Historic Name

Eagle Hotel

Address

32 High Street

Municipality

Waterford Borough

Tax Parcel

46009057000100

Historic District

Waterford Borough HD

Classification

Class 1 (Definitions of Classes)

State Key Number

851

Historic Function

Domestic - hotel

Style

Federal

Built

1826

Architect

Builder

Barn Type on property

Last Entry Update

7/18/2016

Thomas King began the construction of downtown Waterford’s Eagle Hotel in 1826. As one of the only stone homes in Western Pennsylvania, it is sometimes called the Stone Hotel. It was used as a large public house to serve the needs of the expanding Northwestern Pennsylvania frontier, and in particular the municipality of Waterford. It was built at a time when plank roads, turnpikes, canals and later, railroads, went through or near Waterford, a key transparent point that also served as a terminal and distribution point for the developing salt industry in New York. It was one of the first commercial buildings in Waterford’s new commercial district on High Street. The Eagle Hotel accommodated many frontier travelers, becoming the center of social and civic activities. Many important guests and dignitaries, including Former President Zachary Taylor, stayed there due to Waterford’s premier location as a crossroad of transportation. In 1825, General LaFayette stayed overnight at the Eagle Hotel after arriving from Pittsburgh.

The Eagle Hotel has been owned by multiple individuals since its opening in 1827. Thomas King, who commissioned the construction of the hotel, was its first owner. One of the hotel’s most notable owners, Amos Judson, who first came to Waterford in 1798, owned the Eagle Hotel from 1842 to 1853. The next known owner was John L. Cook, builder of Waterford’s Park House, and he operated the hotel from 1857 until 1862. Judson’s nephew, Pierpont E. Judson acquired the hotel in 1870, owning it for an unknown period of time. By the early twentieth-century, the Eagle Hotel was being advertised as a “hotel for commercial men,” as it was an important stop for salesmen who came by train. Over the ensuing decades, the hotel would host these travelling salesmen and those adventuring across Northwestern Pennsylvania by automobile.

The Eagle Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1977. In that same year, the Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society purchased the building to preserve and protect it from demolition. From October 1997 to February 1998, the hotel was renovated, and the kitchen was modernized to accommodate a new restaurant, Sugar ‘n Spice, which in 2016 is still in operation.

Sources: Erie County Historical and Architectural Preservation Plan, Erie Metropolitan Planning Department, June 1976; Holzer, Rosalee B., Dorris A. Proctor, and Lisa Grygier. Images of America: Around Waterford. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

Eagle Hotel National Register nomination

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Submitted information is reviewed by Preservation Erie prior to updating the database.

Photo courtesy, Erie County Assessment Office