Blairstown Hotel

Blairstown Hotel. 39 Main Street. For close to 120 years, this location served as the home to the famed Blairstown Hotel. During the late 1830s, George Van Scoten saw the need for accommodations for those traveling through town and weary from their travel by foot or horse. At the time, Main Street itself was part of a primary route from points north and east to the ferries of the Delaware River and points west. By 1877, John I. Blair's railway had come to town and enabled folks from metropolitan areas to escape to Blairstown for the picturesque scenery, recreation, hunting, and fishing. At the turn of the century the influx of patrons required that the building be transformed from 1-1/2 stories to 4 stories, with 30 rooms and a cupola at the top. Politician Woodrow Wilson, inventor Thomas A. Edison and sports legend Babe Ruth were among the many guests of the hotel over the years. A surviving copy of the hotel register bears the signature of John D. Rockefeller and a member of the Scribner family. Sadly, during the early morning hours of March 1, 1957, a fire started next door to the hotel. Despite the valiant efforts of Blairstown Hose Company, citizens of Blairstown, and students of Blair Academy, the hotel succumbed to the largest fire that the town had known. The business continued and was rebuilt as the Blairstown Inn on what is now Route 94. It is one of the longest continuously run businesses in Blairstown. The Post Office has been located here since 1966.