TITLOW HOTEL

92 W. MAIN STREET

Titlow Hotel Snapshot:

  • Originally built by Alfred Frost with the intention of becoming a hotel, but Frost could not secure a hotelier license for the establishment
  • In 1898, George Titlow purchased the building and worked to redesign the hotel
  • Through additional construction, Titlow made the hotel a four story building with 66 rooms and a very large dining room and used a European plan. The Hotel Titlow became one of the most popular stops for tourists and businessmen
  • The collapse of J.V. Thompson’s First National Bank almost caused Titlow to lose his hotel in bankruptcy, however despite surviving that, he sold the hotel in 1922 when Prohibition went into law
  • The hotel has survived through the years and was restored by Charlie May and Jake Radman in the 1960’s. Jeff DiMaio, Charlie’s son, keeps the beautiful building going and runs a fine local restaurant here
  • In 1920, world-renowned violinist, Maud Powell, was staying at the Titlow because she was scheduled to perform at the Penn Theater. She became ill on the night she was to appear and died the next day of a heart attack

Titlow Hotel – The Full Story:

George Flavius Titlow

George Flavius Titlow was a larger than life figure in Uniontown. He was a direct descendant, through his mother, of one of Uniontown’s founding fathers, Jacob Beeson. Soon after he graduated from the public schools in Uniontown, he went to work as a clerk at the popular Yough House and then as a manager of the Hotel Marietta in Connellsville. On June 12, 1889 he married Anna M. Burns of Wilmington, Delaware whereupon he returned to Uniontown where he purchased the Jennings House, the oldest hotel in Uniontown, from Henry J. Jennings. In 1882 this hotel had been the site of the murder of Captain Adam C. Nutt by Nicholas Dukes, Esq, his future son-in-law.

Meanwhile, on West Main Street in Uniontown, Alfred Frost had built a three-story brick hotel. He had secured some fixtures for this hotel from the Storey House, a hotel along the National Road in Brownsville which he had managed. In 1894 Judge Mestrezat refused Frost’s request for a license to operate the hotel. He operated it as a boarding house in the meanwhile hoping for a license. In 1898 Titlow sold his West End Hotel

Brownsville Storey House

and in the same year he secured the Frost Houseon March 8th. On April 27, 1905 the Weekly Courier of Connellsville reported the following:

George F. Titlow Will Spend $30,000 on His Property

“George Titlow has begun improvements on his hotel at Uniontown to cost $30,000. The building will be made a four story one. It is at present partly a two story and three story structure. The building will be extended the entire length of the block, and when completed will contain 66 rooms, the largest in Fayette county. An extremely large dining room will be one of the improvements. Mr. Titlow, later on, expects to construct an ice plant.”

Titlow redesigned his hotel on the European plan. His hotel became the most popular stop for tourists and businessmen (including those invested in the coal and coke industry.) He wanted his hotel to be the grandest with the best food and drink. To keep his beer cold, he utilized an ancient raceway from an old mill.

Financial problems, born out of the 1915 collapse of J.V. Thompson’s First National Bank, put Titlow in financial jeopardy. On February 11, 1916 the Morning Herald reported the following:

“Hotel Titlow, famed throughout the United States as one of the leading hostelries of the country, was sold yesterday at private bankrupt’s sale to D. J. Johnson and C.W. Johnson of Uniontown, for $60,000. The hotel property was sold by Attorney D.W. Henderson, trustee in bankruptcy for George F. Titlow, for $50,000, and the furnishings and fixtures were sold by

Attorney R. W. Dawson, trustee in bankruptcy for D.D. Rush, for $10,000. George F. Titlow said last night that the sale will be contested before the referee by creditors of Mr. Titlow. He named the First National Bank, of Uniontown, the Citizens Title and Trust company an ex-sheriff Peter A. Johns as creditors who will appear with counsel before the referee in bankruptcy. ‘It will be a sensational fight,’ said Mr. Titlow.”

Just a few days later, on February 14th, the Johnsons withdrew their bid on the Titlow Hotel. George had won this immediate battle but an even greater battle was in the near future…The Prohibition.

But, leading up to the failure of the First National, Titlow purchased the home of the late Honorable Andrew Stewart, located on the National Road in the Uniontown mountains in 1909. He fully renovated the old stone home, sparing no expense, for his family’s summer home. Today this home is a popular eatery, The Stone House Restaurant. Titlow was also one of the first to see the future of the automobile. In fact he participated in the first Ocean to Ocean car race of 1909. He also invested in the area’s first speedway, a wooden racetrack, located in Hopwood. And, as the president of the Hotel Men Association, he hosted feasts at the Mountain Watering Trough…no women allowed because liquor was liberally poured. The Watering Trough had been built by his friend, J.V. Thompson. It was a club, located on a site of an ancient watering trough, where local men could drink and gamble. Cool mountain water still pours from this site.

The Stone House Restaurant

Mountain Water Club

Uniontown Speedway: A Wooden Track Which was Located in Hopwood

Ocean to Ocean Celebration

George Titlow’s interest in automobiles grew and in 1921 he built a Dodge garage and showroom on East Fayette Street. And in 1922, when Prohibition went into law, he sold his hotel saying he couldn’t run it without the selling of liquor. John F. Reagan acquired the hotel where it remained in his family until the late 1960’s when, it was announced that the Titlow was to close. Manager Charles Reagan said the hotel had lost so much money during the last 10 years that they couldn’t afford to keep it open any longer. The hotel had been put on the market for more than a year without any takers. The family had offered it to the Fayette County Housing Authority as a possible site for a housing project. Luckily, buyers were located and the hotel survived the wrecking ball. The Titlow landed in the capable hands of Charlie May and Jake Radman who remodeled, restored and brought life back to the old hotel. Today Charlie’s son Jeff DiMaio, keeps the tradition of fine food, hearty drinks and a pleasant atmosphere going.

Fayette County Historical Society

P.O. Box 193, Uniontown, PA 15401
724.439.4422