| Author | Message | ||
     crossroads Citizen Username: Crossroads Post Number: 56 Registered: 12-2001  |
Back in the 70s we used to visit Downingtown Inn for long weekends in Pennsylvania. They had indoor swimming, skating, a game room and the folks would golf. Good food and lots of fun. Mickey Rooney and/or his son were co-owners I was told. I think the Inn is gone now. Anybody else every visit/remember that place? | ||
| Smarty Jones Citizen Username: Birdstone Post Number: 10 Registered: 10-2005 |
I realize this is WAY late, but I just now found your post. I grew up in Downingtown. (Me, my Wife and daughter now in Maplewood, but family still in Downingtown). My Jr. Prom was there, and we always used to wonder about why so many New Yorkers used to flood our town in the summer. Was it a launching pad to see the Amish? The first real Outlets in Lancaster/Reading? My mother-in-law from Brooklyn recalls making trips to the Inn as well. We used to skate there too, and it would alter between ice skating and roller skating on a regular basis. Across the street was the Downingtown Farmers Market, and when I was a kid, I used to think it was the longest farm market in the world. By high-school, the farmers market parking lot was a great destination to cause mischief. Mickey Rooney's Tabas hotel was actually across the street, and many people confused it with the Inn you are talking about. The Tabas was one of Mickey's endorsements, and had an enormouse cut-out of him on the side of the hotel. It was an endorsement deal only, from what I knew, and there were never any Mickey sitings in Downingtown (nor did anyone much care). The Blob, however, was partially filmed in Downingtown, which is something the town took a lot more seriously, and the Blob Diner and Theater (theater actually in a neighboring town of Phoenixville) are both still operational and local destinations. As for the Downingtonw Inn and Country Club, it's now an enormous outdoor mall, anchored by a Wegmans. you wouldn't recognize it. | ||
| crossroads Citizen Username: Crossroads Post Number: 104 Registered: 12-2001 |
Mr. Jones - It's never too late to post on MOL. Thanks for the updates on the Inn and the property. Every now and then there's an item on e-bay about the Inn. Someone else told me recently that it is unrecognizable too. |
