{"nrhp_refnum":"83002243","name":"Short's Hotel","other_names":["Palace Hotel"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"90 S. Pearl St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"North East","county":"Erie County","state":"PA","lat":42.20560155800007,"lon":-79.83567723799996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-08-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick commercial building in North East, Erie County, Pennsylvania, known as Short's Hotel (also called the Palace Hotel in the description), erected in 1877 and designed in a commercial adaptation of High Victorian Italianate style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is the sole remaining evidence of Samson Short's plan to develop North East around the railroad in the late 19th century. It was intended as the showpiece and business hub of that development, and the only visible proof of Short's legacy in the town is the name chiseled on its facade.","narrative":"Short's Hotel is a three-story brick building in North East, Erie County, Pennsylvania, erected in 1877 at a cost of $26,000 near the railroad depot. Its facade shows a commercial version of High Victorian Italianate design, with double-hung windows under semi-circular or segmental arches, cut stone lintels, and a three-part cornice carried on paired brackets. The hotel was built by Samson Short, a lumber operator from Elk and Potter Counties who moved to North East in 1867 and planned to develop the town around the railroad. Short's plan for a commercial district was undone by a fire in 1884 and the collapse of his bank during the panic of 1893. The building is significant as the principal surviving evidence of that plan, and it reflects the town's brief period of railroad-driven expansion in the late nineteenth century. Short's name remains carved on the facade.","period_of_significance":"1877","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Commercial adaptation of High Victorian Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"The building ceased to function as a hotel in the early 1960s and was remodeled into a banquet hall and ball room; the exterior has not been extensively altered apart from removal of original porches and balconies.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.386124-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/83002243.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002243/c795c2073a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002243/c795c2073a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Canadian2006","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shorts_Hotel_North_East_Pennsylvania.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Canadian2006</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shorts_Hotel_North_East_Pennsylvania.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996812","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short%27s_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7501534"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/erie-county/shorts-hotel-83002243/"}