The Chere, Muncy PA

The Chere , 27 South Main Street, Muncy PA

"From my office window I look directly in what seems at first glance the very newest of the new into what is for rural Muncy, the very essence of the modern, its tea room and restaurant, Mr. Sevison's "Chere." (I will not attempt to end the frequent curbstone arguments that arose as to the proper pronunciation or the correct meaning of the name.) If you have stopped there, you will recall the place I refer to. 

The building, its fine third story dormer windows, its stucco walls, its neat show windows and doors, presents a most artistic and attractive appearance to the passerby. Inside it is decidedly modern with its orchestrion, its dancing floor, its fountain, its tables, and its softly-tinted walls. But for all the rouge and powder and pencil and lip-stick, that "Chere" has used on her face, and for all her fine and youthful dress, she is beneath it all very much a great-grandmother. The building she occupies though not the oldest by some years, is one of the oldest in Muncy, and it is small wonder that it is run as a place of public entertainment, for with the exception of but a few intermittent years, it has been such a place for more than a century.

 History has it that the house was built by George Frederick in 1812, though the deed records do not show that he acquired actual title to the property until 1819. It was opened at once as the "Union Hotel," in front, upon a heavy mast, for years hung a great square sign being the picture of Mad Anthony Wayne upon a spirited charger. Beneath that sign for a generation or more the stage coach made its regular stops. The hotel was opened by Frederick with a great ball or house warming that must have been the great occasion of a decade. Guests came from all up and down the river, history having it that one hundred and twenty-five gentlemen paid their reckonings to the landlord that night. And it must have been an occasion of greater respectability than characterized hotel opening of a later date, for we read that Dr. Bryson, the famous pastor of the Warrior Run church for half a century, brought his two daughters to attend it and the Reverend Dr. Grimes came with his sister.

 From that same hotel was held, in the very height of the Anti-Masonic agitation, the first Masonic funeral ever held in Muncy. It was the funeral of George Frederick, a relative of the proprietor of the hotel and it was conducted by Williamsport Lodge, No. 106, with the attendance of a large number of Masons from Williamsport and elsewhere in the county. The body was borne to the graveyard of Emmanuel Church, the "Old Dutch Church," some three miles from town, the entire funeral party proceeding on foot. The funeral discourse was preached in German, a language then more generally understood and perhaps more popular than it is now. 

Following the Fredericks, the property passed through a number of different owners and landlords, but during almost the whole time was maintained as a hotel, or as a restaurant or drinking place. For a number of years it was owned by the Rookers and later by the widely known "Larry" Watt.

 Undiscouraged by any constitutional amendment or rule of alcoholic content, the old building's character as a place of public entertainment still mildly asserts itself. It still offers music and dancing, food and drink, albeit the nature of its drink offerings has most materially changed. Small wonder if the mechanically perfect piano player should become less 'mechanical and more dreamy in its waltzes, or more unrestrained in its jazz, as the ghosts from the old time balls float about it; small wonder if the coca cola should become mildly ford-intoxicating as the hardy spirits float back from the countless barrels and bottles of hardier beverages that have filled its cellars; small wonder even, if a small measure of conviviality should reign about its tables its very walls must exude the conviviality absorbed in the century of shall we say roystering? that they have looked upon." - Thomas Woods presentation on "Muncy Night", 1921

Chere Restaurant, Soda Spa

Ad from 1947, under new management

Chere Tea Room

Time Line

• 1921 - Chere Tea Room Opened
• 1923 - Purchased by Mr & Mrs D.G. Reed
• 1927 - The Reeds sold the tea room to Mr & Mrs Earnest Brandt, who operated it for 20 years
• 1940s - A 1940s matchbook Shows the proprietor to be Blanche Lundy
• 1947 - Purchased by Mrs & Mrs Boyd Aunst of Watsontown
• 1948- Purchased by Mrs Minnie Werner of Watsontown
• 1950  - In September of 1950 the Chere Restaurant was listed for sale in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. "Includes soda fountain and first class business necessary to operate a successful business.  This sale does not include the building."
• 1951- November, Boyd & Florence Aunkst again purchased the tea room, and redecorated it.
• 1954 - Minnie S. Werner of Muncy was awareded $2000 in a court verdict, against Mrs Florence Aunkst, for the sale of the Chere in Muncy. "Mrs Werner claimed $2,000 was due to her for the return of the restaurant to Mrs Aunkst, who had previously sold it to her."

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More Stories & History From Muncy Pa

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1924

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October 1952