Crawford County mourns after fire wipes out historic Riverside Inn

One day, during the fevered 19th century search for oil in northwest Pennsylvania, John H. Gray pushed his iron probing rod into the ground. When he pulled it out, up sprang not black gold but a jet of hot water.

Not long after, Mr. Gray had a wooden-framed resort constructed on 47 acres along French Creek, the site of mineral springs he believed could cure a wide variety of ailments: dyspepsia, gout, malaria, diabetes, inflammation of the bladder and kidneys.

The resort, with three stories, 100 steam-heated rooms and a 1,500-square-foot bathhouse, quickly transformed the largely agricultural borough of Cambridge Springs into a health resort boom town for people drawn by the water’s profound curative powers. As of last week, the Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs still stood on that site, one of the few remaining vestiges of the short-lived mineral springs craze in the country.

But a fire erupted Tuesday morning, totally claiming the 130year-old property and left a monumental absence — both physical and emotional — in Cambridge Springs.

The town of about 2,600 people, about 25 miles south of Erie, is at a

loss for how to replace the beloved centerpiece of the community and major tourist draw.

“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of sadness,” said Bob Hopkins, land use planner for Crawford County and a resident of Spartansburg. “You just can’t replace it. … You can build something new, but whatever you build it won’t be like that. It won’t have that feeling from a bygone era.”

Randy Gorske, mayor of Cambridge Springs, said people have been pouring into the town to see the rubble.

“I think they have to see it for themselves,” he said. “It’s one of those places where memories are alive for so many people … I think there’s disbelief.”

Dozens of mineral springs resorts were built in Pennsylvania and New York during the late 1800s, said Josh Sherretts, chairman of the Crawford County Historical Society.

They were relatively massive, ornate structures found mostly in rural areas — and centered upon the belief that the waters had healing qualities.

After the American Medical Association ruled in 1918 that the waters contained no “mysterious or occult virtues,” tourism dried up and the resorts, too large to function as hotels, crumbled, Mr. Sherretts said. A wave of demolition from the 1930s to the 1950s claimed most of the structures.

But the Riverside Inn, marketing itself as a destination, persisted as a destination for weddings, proms and those who wanted a rural getaway. Its owners managed to both preserve its original architecture and evolve into a 21st century event space.

“The Riverside took on a second life as not just a hotel but the largest and most impressive community venue in more recent years,” Mr. Sherretts said.

“When you walked in, it looked like you walked back into the 1800s,” he added. “It really became the common gathering place in Cambridge Springs and drew tourist populations” from all over the East Coast.

In March 1978, John P. Davis, a member of the Crawford County planning commission, nominated the Riverside Inn to the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Davis described the resort has having “social/humanitarian” significance.

The inn “is still noted for its graceful elegance, fine food and superb golf course,” he wrote, in persuading the National Park Service to grant historical status later that year. “[It] is a living monument to a more leisurely and innocent period of our history.”

Ashley Moss Kurkiewicz, owner of Pittsburgh-based event planning company Hello Productions, is offering free services to help couples scheduled to be married at the resort this year find a new wedding venue.

Ms. Kurkiewicz, a native of Meadville, remembers going to the Riverside Inn for Mother’s Day buffets and family events. “We had a 50th anniversary party for my grandparents and took beautiful photos out on the lawn there,” she said. “It was a really fun experience I will always remember.”

She said she knows many venues in northwestern Pennsylvania have been offering their space to couples. “It’s nice to see the community coming together to help make this horrible situation just a little bit easier.”

Mr. Sherretts, the historical society chairman, said his group would try to maintain the legacy and stories that accompanied the structure.

“It’s going to take some brainstorming,” he said. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that the area is resilient and it will come back.”