As you ride down Pa 66 in Apollo you pass the old creepy Hotel Belvedere and yes some one actually lives in it.



If you ever take a ride down Pa 66into Apollo before you cross into Apollo you come across one of the creepiest old places you can find in Western Pa. The Belvedere Hotel which is actually located in Boro of Oklahoma

Built in 1905 by Joesph Gianini  a contractor who built piers for railroads  with 28 rooms  kitchen and 2nd floor dining room which featured French cuisine  and a 1st floor candy shop and ice cream parlor it sits in decay as some one still lives in it to this day.

Ice cream Parlor and candy store 1st floor

As you can see in its heyday its  a very fancy place I spoke to a hospice  nurse who visited us while my mother in law was still alive, and she told how as a little girl in 60s' there was a candy counter in there . which you can see in the picture above but apparently its been sitting abandoned looking since at least late 80's
As iit sits today
 But you  can see below it was very nice place at one time but in 2008 Penn dot was worried the building was going to collapse as seen in article below




A one time favorite for many a traveler  to stop  on their way to Greensburg information has been very hard to find on the place . An  elderly women still lives in the old place having blocked off a couple rooms they heat with wood stove

The Hotel was also the way point for when many soldiers when they left for war on the railroad many never to return and there last memory of the Kiski Valley. So you would have to think spirits are still lingering around .
The hotel was viable till just after WWII when the automobile and decline of trains saw it become apartments and first floor candy shop a bar named the Tin Hut and Giannis at one time .
The elderly woman who bought it wanted to fix it up but it was not to be .

Unfortunately thou just a short distance up the street is where Apollo Policeman Leonard Miller lost his life when he pulled over the  Kill for Thrill  Killers John Lesko and Michael Travaglia . So this place has been a place of great joy and sadness and lingers as one of the best places to get a photo as many come with just the purpose of photographing it.

Here are some videos made by those who have explored hotel 













UPDATE July 23 2019

Unfortunately hotel was lost due to suspicious fire .




after it was condemned and was going to have to be torn down in days before fire front porch posts had badly bent meaning hotel was in state of falling into street .








13 comments:

  1. I've always wondered what the story was behind this place.

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  2. ...needs to be either renovated or demolished. I pass it on nearly a daily basis. Should have been condemned long ago.

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  3. I have always wanted to explore this place...

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  4. Word is that it is condemned recently.

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  5. Word is that it was condemned recently.

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  6. My dad used to call it the onion house he said it used to be a brothel

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  7. I remember it having a bar in the 80's when I was a kid.

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  8. Please e-mail me at lastboyscout160@yahoo.com.I was there in 1979, I thought I stepped into 1890, so 1905 kind of surprises me. I pictured a bar,rooms, and brothel servicing boatmen and RR workers. The bar looked like the pic of the ice cream parlor and gilded ceiling said brothel. Owner said to whitewash the outside was 6,000 and 7 to paint. Had a weird thing happen that's why I'd like an e-mail.

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  9. We used to live in the house below the tracks right across the road. My dad would take me and my older brother there a few times.My grandmother used to tend bar there before I was born. And it was not a brothel!

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  10. Does anyone have pictures of the inside back then

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  11. Burned down (KDKA July 24, 2019)

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  12. Burned down (KDKA July 24, 2019)

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  13. Sad to report that the Belvedere was completely destroyed by fire on July 23, 2019.

    https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/07/historic-pa-hotel-burns-to-the-ground-photos-video.html

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