Goodbye Colonel Drake Hotel
TITUSVILLE - One of the Oil Valley's most venerable businesses is closing.
The Col. Drake Hotel, built during the 1860s oil boom, will shut down this weekend. It will officially close at midnight Saturday.
Bill and C.J. Tisi, Titusville residents who bought the downtown landmark in 1981, said they have sold the hotel to an out-of-town concern. There is speculation the four-story structure at North Franklin Street and East Central Avenue will be razed.
''I can't speak for the buyer so I really don't know what the plans are for the building,'' said Bill Tisi.
His wife is executive director of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce. ''I'll be hitting the streets in June, looking for a job,'' Bill Tisi said with a laugh.
Tisi said he has opened the hotel to anyone ''wishing to take pictures or videotapes of the building'' from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Saturday.
The Col. Drake has 20 hotel rooms, eight apartments, two dining rooms, a lounge and offices. Lease-holders include District Justice Amy Nichols, Stephens Real Estate, and Don Morris Insurance Agency. Their leases will be terminated May 15.
The hotel has a colorful heritage, one tied directly to the oil industry's beginnings.
Built in 1865 to accommodate the booming oil-fueled economy in the Titusville area, the hotel was first called The Pendleton House. Two years later, it was purchased by Z. Martin who renamed it The Mansion House, a fitting name for a grand building in a bustling community.
The Mansion House dispatched horse-driven stages to the Titusville train station several times a day to accommodate patrons.
Restaurant fare at The Mansion House matched the fancy menus of the Collins House (later, the Arlington Hotel) in Oil City and other hotels in the wealthy oil communities. Diners enjoyed a wide variety of delicacies from fresh salmon and oysters to duck and buffalo, pastries, fruits and extensive wine lists.
Martin sold the hotel in 1881 to W.B. Love, member of a longtime Titusville family. Six years later, the Gleason-Lockwood partnership purchased the hotel and began an extensive rebuilding project. The duo demolished one section of the wooden building at a time, replacing each new part in brick. The hotel did not close one day during the reconstruction.
The restoration effort included new wrought-iron balconies and luxurious appointments in each hotel room, the dining rooms and tavern area. Renamed the Col. Drake Hotel, the hostelry gained a reputation as the finest hotel in the oil region.
Changes in the region's fortunes over the years impacted Titusville's grand downtown hotel which saw fewer tenants and diners but higher operating and repair costs. In March 1968, the Col. Drake Hotel closed and the owners, the Titusville Hotel Corp., a group of local investors, filed for bankruptcy.
It was bought later in the year by two Erie businessmen, Lou Fenetti and Simon Strauss, for $67,500. The new owners completed extensive renovations on the hotel and reopened it to the public.
Since then, ownership has changed hands several times, with the last transaction putting the property into the hands of Bill and C.J. Tisi in 1981.
The couple refurbished the hotel, renaming the dining areas the Pendleton Room and the Mansion Room to reflect the facility's early history.
They re-installed a large chandelier, an original Mansion House fixture which had been stored in the basement, and went on a search for stuffed swan which once graced the hotel lobby. The tame swan had lived in the city's Woodlawn Cemetery and, upon its death, was stuffed and prominently displayed in the main entrance area.
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