Central City, Pennsylvania: S.S. Grandview Ship Hotel (Gone)

Perched on a mountaintop like a USA Noah's Ark, the "Ship of the Alleghenies" motel and restaurant was a storied landmark for nearly 80 years along the old Lincoln Highway, until it was destroyed 20 years ago. The owner discouraged vandals in the empty building by keeping a television on - a source of confusion to those (like us) who stopped, thinking the Ark was open. One night, a wayward spark transformed it into an unoccupied Viking funeral boat, sending it to Valhalla in glorious flames.

As you know, the ship has burnt down, nothing left but black residue. I remember going there as a kid (1970s) with my parents. We lived fairly close to it in Greensburg, PA. I took my son there for him to see it -- but it was gone. I went home and called my brother and told him -- he already knew, and he told me he had the metal bell from the ship. He went up to show his wife the ship and seen it had burnt. They walked around and he found the ship's bell, black and crusty, so he took it home and cleaned it up.

We like to try and remember the "good ole days" and the bell helps with that!

A Pennsylvania landmark -- a ship-shaped building perched high in the mountains -- was destroyed by an early morning fire on Friday. For 79 years, the Noah's Ark (aka the Ship Hotel, and "The Ship of the Alleghenies") had been a popular tourist pull-off along Route 30 (Lincoln Highway), east of Central City, although it had been closed and deteriorating for several years.

I stopped at the Ship Hotel (also known as Noah's Ark) around noon on a Saturday in June 1989. It had been open just three days before and we had gone in to look around. But on this day there was no sign of life. My two buddies and I walked around the parking lot, stretched our legs, and took some pictures of the three states and seven counties that are visible. I suppose we'd been there around 15 minutes when my friend picked up a nearly empty Windex bottle in a long line of trash along the road. At that moment, a voice came screeching from out of the "Ark," filled with obscenities and threats. My buddies and I headed to the car but not fast enough to prevent a Grizzly Adams type character from coming after us and punching me in the face. As we were firing up the car, he ripped off my windshield wiper blade, bent up my antenna, and kicked in the side of my car door.

Regarding the "ship" hotel stuck into the side of a mountain -- my wife (then fiance) and I came across this place on a roadside trip back to York from Pittsburgh in 1982. We stopped as much for the curiosity as for the sodas we purchased (served in authentic diner glasses -- straight-sided with a bump grip near the top rim). One thing that caught our attention at the time was the opportunity to purchase Lifetime Memberships in the NOAH'S ARK SKI RESORT, ambitiously being planned for development in the then-near future. Of the few hundred LIMITED memberships available, only two had been sold (evidently to the "dreamer" and his/her spouse or partner), the sale of which had been dutifully marked of on the poster bearing plans, an artist's rendering of said resort, and the numbers of memberships available.

We often remember that offbeat discovery fondly -- and often wonder just how many other memberships were eventually sold.