At
the corner of Mountain Avenue and Farren street, the Mountain House Hotel
was built in 1910. The hotel contained a bar, a dining room, a barbershop,
and a large hall that was used for dances. In the Great Influenza
Epidemic of 1918, the Hotel was pressed into business as a hospital, as
Portage was quarantined.
At
the corner of Caldwell Avenue and Main Street is the building which was
originally the Waldorf Hotel, built in 1906. In 1929, this hotel
was the scene of a tragedy as Mrs. Anna Skelly and her son-in-law August
Hess were killed in a freak accident. As they were eating breakfast
in the kitchen of the Waldorf, the building was struck by a runaway coal
car from the Beachly Mine in Puritan, over a mile away. Behind the
building, you can see how the tracks run by the building, and where the
car jumped those tracks.
