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THE WESTLINE INN Westline, Pennsylvania.
RESERVATIONS: 814 778 5103
TAKE SOME hard work, toss in a little compassion, and a touch of charity, mix well with vast stands of white pine trees, and you have the basic ingredients of what went in to creating the town of Westline over 100 years ago.
EDMUND DAY, a son of Scottish immigrant Ralph Day, took over running the family wood chemical plant in Westline in the late 1800s. The building housing THE WESTLINE INN was actually Edmund Day’s house and offices for his Day Chemical Company. The company’s large safe--one of the few time-lock safes in the area and much too heavy to be moved--still sits in the corner of the inn’s main dining room. THE DAY CHEMICAL COMPANY used the vast stands of white pine to produce charcoal, wood alcohol, and acidic acid from those trees. The lumber town was a bustling community back then; some estimate a thousand or more people lived and worked here. In the old time photo below you can see the town as it was; to the right in the picture note Edmund Day’s house, later to become THE WESTLINE INN.
PERHAPS BECAUSE he was from an immigrant family himself and most assuredly because he needed labor to run his wood chemical operation, Edmund Day would make trips to New York City--possibly Ellis Island--and approach recent immigrants there, many of whom didn’t speak English, and offer them a job, housing, and food, if they’d come to the hills of Pennsylvania to work. Many gladly came.
EDMUND DAY’S concern for his men’s welfare
was well known. For instance, the acid the men worked
in was hot and would burn their feet. Edmund Day solved
that problem by providing his men with heavy wooden
shoes, like the ones pictured below.
THESE SHOES, like many other memorabilia and artifacts of those days long gone, are on display throughout the inn. You’re invited to stroll around and view them. The picture below shows only a few old items from, not only Westline, but from the entire area, when timber, coal, then later gas and oil, were the workhorse industries.
EDMUND DAY'S HOUSE sported the area's first indoor swimming pool, constructed in the basement. The town kids were always welcomed to use it. The large hooks you'll see in the ceiling of the Sun Room dining room were not meant for hanging meat, as some may think, but for hanging wicker furniture. Below is a picture of Day’s time-locked safe mentioned above.
TO TRANSPORT his finished products to nearby train depots for shipment to New York City or wherever the products were destined, Day built a small railway line from Westline out to Tally Ho. Tally Ho is the area where you turn off Route 219 and head down the three mile long Westline Road. In winter months this railroad was the only link between Westline and the outside world. The Westline Road, by the way, actually IS the old railroad grade. From all this (and pictured below, however a little blurred) emerged what was reputed to be the world's smallest railroad line.
AROUND THE LATE 1930s with gas and electricity increasingly used in homes across the country and new technology emerging many of Edmund Day's products became obsolete. The Day Chemical Company then closed its doors. Not long after, Day's home and office was bought by a woman named Ruth Enos, who turned it into a backwoods inn--The Enos Hotel--famous for its hearty plates of food, (steaks so big they hung over the plate) and its congenial, affable atmosphere. You'll see only slight chnages in the building as it was the Enos Hotel below.
IN THE EARLY 1970s two couples from the Chester county area of Pennsylvania, Jon and Trudy Pomeroy, and Bill and Julia Frick (Jon and Julia are brother and sister) purchsed the Enos Hotel and set up business, renaming it THE WESTLINE INN. While some additions have been built and improvements made, the new owners kept most of the building as it was when it was the Enos Hotel. The atmosphere is still relaxed, friendly, and affable; they still serve large steaks. They also added an array of chef Jon Pomeroy's favorite French dishes and Julia's creation of homemade desserts are the envy of the area. You can check out the dinner, lunch, and banquet menus by clicking the MENU button below.
THE OWNERS AND STAFFhope you've enjoyed this brief history of the town and the inn and they hope you'll join them soon where you can stroll around and see and touch items from an era when hard work was the way of the world.
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Thank you.
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL:
814 778 5103