DUNCANNON, Pa. - A historic hotel that serves as a landmark for hikers on the Appalachian Trail is in danger of shutting down, but hikers and community members are working to ensure that does not happen.
The Doyle Hotel is a place where the legends of yesteryear meet the travelers of the Appalachian Trail today; where hiking meets history.
“A lot of it is written, a lot of it is unwritten,” Vickey Kelly, one of the hotel’s owners, said. “There's been so much that has happened here.”
The postcards on the wall tell the unwritten history of a building that dates back to the 18th century.
As for the written history, it began as a wooden hotel in the 1770s. Adolphus Busch, of Budweiser fame, became its owner in 1880, but much of the original building burned to the ground in 1903.
It re-opened in 1905, but when Busch died in 1913, the Budweiser Company held ownership until it was sold off during Prohibition.
Naturally, a little luck of the Irish is how it became the Doyle.
“[Jim] ‘Doc’ Doyle in 1944 won the Irish Lotto and he bought this building with the money,” Pat Kelly, one of the owners, said. “He named it the Doyle in ‘45. It's been the Doyle ever since.”
Over the years, the Doyle became a logical stopping point for hikers along the Appalachian Trail.
Pat and Vickey Kelly bought it 15 years ago. But after an unusually slow winter this year, they are pleading for donations to keep the doors open for visitors and hikers.
“If they don't have a place to stay where they can relax, get a nice night's sleep, a warm shower, a little bit to eat, and a cold beer, they're going to keep going,” Pat Kelly said.
Hiker and author Mary Moynihan remembers Duncannon from the first time she hiked the Appalachian Trail 10 years ago.
“It's a community that you feel very welcome,” she said.
She was back in town Thursday, trying to become the first woman to complete the Triple Crown of hiking: the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails, in the same year.
A call to inspire fellow hikers brought her back to the hotel.
“The Doyle for me is a special place,” Moynihan said. “They'll realize and understand that these are such important places, and even hikers who want to hike this trail five years from now, they'll say, 'I'd like to go there,'” she said.
It is a place that helps more than 1,200 hikers annually get from point A to B.
“It's that kind of feeling that you're part of something bigger than in a small town,” Vickey Kelly said. “It's very heartwarming.”
If you would like to help, the Kellys are collecting donations here.