Checking Out!

  Judging from the comments I've see posted on
Facebook people in my old home town of
Hazleton are pretty pleased to hear the news that
a Half Way House for convicted criminals will
soon be checking out of what once was the
historic Altamont Hotel. Can't say I blame
them!
  Of course I'm hoping somebody saves the
building! We've lost a few classic hotels in recent
years!
   The Sterling in Wikes-Barre is going and the
Casey in Scranton is gone!
    I still have a brick from the Casey.......but I
don't know exactly which brick it is! We've got
a mess of them set out in our yard. One of them
used to have a plaque attached identifying it as
a brick from the Casey. I've got the plaque in a
drawer. But the brick got mixed in with the
others outside. I don't think bricks have DNA!
    Of course  "mix ups" involving the Casey are
as classic as the building........was.
    The company doing the demolition gave then
mayor Jimmy Conners a sealed box taken from
the hotel's cornerstone. It was to be open when
the project was complete.
    His honor locked it away in a big safe in his
office.
   Problem was.....it wasn't real!
   The demolition folks gave him a duplicate
(but fake) box while holding the real one on
behalf of a lady whose father was the man who
designed the place!
    I discovered the plot and did a story which
left a couple people with a bit of egg on their
faces. I guess you could call it........................
 "Egg Benedit-Arnold!"
    The Sterling will, we're being told, end up
as a pile of rubble just like the Casey.
    But the Altamont seems  to be in pretty
good shape so maybe the building will survive
even after the "inmates" have checked out
and be put to good use! They're not building
hotels like that anymore!
     Hope all your bricks are accounted for and
that all your NEWS is good!
                                                                              




Altamont
Hazleton













 




   Casey demolition
   Scranton (2001)











My bricks!