East Tiffin Street Hotel Sold

Information from R/t July 5, 2002

 

    Richard Abowd, a native of Lebanon, purchased the Earl House Hotel in 1919.  Abowd came to United States in 1876 at the age of five.  He moved to Fostoria in 1906 to help operate a candy shop his father had purchased at Main and Center Streets (Now a parking lot 2002)

    The Hotel was built circa 1880 as the Earl House Hotel, part of a national chain.  It is listed in the 1889 city directory but not in the 1877 directory,  Directories from 1888 to 1889 are not available at Kaubisch Public Library.

    In 1893, the hotel was purchased by Frank Engstrom and M. B. Waldo and was completely refurbished.  It was not known how long they operated the facility, but by 1915 it was listed as the Hays Annex, an adjunct to the Haya Hotel on South Main Street.  (Hays Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1962)

Read Leonard Skonecki Article

http://www.fostoria.org/history/skonecki/1996/May_19_96_2.html

 

    After purchasing the Hotel, Mr. Abowd renamed it the New Ohio Hotel, renting it to another person who operated it for 10 or more years.  During the depression the operator could not pay the rent and Abowd took over, borrowing heavily on a life insurance policy to renovate the structure,  when it reopened in 1934, the hotel had an elegant dining room, the Cardinal Room, where patrons could enjoy a seven-course dinner and a five-piece orchestra for $1.  The dinning room closed in the mid-1940's 

    Abowd sold the hotel in 1973 to three Fremont men associated with Joseph's Department Store there.  C. Robert Gilberg, Ronald Cataline and Harold Danziger.  They hired Mr. and Mrs. Paul Janak of Fostoria to operate it.  Richard Puchta stayed on as night manager, a position he had held since 1934.

    Lloyd Doe, a Fostoria police patrolman, and his wife Joyce purchased the facility in 1978 and renamed it the Doeshire.  Mr. Doe retired from the police force in 1981 and in 1992, he opened a tavern, the Doeshire Inn, in the former Cardinal Room. The tavern was closed several years ago. 

 

Update 2002;

On July 4, 2002 a fire-ravaged the Doeshire then an 3 story apartment complex, killing a young girl and a adult male.  The fire also destroyed the Old Kelly's Hot Dog Stand, operated for many years by the late Floyd Kelly and later by a series of individuals under various names.

What remains of the building will face the wrecker's ball according to Mr. Doe who stated he would not rebuild.