
August 20, 2009 at 12:23 am |
Brian,
I am a teacher at Mountain View Elementary School. During a recent New Teacher/Mentor luncheon the fate of Mountain View Inn came up in conversation, as it’s only a stone’s throw from our school. However, the conversation quickly turned to a discussion about the Lincoln Highway. One of our new teachers asked me if I knew who made the original concrete markers. (I did not.) He went on to explain that he had just purchased an older, mostly concrete home in the area, and a neighbor told him the original owner/builder was a man who had a concrete business. He told him that this previous owner was also the man who made the molds for the original concrete markers. A claim that was further backed up by the fact that the cement fence posts around the property closely resemble the Lincoln Highway markers in their shape and composition, but for the fact that they have been perforated to allow for connecting fence rails.
Do you know who made the molds for the concrete markers? Were all of them cast in one location or were there several manufacturers of concrete markers spread across the U.S.?
I would be curious to hear what you have to say on the subject.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Joe Comm
Greensburg, PA
August 21, 2009 at 3:00 pm |
Brian,
I am just sick to read about the new owners of the Mt. View Inn wanting to tear down the historic part of the Inn. According to the Tribune Review article that was published on Wednesday (August 19) the new owners said that they were 99 percent sure that they would raze the older part of the hotel. However in the article in yesterday’s (August 20) Post Gazette, they seemed to back off of this some, saying that they wouldn’t rule out the possibility of reopening the remaining 26 rooms in the older section, but that it would take a great effort to renovate them.
What I want to know is, is there any way that we can try and persuade these new owners of the inn’s historical and sentimental significance? What can be done to try and block this from happening? Mt. View Inn has been a significant part of Greensburg and Latrobe’s history for the past 85 years and we simply cannot let it disappear without a fight!
Best Regards,
Rachel
August 25, 2009 at 12:08 am |
Well heck, we all know that what America needs more of are beige strip malls. The heck with history. (sarcasm mode off)
September 8, 2009 at 8:43 pm |
Before its closing, Mountain View was listed among the National Trust Historic Hotels of America (HHA). The HHA is “a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. HHA has identified more than 220 quality hotels that have faithfully maintained their historic architecture and ambience. To be selected for this program, a hotel must be at least 50 years old, listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or recognized locally as having historic significance.” (Mountain View has been removed from their site.)
I agree with Rachel.
Harrison Ford chose to stay at the inn several years ago, because it was not a strip mall-type motel.
It seems like more should be done to save this unique structure.
September 29, 2009 at 3:49 pm |
I attended the auction there today and I must say it gave me a sad feeling to see everything sold off knowing the structure will soon be razed.
Unfortunately, the public did not support the business in recent years, and that is the inevitable result.
Mountain View Inn had special meaning to me and many others, and it’s hard to imagine a modern strip mall in it’s place. I wish they would just plant grass there and keep the garden intact.
Thanks for the memories.
November 6, 2009 at 1:54 pm |
My husband just called from a trip to Greensburg when he saw the Mountain View Hotel being bulldozed into a pile of rubble. What a sad day in history when such a beautiful old hotel is destroyed to make way for a modern strip mall. This says so much about our modern culture — raze the past.