Then And Now

At 2-6 West Main Street, the Clunie-Swartz Property includes one of Hummelstown's oldest documented structures, with a western two-bay, two-and-one-half-story limestone building and an eastern three-bay, two-and-one-half-story log structure dating from before 1800; James Clunie was the first recorded owner and ran a general store there, Frederick Hummel operated a hotel on the site, Frederick's daughters Hanna and Rosina owned it until after 1875, and the Methodist Church owned it in 1915. In a 1920s photo, the stone building housed a barber shop, and the site also held a hardware store, grocery store, shoe repair shop, and later the information center for Indian Echo Caverns; both first-floor facades were altered, the western portion retains a massive stone chimney with a later brick extension, and the property's one-and-one-half-story log building, Hummelstown's oldest known extant building, was later moved to the Swatara Creek and destroyed in the Hurricane Agnes Flood of 1972. At 12 West Main Street, the Grand Central-Warwick Hotel site has been a hotel since 1800, first known as the Cross Keys Hotel, a stopping place on the turnpike from Philadelphia to Harrisburg; early innkeeper Daniel Baum was the father of Adam Hummel Baum, born in 1822 and known by the pen name Ingomar as author of the Ingomar Papers. The Baum family owned the hotel until 1889, when Joseph Early bought it, added water and heat, a rear addition, and a mansard roof, and renamed it the Grand Central; A.L. Taylor bought it in 1895 and made further improvements, Aaron Porter bought it in 1898 and retired in 1903, Joseph Early then again held it, and after his retirement in 1907 and numerous innkeepers, it became the New Warwick under W. M. Siler of Middletown. Orlando Orsini ran the hotel from 1945 to 1975, then Mr. and Mrs. Philip Paine, including Orsini's daughter, owned and operated it until 1995, when J. D. Mathers purchased it, and the building now closely resembles its 1890s appearance. At 2 East Main Street, the Leebrich-Bowser Property shows in a circa 1940 photo the original limestone construction of its western portion, while the eastern portion was a frame structure; Elizabeth Leebrich, who married Colonel Joseph Hummel in 1817, was born there, the buildings were later covered with Form Stone and their first-floor facades repeatedly changed, and the property housed a cabinet shop, furniture store, and funeral home.

Hummelstown, Pennsylvania · United States