Hotel Switzerland

At the foot of Broadway, where the historic town opens toward the railroad and the Lehigh River, stands the Hotel Switzerland. The name painted across its brick façade immediately caught my attention, but the building has been part of this community far longer than the name Jim Thorpe itself.

Established in 1830, the Hotel Switzerland is described as the oldest commercial building still operating in Jim Thorpe. It dates from the period when Mauch Chunk was rapidly developing as a center for transporting anthracite coal from the surrounding mountains.

Its location was ideal. Travelers arrived in Mauch Chunk by canal and later by railroad, and during the nineteenth century the town became more than an industrial center. Visitors came to experience the mountains, Glen Onoko, and especially the famous Switchback Gravity Railroad. Mauch Chunk developed into such a popular resort destination that it became known as the “Switzerland of America,” a reference to the mountains rising dramatically around the town.

The Hotel Switzerland was once one of several hotels clustered around Hazard Square. In the mid-1800s, it stood between the Armbruster and Central hotels. Those neighboring hotels eventually disappeared, leaving the Hotel Switzerland as the only surviving building from old Hazard Square.

For nineteenth-century travelers, the arrangement was wonderfully practical. They could find lodging, food and a pub under the same roof—a tradition the building continues today. The upper floors still contain hotel rooms, while the ground floor is now home to Molly Maguire’s Irish Pub.

I particularly like this building because it helps us picture Mauch Chunk not simply as a coal town, but as a place filled with travelers. For nearly two centuries, people arriving in this narrow mountain valley have passed this corner looking for a meal, a drink or a room for the night.

The town around it has changed dramatically. Mauch Chunk became Jim Thorpe, the canals and coal traffic faded, and the great age of the Switchback Railroad ended. Yet the Hotel Switzerland remains at Hazard Square, still welcoming travelers much as it did when its doors first opened in 1830.