THE GLEN VIEW HOTEL

THE GLEN VIEW HOTEL

 Correction to content in “Highlights of a Ride on the Ma & Pa through Cromwell and Long Green Valleys,” History Trails, 43: 4, Autumn 2017

Ann Royston Blouse

On page 10 I reported that the Glen View Hotel was built circa 1902 by John Wilson Brown, then President of the Ma & Pa Railroad. This information was found in a Maryland & Pennsylvania Historical Society publication (Timetable Summer 1998). Subsequent research demonstrates that this is likely not the case. I believe, based on evidence outlined below, that the hotel was built by Francis X. Hooper, owner of F. X. Hooper Manufacturing Company in Glen Arm.

The first published account of the hotel is a notice in the Baltimore Sun on 6 April 1913 (retrieved from Newspapers.com on 17 November 2017):

FOR RENT—COUNTRY.

FOR RENTAt Glenarm, Md. [4 room bungalow, 16 room house]…One large NEW HOUSE, 30 bedrooms, hot and cold water in each, 9 bathrooms, living room, dining room, pantries and kitchen; well adapted for high-class summer hotel; steam heat; private station on premises; outhouse built to suit tenant. Apply to F. X. Hooper, Glenarm, Md. Maryland and Pennsylvania R. R.

This matches the description given in the article recounting its destruction by fire (“Glen View Hotel Burns, with Loss of About $50,000,” Baltimore Sun, 19 October 1913). This article states that the hotel had never opened; however, a 1917 article reporting a fire at his manufacturing plant, stated

This is the second loss of a serious nature that has been suffered by Mr. Hooper. Several years ago a large summer hotel, which he had erected between Glenarm and Loch Raven, and which was liberally patronized by Baltimoreans, was destroyed by fire. Many person were forced to flee from the structure at the time, clad only in their night clothing. The hotel was never rebuilt. (“F. X. Hooper Plant Destroyed by Fire,” Baltimore American, 18 November 1917, retrieved from Genealogybank.com)

The hotel was advertised continuously in the Baltimore Sun from May through August in 1913. Certainly if the hotel had been in operation since 1902, there would have been similar advertisements, yet none have been found.

The remains of the private flag stop/shelter built for the hotel stands on a 35-acre tract, the title for which traces back to the purchase of 116 acres by F. X. Hooper from the Wilson estate in 1905/6 (MdLandRecords 1906/30:122). I have traced the titles for all of the houses along that stretch of Glen Arm Road (southeast side between Notchcliff Road and Long Green Pike) and they are all part of that tract. There are no records of John Wilson Brown buying any land in the area, and without the land, he could not have built a hotel.

This hotel is not the only “house” that F. X. Hooper built. He reportedly built cottages for his workers on what is now Somerset Road (opposite his manufacturing plant). Of the seven houses on the street, four were built between 1912 and 1914 (SDAT).

After buying the Wilson land, he announced plans to build four summer cottages, each three stories high with one acre of land, hot and cold running water, etc. (“Building Cottages At Glenarm,” Baltimore Sun, 29 November 1905). By 1907 he was advertising “bungalow” for rent (“For Rent-Country,” Baltimore Sun, 18 May 1907). To date, I have found only one of these cottages, at 12017 Glen Arm Road (MdLandRec 1906/30:122). The owner reports that while renovating the house, he pulled off a piece of original door trim on which was written “Hooper job Glenarm” (personal communication Watson-Blouse 20 November 2017).

We would welcome any information on the Glen View Hotel, or any of the buildings in that area.

Ann Royston Blouse

annblouse@gmail.com