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Monadnock Guide
Council of Elders
USA
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March 14 2005
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Kay
Colonial Settler
USA
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January 06 2009
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 Posted - January 15 2009 : 3:25:03 PM
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I used to live in Bedford, PA. I loved and still love that old Gulf gas station-it is so unique and really beautiful considering you usually think of a gas station as a ho-hum kind of place. It was still there when I past it going to western PA to visit family this past summer and I hope that it remains there. Speaking of other unique architecture, has anyone ever seen the old Coffee Pot Diner in Bedford? It's now on the grounds of the Bedford Fairgrounds. Or anyone remember the old Ship Hotel on rt 30 just a few miles from where the road bends sharp around the Old Shot Factory? Of course by the time I ever saw it it was long abandoned but I was real sorry to see it burn down. It must have been cool in its hey day! Or lastly, what about the Bedford Springs Hotel? It was also abandoned when I lived there but we always use to roam the grounds and peak in windows. I see it has since been restored and opened as a four star hotel. I wish I had the money to see inside that place! To bad stores and businesses aren't built with that much class today-maybe I wouldn't be so disgusted with all the developement if that was the case!
Kay |
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SgtMunro
Soldier of the King
USA
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September 23 2002
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 Posted - January 15 2009 : 3:46:49 PM
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I just filled-up there in December, while attending Old Bedford Village's 18th Century Christmastyme. There is something appealing to me about the Art-Deco style which was prevalent from the 1930's to 1950's. It was a form of design that was cosmopolitan and edgy, but still warm (unlike the hermetically sealed 'glass boxes' of today's sick-buildings). Another classic building which comes to mind is the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin (PA). My department still has a one-man detail there (and has since 1936), and even the airport police station is classic to say the least (including the black and dark green floor tiles).
YMH&OS,
The Sarge |
Serjeant-Major Duncan Munro
Capt. Thos. Graham's Coy.
42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foote
(The Black Sheep of the Black Watch)
"Nemo Me Impune Lacessit"
-Or-
"Recruit locally, fight globally." |
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blackfootblood
Devoted Tribal Member
USA
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May 22 2007
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Posted - January 15 2009 : 5:01:25 PM
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| The old ship motel!! Boy, does that bring back memories! I actually remember when I was itty bitty, my mom and I stopped there to get candy. It was right before it closed. But every time we would head down to Bedford, we would either go down or come back on route 30 just to see the old building. It's a same that it burnt down, they could have restored that and made a huge profit from the tourism. And the Coffee pot, my folks pointed that out to me this summer when I was home visiting, that they had moved it. Fortunately, it's only a few feet up the road! And Bedford Springs, how pretty is that place now! It's gorgeous, just wish I had the money to fork over for a night's stay there! I took pics the summer of 07' when it was finished being revamped. I'll have to post some of them that way other folks here on the board can see them. |
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain!"
"Live well, love much, laugh often!" |
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blackfootblood
Devoted Tribal Member
USA
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May 22 2007
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Posted - January 15 2009 : 5:45:55 PM
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Okay, I finally found my pics of Bedford Springs, here they are.
The hotel coming up from the right side
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Right side of the hotel moving to the left
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The main lobby of the hotel
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Past the lobby still moving to the left
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At the far left of the hotel
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This is the spring house across the road from the hotel
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And this is a old pic of the Ship Motel in route to Bedford on Route 30
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"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain!"
"Live well, love much, laugh often!" |
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winglo
Deerslayer
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
July 13 2007
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caitlin
Bumppos Tavern Patron
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 17 2002
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Posted - January 15 2009 : 11:12:51 PM
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| That is simply gorgeous! Thanks for sharing! |
Jack McCall: "Should we shake hands or something, relieve the atmosphere. I mean how stupid do you think I am?"
Wild Bill Hickok: "I don't know, I just met you."
"A nation with no regard to it's past will have little future worth remembering."
A.Lincoln
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things"
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Kay
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
January 06 2009
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Posted - January 16 2009 : 12:54:05 PM
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Thanks for posting the pics! I have some too some where from when we lived there but it looks great now! Have you ever checked out the Bedford Springs website? They have some pics of the interior too. Just amazing! It's so worth checking out-http://www.bedfordspringsresort.com.
When it was built the indoor swimming pool was state of the art for it's day-one of the first indoor pools in existence. It was President Buchanan's summer white house during his presidency-and many presidents before and after him stayed there too. The first trans-atlantic cable message was recieved by James Buchanan in the hotel's lobby in 1858. During WWII, the site was used to hold Japanese Diplomats captured in Germany and then shipped over here and it was also used as a training facility for U.S. Navy radio operators. And to connect this subject to the American Indian- they were the first to recognize and use the mineral springs there before the rest of us arrived.
Bea and I and our victorian dance organization have often talked about how cool it would be for all of us to stay there for a night and host a true victorian ball there-dinner at midnight, dancing til morning, and all. You're right-if only we had that kind of money! It would be a once in a life time event!
Kay |
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Kay
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
January 06 2009
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Posted - January 16 2009 : 1:08:37 PM
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A few more things popped into my head. The location of the former Ship Hotel. I am reading the book The French and Indian War in Pennsylvania 1753-1763 by the PA historical and musuem commission. This book was first written sometime in the 1970s. In the chapter where the book traces Forbes route it mentions the curvature of the road that they created as you are heading up hill and pass the Old Shot Factory (which of course didn't exist at that time), but the book said that after you curved past the shot factory-several miles down the road was a small fort built as one of the stopping points on Forbes rt. There also was a military camp maintained nearby. I wish I had the book in front of me b/c I can't remember the name of the fort or the commander of the camp. I'll have to look it up again. But by the way the booked talked it sounded like this fort was either extremely close to or the ship hotel was possibly build on top of it's location. Does anyone know anything about this or have any ideas? And by the way blackfootblood, where was "home" to you or is to your family?
Kay |
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di-mc
Pioneer
USA
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September 03 2008
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Posted - January 16 2009 : 1:13:20 PM
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| Wow! My husband & I went through that area often, but never knew about this place! Amazing. |
Diane
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson |
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Wilderness Woman
Watcher of the Wood
USA
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November 27 2002
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Posted - January 17 2009 : 08:30:31 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Kay
In the chapter where the book traces Forbes route it mentions the curvature of the road that they created as you are heading up hill and pass the Old Shot Factory (which of course didn't exist at that time), but the book said that after you curved past the shot factory-several miles down the road was a small fort built as one of the stopping points on Forbes rt. There also was a military camp maintained nearby.
That was possibly Fort Bedford, I would think. I'm not sure, though. Seamus could tell us for certain.
As far as the Grand View Ship Hotel, check this out! Ship Hotel Be sure to follow the links to complete the story and find out what happened to it. Kind of sad, because it was very, very cool! I would have loved to stay there! |
"It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imaginings could possibly have been." |
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Seamus
Guardian of Heaven's Gate
USA
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May 19 2002
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Posted - January 17 2009 : 8:44:51 PM
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Fort Bedford was monstrous....covered most of what is the town today. This may refer to one of the smaller outposts related to the fort. I'd have to get into Bouquet's Papers one of these days and see what it may refer to.....
One of the bastions has been discovered, dug, and rebuilt......really interesting. It's the one which has an elevated covered way which terminates over the middle of the river there and has a trapdoor where a bucket on a line was lowered down to dip water for the fort. It was covered for protection against attack. |
Life's journey is not to
arrive at the grave safely
in a well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways,
totally worn out, shouting
'...holy sh*t ...what a ride!'
~~Mavis Leyrer, Seattle
Seamus
~~Aim small, hit the b*****d right between the eyes!~~ |
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SgtMunro
Soldier of the King
USA
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September 23 2002
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Posted - January 18 2009 : 11:02:36 AM
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quote:
Seamus noted: Fort Bedford was monstrous....covered most of what is the town today. This may refer to one of the smaller outposts related to the fort. I'd have to get into Bouquet's Papers one of these days and see what it may refer to.....
I don't think so, since all of the outlying structures and cantonment areas were not that far from the fort. The fort Kay refers can only be Fort Dewart (or Duart), which was at the western end of Rhor's Gap near present-day Stoystown (PA). It was originally just an earthen redoubt, with stone bread ovens within meant as a secure overnight bivouac on the Forbes Military Road (not quite midway between Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier), and it did not have a permanent garrison. It is still there today, as well as a portion of the Forbes Road, and resides on private property.
YMH&OS,
The Sarge
P.S.- As a sidenote, I did make reference to Fort Dewart in my posted historical fiction (which for some unknown reason the type had become askewed) |
Serjeant-Major Duncan Munro
Capt. Thos. Graham's Coy.
42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foote
(The Black Sheep of the Black Watch)
"Nemo Me Impune Lacessit"
-Or-
"Recruit locally, fight globally." |
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Kay
Colonial Settler
USA
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January 06 2009
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Posted - January 29 2009 : 4:03:12 PM
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Sorry for taking so long to reply. You are right Sgt., it was Fort Dewart. I finally got to pull my book back out and look it up. It was a half a mile northeast of a spot where Col. John Armstrong established a military camp in August 1758. You said it is still there today, which answers my questions of whether it was on the site of the ship hotel-it's neat to know that portions of the fort still exist. Thanks for answering my question!
Kay |
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