Dean and Alice Dougan, a young married couple from Morgan County, moved into a two-space apartment in the Zoar Lodge in the spring of 1936.
The lodging ended up modest, costing them $3 a week. One particular place served as a dwelling place and the other sleeping quarters. They had a hotplate and a sink and shared washing facilities with other residents of the resort.
They experienced appear to Tuscarawas County due to the fact the building enterprise Dean labored for had the agreement to move the tracks of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad at Zoar. The rail line was becoming relocated simply because of construction of the Zoar Levee.
In a person letter back home to her mother in Pennsville, Ohio, on July 14, 1936, Alice wrote about how tricky it was to sleep in her apartment all through the scorching summer season temperature. . “It is 10:20 p.m. & our thermostat claims 88! It feels like 98.”
The pair and their 6-thirty day period-old son Roger only lived in the resort for eight months.
“Past Saturday, Mrs. Congelton informed us we would possibly have to shell out $5 a 7 days or get out,” Alice Dougan wrote. “She said she had been offered that for these rooms.”
The young pair refused to shell out that total and moved to Dover, renting an condominium on E. Eighth Street for $4.25 a 7 days.
The Zoar Resort experienced been in existence for a lot more than a century when the Dougans rented an condominium there.
It was crafted in 1833 to accommodate the lots of guests who arrived to see the communal culture at Zoar. President William McKinley was a regular visitor. It had 40 sleeping rooms and a big eating home.
In 1892, a wing was additional on the south side. The Dougans lived in that part of the setting up. The addition was dismantled in the late 1940s.
For a number of many years in the 20th century, soon after it no for a longer period took in overnight attendees or served as an apartment complex, the hotel operated as a restaurant and bar.
From 1955 to 1967, Harry and Dorothy Hennis ran the restaurant.
Diana Dougan-Culler, daughter of Dean and Alice Dougan, worked there on Sundays through her senior 12 months in large in 1959.
“I keep in mind it was really well known,” she recalled. “It was incredibly fast paced on Sunday.”
The Dougans experienced returned to the region in 1946 when they ordered a 71-acre farm a 50 % mile from point out Route 212 in between Bolivar and Zoar.
The Hennis household served household-design and style dinners each and every Sunday at the Zoar Resort, as well as banquets on Saturday nights. Dorothy Hennis was famous for her noodles and pie.
“Among our specialties are selfmade noodles and dressing rich with eggs as in the old time recipes,” a restaurant menu from the 1950s states. “These points with golden brown hen, tender Swiss steak and baked ham topped off with our have selfmade pies make a superb food for all people.
“We will be delighted and delighted to serve you in accurate Zoarite trend.”
Guests at the restaurant could get a food of fried rooster, Swiss steak, baked ham, roast beef or turkey in season served loved ones type for $3 for each person. The supper included whipped potatoes and gravy, dressing, noodles or eco-friendly beans, salad, scorching rolls, dessert and beverage.
A Boston strip steak supper price tag $3.50 and included hash brown potatoes, french fries or spaghetti, large salad, very hot rolls and butter and espresso or tea. Dessert was excess.
For all those on the lookout for something not so filling, a grilled cheese sandwich was 30 cents, a cheeseburger was 45 cents and ham and cheese on rye was 50 cents.
Just after the Hennis household sold the creating, it experienced a assortment of owners. The last was Dick Lebold of Bolivar, who acquired the lodge in 1978 and opened that Might after refurbishing the downstairs dining area and former “beer home.” The restaurant had several customers who came from Europe to dine there.
But right after 5 years in organization, Lebold closed the resort on July 3, 1983. The creating has sat vacant since then.
It is now owned by the Ohio Background Link (formerly the Ohio Historical Culture).
Historic Zoar Village Site Director Tammi Mackey Shrum said efforts are now staying produced to get a historic marker erected in entrance of the resort. The aim is to have the marker set up this summer time.
Donations have been received in memory of Donna Gardner, a Zoar resident who helped beautify the group. The marker will be in her memory.
Jon Baker is a reporter for The Situations-Reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
