Memories made at Gorley's

Former band leader and pianist Johnny Vass, 91, of Uniontown, remembers that "the dance floor was always packed" at Gorley's Hotel, located along Route 40 east of Uniontown, near Farmington.

He was only one of many musicians to play at the hotel, both prior to World War II and for a short time after it.

"It was one of the top places in the vicinity," Vass said.

"It was lovely," said Marjorie Frantz, a Confluence native who went to dances at Gorley's in its heyday before World War II. "You knew it was special when a date took you to Gorley's."

The property included a man-made lake in front of the hotel.

"Sometimes the band played on the porch," with the lake providing a backdrop to the performance, Vass reminisced.

"I remember you could go out onto that porch and look at the lake," Frantz said.

Gorley's Hotel and Lake and the Summit Inn were Fayette County's original mountain resorts decades before Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa was built directly across Route 40 from the old Gorley's.

According to "Mountain Pike," a hard-cover history of Wharton Township and the National Road, written by the children of New Meadow Run School and A.J. McMullen Middle School, the property had been purchased at the turn of the 20th century by Charles Gorley, a businessman who owned the St. Charles Hotel and Penn Theater in Uniontown.

He built a dike that created a lake a mile in length. The original hotel and a series of additions were built starting in the early 1920s.

The Bruderhof purchased the property in 1957 for its New Meadow Run Christian community. The lake was drained in 1965.

The community used the hotel for apartments for its members; it had also housed its school at one time, but in recent years it had held only administrative offices.

Gorley's Hotel disappeared overnight a few weeks ago.

The cost associated with upkeep of the aging structure was just too much, and the Bruderfhof decided to tear it down.

Sam Hine, a Bruderhof spokesman, said the hotel had required "constant maintenance."

He said plans are to "landscape the area."

The hotel has been missed by mountain-area residents and motorists who travel Route 40.

Hine said he had good memories of the hotel but was surprised that there was so much interest in its demolition.

"I miss it," Vass said of the glory days of Gorley's.

"It was part of our youth," Frantz said.

Hine said the Bruderhof community would continue at the Farmington site.

"We're thankful we found a home," he said. "We're looking forward to another 50 years."