The Hotel Haag, Milton Pa

Hotel Haag  Building- 1890-1975
Today, M&T Bank Stands in it's place.

For several generations, the Hotel Haag was a landmark.  It was where many decisions were made, and it was in  this building that many votes were cast.   It is where banquets and celebrations occurred, and where  prominent families stayed when visiting the area.   New stores would list their location as "beside the Hotel Haag", or "Across from the Hotel Haag", rather than list a street address.  And it's from this buildings roof that many of the postcard photos of Milton were taken.

"This magnificent structure was erected in 1890 at a cost of over seventy-five thousand dollars, and opened up for business on April 1, 1890." Bell's History Of Northumberland County

Built on the site of the former Huff House, which was lost in the Great Fire of 1880, no expense was spared in the building in design. - which included Electric lights, heat, baths, water supply, and a "fine finish and decorations". An article in the March 1890 Miltonian described the layout of the hotel in great detail, describing where each room was located, and even giving the number of bricks (500,000) used to build the hotel. 

 The Lobby of The Hotel Haag, 1906

In the Chronicles & Legends Of Milton, George Venios writes "The lobby was laid out with English tile and the main hall and office area had polished oak wainscot. The office was connected to every room in the house by electric bells and speaking tubes. 

The hotel had separate areas including a ladies parlor, smoking room, reading room and a large dining room on the second floor finished in polished oak. The third and fourth floors contained twenty-three bedrooms on each floor. Each room was provided with a steam radiator and finished in cherry and mahogany.

 The opening banquet of the hotel was an elaborate affair attended by about 600 people. An excursion train ran from Williamsport for the opening. The ball opened at nine. The building was brilliantly illuminated with gas light from cut-glass chandeliers and the luxurious furnishings offered greatest comfort for the guests."

View From The Roof Of The Hotel Haag 1920

There was a stairway leading from the fourth floor to the roof of the hotel, where the view  of he surrounding river and farms was described as too picturesque to be put on paper.  

Advertisement from 1907

When the stockholders in the Milton Bridge company met in 1892 to vote against surrendering their bridge to the county  they met at the Hotel Haag.  The Odd Fellows had their headquarters at the Hotel Haag in 1903, when they planned their 84th anniversary event. And the Hotel Haag is where they decided to end the Milton fair in 1909, and also where a group met later to revive the fair, under a new association, in 1910. 

 The Dining Room Of The Hotel Haag, Abt 1903

Bucknell Banquets & Plans To Thwart Them 

Reading through the "Caduceus of Kappa Sigma" (A Fraternity Magazine)  along with local newspapers, it appears that there was a tradition at Bucknell for the Freshman Class, and the Sophomore Class,  to  each year have a banquet at the Hotel Haag.  And the tradition was that the other class was to to thwart that celebration  So for the Freshmen Banquet, the Sophomores would "kidnap" the Freshmen, locking them up until the banquet was over,  and vice versa.

In the Cadeceus Volume 16, 1901,reports:

"The night of the 18th of March witnessed a grand exodus of Freshmen on their way to their annual banquet at the Hotel Haag, Milton Pa.  The Sophomores early learned of their plans and succeeded in capturing about sixty of them and imprisoning them overnight in the main building.  Meanwhile, all over the surrounding areas, classes of 1903 & 1904 were playing hide and seek.  Notwithstanding the opposition, 41 freshmen reached the festive board; the majority of them having walked from 15- to 20 miles overland to catch train and elude the Sophomores."

In 1899 The Lewisburg Chronicle reported that "Whoever has dreamed that the Sophomores were not able to hold a banquet without being seriously interfered with by the Freshmen was rudely awakened of that fixed opinion last Friday afternoon..."  Nearly all of the Sophomore made it to the banquet that year, frustrating the Freshmen's attempts.

For the 1899 Sophomore banquet, the proprietor of the Hotel Haag had hired a "decorative artist to ornament the rooms in dignity of college students, and made them feel as if they were in possession of their own homes." Various parlor games were played, and there was singing, in addition to the luncheon meal.  The table extended almost the full length of the hall, to fit the 36 students and their invited guests and two chaperones.

A Menu From The Fireman's Banquet

At a 1904 banquet at the Haag, for the area firemen, including those from the towns of Watsontown & Lewisburg, the banquet menu was published in the Lewisburg Chronicle:

A Mad Leap For Liberty At the Hotel Haag

In 1907 a headline in the Lewisburg Journal Read "A Mad Leap For Liberty.  Italian jumps from third story of the Milton Hotel."

Monti, accused of forgery, was found at the Hotel Haag, and was about to be taken "to a place of safe keeping to await a hearing".  Unhappy with that arrangement, the man escaped from the Constable, and jumped out the third story window of the Hotel Haag!

He was found badly injured, and was taken to the Williamsport hospital. Monti was accused of stealing a bankbook, then pretending to be the man he had stolen it from, taking $200 from the account. (More than $5000 today)

 The Parlor Of The Hotel Haag

People's Department Store

Peoples Department store operated out of the Haag Hotel Building for  more than 50 years, closing in 1974.  After the 1972 flood, ten businesses left, and days of downtown shopping never truly returned to Milton.

Aaron Berman, Inside Peoples Department Store

The End Of The Hotel

We tend to think it was the malls and wal-marts that destroyed downtown Milton - but the reality is, it was the 1972 flood that brought an end to downtown shopping in Milton.

After the 1972 flood, Ten businesses left downtown Milton, never to return.  The Department store in the former Hotel Haag held on for a few more years, but the owner, Robert Partchey, said that with all of the other businesses leaving the area brought a decline to his business, making the cost of renovations prohibitive.   The Northumberland County Redevelopment Authority had been trying to acquire the four story 165 x 44 foot building for a redevelopment project, and had been involving Partchey in litigation. 

Partchey finally gave in.  The Milton Hotel Was torn down, and eventually, a new one story bank was built in its place.  Today it is M&T Bank.

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Time Line Of The Hotel (from local newspapers)

• 1896, December - James McClosky will retire from management at the Hotel Haag.  Landlord Biddy (Bibby) will take charge.
• 1898, March -  the License of Hotel Haag in Milton was transferred from J.H. Bibby to W.S. Schuyler
• 1901 BK Haag died, his daughter Mary Haag Buoy then owned the hotel.
• 1903 - Mary Haag Buoy sold the Milton Hotel to Wolf Dreifuss
• 1911, August -  The Hotel Milton, Formerly the Hotel Haag, changed hands.  The new proprietor is William Ziegler of Mifflintown, who ran a hotel in Lewistown "until it went dry".
• 1924 - Aaron Berman & sons purchased the Hotel Milton, along with all of it's furniture and equipment, from Wolf Dreifuss. Berman owned a store on South Front street for the past 17 years.  He planned to rearrange the ground flood and make one of the most up to date store plans in the area. Later that year the Bermans purchased the Lawson store, and let it be known that their intentions were to now immediately remodel and refurnish the Hotel Milton, add 10 additional bahts, and repair and repair the hotel.
• 1925 - A. Berman and Sons leased the Hotel Milton to P. J. Enright, experienced hotel man. The entire interior of the hotel was to be refinished, repapered and refurbished. Work was to be completed by May 1
• 1969 Partchey purchased the Hotel Haag (Peoples Store) from the  Berman estate.  The Peoples Department Store had operated in Milton for "More than 50 years" when it closed in the 1970s.
•  1974, August - Robert Partchey agrees to sell the building to the Northumberland County Redevelopment Authority, after three years of litigation.
• 1975, September the Authority sold the property to Northern Central Bank, and they built a squat, one story, brick bank on the lot there soon after, which still stands today as M&T Bank. 

The Hotel Haag in the 1890 Sandborn Fire Map

The Hotel Haag in the 1906 Sandborn Fire Maps

Newspaper clipping 

Describing the Hotel Haag in Great Detail

B.K. Haag

From Bells History Of Northumberland County - 

B. K. HAAG, merchant, was born, January 9, 1817, in Berks county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of John and Mary C. (Knauss) Haag. His education was received in the subscription and common schools. At the age of twenty-one years he left his father's farm to begin a business life for himself, his first employment being in the general mercantile store of Geddes, Green & Walls at McEwensville, this county, where he remained four years. 

Following this were four years' service as a clerk in a general store in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1847 he came to Milton and formed a partnership with T. S. Mackey & Son, under the firm name of Mackey & Haag, dry goods and hardware. At the expiration of two years Mr. Haag withdrew from this connection and joined Montgomery Sweney, and for one year did a general dry goods and grocery business, under the firm title of Sweney & Haag.

 After one year's association with the concern of Haag & Caldwell, the stock was divided and Mr. Haag kept a store for a period on the present site of the Milton National Bank. 

 In 1853 he established his present hardware and book store, which was conducted under the firm cognomen of Haag & Brown until the panic of 1857, which compelled Mr. Haag to assume all responsibility of the business, and since when he has been alone until joined by his son-in-law, John Buoy. In 1869 he purchased a lot south of his present hardware room, of Elizabeth Miller, and in 1865 erected buildings on the same. 

In 1875 his business block was burned, rebuilt, and again burned in 1880, and soon after rebuilt the second time.

 Besides this handsome brick block, he has constructed many dwellings in the town of Milton, including the Hotel Haag, which magnificent structure was erected in 1890 at a cost of over seventy-five thousand dollars, and opened up for business on April 1, 1890.

 Mr. Haag was married, February 20, 1852, to Sarah Schuck, daughter of Philip and Catharine (Diebert) Schuck. She was born, July 19, 1821, in Union county, Pennsylvania, and to her union with Mr. Haag have been born six children: William A., deceased; Mary E., the wife of John Buoy; Charles H., deceased; Sallie, deceased; Thomas J.; and Hettie, the wife of C. A. Chapin.

 Mr. Haag was postmaster while at McEwensville and also trustee of school funds at the same place. He was appointed one of the distributing committee of the relief funds after the great fire of 1880. He was a director of the National Bank of Milton from 1865 to 1875.