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Pending offer for Fallon Hotel withdrawn

LOCK HAVEN — The Fallon Hotel is back on the market and available to buyers.

Melanie McLane, of Jackson Real Estate in Jersey Shore, said a pending sale of the historic building has been withdrawn.

The Express reported in May that a sale was pending.

Owners Terry and Dolores Mantle put the building up for sale in January after the heating system broke down and the tenants were informed they had to find other places to live.

The current listed price is $245,000, according to McLane. Previously, the price was reported as $275,000.

She said she could not comment on the reason the potential buyer withdrew, due to confidentiality.

The Fallon Hotel has been at the center of multiple debates through the years.

Its historical value to the community is large. The hotel was originally built in 1856 for Spanish Queen Maria Christina, who funneled a lot of money into Clinton County after her country sold Florida to the United States.

At the time, the hotel was considered one of the most elegant in the area, with famous faces of the 19th century, including Mark Twain and P.T. Barnum, spending a night or two there.

Over more than a century and a half, however, the building has become a shade of its former glorious self.

With the owners listing it for sale and no buyer in sight right now, the fate of the Fallon is unknown.

“It would be a travesty if it ends up having to be demolished,” Lock Haven City Councilman Joel Long said. “What a piece of history for our town. At one time it was a showpiece. It used to be a great little restaurant, and I can remember people going there and having nice meals.”

City Councilman Richard Morris commented, “There have been a couple aspirational attempts to bring the Fallon back to life, but it’s one of those things where the aspiration may have exceeded the arithmetic.”

Long said, “I’m still hopeful that something will happen, and some way we’ll be able to turn things around and the Fallon won’t have to go away.”

Councilman Richard Conklin is in agreement with Long. “I’d hate (for the city) to lose that history,” he said.

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