Any Updates On The Doyle?

[Mother Natures Son]

About a year a ago, the was a several post on this list about the poor shape of the Doyles. From the pictures that were posted here, it looked like the end was near for this old lady of the trail. Has anything changed in the past year? (Has the building been repair or is there planning to do so?)

[Slo-go'en]

I'd be real suprised if there were (improvements). It needs so much work it would be cheaper and easier to take it down and build a new building.

[takethisbread]

it's a great building, it's hurting for sure . I'm not sure how long Pat and Vicki are planning on sticking around, but I doubt they have the kind of money to do a complete rehab of the building.


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[tiptoe]

It is a grand old building, and maybe a local historic preservation group can raise the funds. There are wonderful old architectural details, and there's even a ballroom on the third floor.

[Sly]

Depending on the local codes, with some cheap labor (next to nothing) and a good project manager you could maybe get away with $100,000 to get the place right. If the building inspector is a PITA and ADA codes are needed, triple that or more.

[Wolf - 23000]

I spend a couple nights there last month. It needs a lot of work. The one thing that is both a curse and a blessing is because the building is so old, it may not be legal to tear it down - historic monument. As it has been point out it maybe cheaper if it was just torn down and started over. On the positive side, because it is an historic monument it might be possible to get a grant to fix the place up.

Wolf

[Starchild]

I got yelled at for using the fire escape

[double d]

The Doyle is a cool place, needs some refurbishing, but its a cool place, lots of hiking history there.

[ChinMusic]

The Doyle just needs to not fall down or burn.

[Astro]

Matthewski was looking for some Angel Investors. Well I think that is what we wanted (thread actually said "Angle").

[Slo-go'en]

The Doyle just needs to not fall down or burn.

Indeed, there is nothing like being in a tinder box with 100+ year old electrical wiring to make you just a little nervous...

[CarlZ993]

I got yelled at for using the fire escape

I'm surprised the fire escape supported your weight.

Structurally, the building needed a lot of work. But, the place is a dump. My room had cobwebs everywhere & an unswept floor. I slept in my sleeping bag rather than in the sheets of the bed. In any other setting, I would have refused my stay there & found other lodging.

Food was good, though.

[Another Kevin]

Indeed, there is nothing like being in a tinder box with 100+ year old electrical wiring to make you just a little nervous...

The old knob & tube stuff is actually pretty good: they knew what they were doing, and had respect for what electricity can do. Yeah, there are often exposed conductors, which isn't good, but the phases are six inches apart and the wires are insulated by porcelain anywhere they have to go through a stud or a joist, or make a turn.

The stuff that scares me is the cotton Romex from right after WWII and the aluminum stuff from the 1970s. The cotton stuff is especially bad because the gutta-percha insulation has rotted away, and crumbles at a touch, leaving a pair of twisted bare wires carrying opposite phases. I had a fire in a wall once with that crap. Fortunately, it just left scorch marks on the drywall and didn't do any real damage other than making the circuit fail.

[HikerMom58]

It seems like there's no "update"... it remains the same or a lil worse!

[Prime Time]

I stayed there because I got there in the late afternoon and proceeded to down 4 or 5 20 oz. beers and was too lazy and impaird to make the wise decision. It was a show to be sure but not in a good way. A friend couldn't retrieve his backpack until noon the next day because he left it in the bar area which Pat refused to unlock until it reopened the next day as if the wolf man was locked up in there until then. Someone who had just walked in the door ordered food at 7:45 pm (the kitchen closes at 8:00) and received a ridiculous toungue lashing from Vicki at how "you hikers always wait until the last minute to order your food" and refused to serve him.

The rooms are too dangerous and dilapitaded for words. Half the guests never got the extremely complicated instructions for escaping in the event of a fire (all doors are locked and can't be opened from the inside except one which leads out to a wrap around porch on the second floor with broken floor boards and an emergency escape ladder that looks ready to fall off). When I inquired about working smoke detectors Pat replied "nothing works in this place".

I'm glad I went to say I saw it, but I'd never go back.

[Lone Wolf]

never did like that place. never understood all the hoopla

[mankind117]

I was there in February during a backpacking trip. The place didn't seem like it had seen any updates, still rather old and worn out looking. The owners were very friendly however and the food was excellent and reasonably priced. I would stop again.

[Tom Murphy]

[QUOTE=Another Kevin;1864019]The stuff that scares me is the cotton Romex from right after WWII /QUOTE]

Updated my service to 200 amp circuit breaker panel for a hot tub - I had a fuse box with "screw-in circuit breakers".

Electrican found this stuff everywhere. The line from the pole on the house inot the fuse box was scary...

[lucky luke]

i got there in february 1984, after hiking in from the hudson river bridge in ny. starting out dec. 24. temps got down to -25. the night in the doyle was my first night in a building with 4 walls. i will never ever forget that huge, deep, cast iron bath-tub, that held so much water you could stay in there for 2 hrs and it was still warm. i took 2 baths to get a, the smell off, and b, raise my core temperature back to normal i had a great night with a few of the incedibly cheap beers and nice talks with the locals, slept warm and cozy for around 7 dollars (5,83 plus tax comes to mind, but i may be wrong about that. its been a while...) the "doyle back then" easily beats any other hotel i have ever been to! and i dearly hope it gets fixed. happy trails, lucky luke

[Berserker]

Hmmmm...interesting read here. I did the section from Pine Grove Furnace SP to Duncannon last weekend, and considered staying at the Doyle the last night before I headed home just to see what all the fuss was about. My buddy and I ended up hiking out a day early since it was supposed to get into the teens that last night and I just didn't feel like sleeping in that. So we checked it out and met Pat, seems like a nice guy. Ultimately since we had a car we headed into Harrisburg, grabed a hotel with a Buffalo Wild Wings basically in the parking lot, and had a nice relaxing evening of wings, a couple brews and watching some March Madness. Based on the descriptions above it sounds like we made the right call.