By LOU BERNARD

There comes a point, during a lot of my tours, when I have to stop and reassure everyone that I’m not making things up. Though there are a lot of absolutely bizarre stories in Lock Haven’s history, people usually believe what I’m telling them. However, my credibility is stretched at a point on East Water Street. 104 East Water Street, to be precise.

It’s the Griffin House, built by Peter Griffin. And, yes, I am aware that Peter Griffin is a cartoon character on Fox. This is why I always give a little wince when I’m talking about the house, because it sounds as if I’m just naming TV characters. It doesn’t help matters that the house next door is the Simpson House, and I didn’t make that up, either.

The actual Peter Griffin was not a cartoon character, because he was born on Jan. 31, 1869, and cartoons weren’t invented then. I’ve checked. He was a lumberman, as were so many of the local business owners back in those days. He may also have been involved with the Griffin Chair Factory on the west end of Lock Haven — at least one source suggests this, though it isn’t certain.

Griffin married Anna Worner, and they had a daughter in 1906, little Helen Marie, who died in the house at only four months old. Griffin himself passed away in 1934, and is buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery.

The house may or may not predate him — Allison White had a home on that same property, built in 1853. Griffin moved in later and built his house, though it’s not entirely clear whether he revamped the white house or simply tore it down and built his own. What exactly happened seems to depend on which source material you read, as they all differ a bit. If pressed, I’d have to guess that he left some of the old structure and added to it.

(Everyone’s with me on the location now, right? 104 West Water Street. WEST WATER. If I seem particularly vehement here, it’s only because the last time I wrote about a house, I got several people contacting me to “correct” me about the wrong house. In spite of the fact that I gave the exact location of the house I wrote about, several people assumed I was writing about a house six square blocks away. Nobody better come to me asking about the wrong house this time, or so help me.)

So in 1903, Griffin built his house. Now, here’s an interesting detail: It involved pieces of a mansion built for a queen.

Most people are aware that the Fallon Hotel was built at the direction of the Queen of Spain. She made several investments in the area, bought up a lot of industry, and built the hotel. She also built a mansion in Farrandsville, just in case she ever wanted to come and visit her money. That never happened, and the mansion fell into disrepair, and came down.

Many of the components of it were salvaged, however, and placed in buildings throughout the community. Kind of like high-stakes Legos. There was a mantle that was put in the Isaac Packer House across the river. And, of course, the Griffin House received some parts.

If you should happen to be walking by, look up. The curved windows on the sides of the house, at the top, came from the Queen’s Mansion. The pillars out front did, as well, and were placed in the Griffin House. It’s pretty likely that other parts of the house also came from the Queen’s Mansion; I was recently talking this over with a friend, and we agreed on that. I don’t yet have documentation on which pieces exactly were moved in from Farrandsville, but I’m fairly sure some of them were.

After Griffin’s death in 1934, his wife rented out rooms. One of them was rented by a high-profile murderer just after Griffin’s death in 1934, who used it as his hiding place while the cops were looking for him. I mention this mainly because it’s an interesting detail of the house’s past.

The house is cool, an interesting example of what makes Lock Haven’s architecture so neat. Beautiful structure, and a history involving royalty, a killer, and local industry. And not a single cartoon involved. That’s all, folks.

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Lou Bernard is a Lock Haven resident with a keen interest in the history of this area. He is adult services coordinator at Ross Library and may be reached at loulhpa@gmail.com or 570-660-4463.