Category Archives: E-History Fact

After years of planning, and an entire year of shoring up and bracing the structure, the King of Prussia Inn was moved on Sunday, August 20, 2000 from the US 202 median to Bill Smith Boulevard, land donated by PECO Energy Company.

It was one of the most successful engineering efforts in Pennsylvania’s history, winning the American Association of State Highway Officials 2004 National Legacy Award for successful relocation and restoration from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

With the challenge to relocate the King of Prussia Inn, a dedicated group of local supporters mobilized to formulate a plan to move the structure. Between 1997 and 2000, the Arthur Powell foundation, the Kravco Co., and PennDOT raised $1.63 million to move the Inn. An additional $400,000 was raised throughout the community for restoration after the move.

Finally, in front of a huge crowd, at 6:00 am on that August Sunday in 2000, the move began with a brief ceremony – champagne bottle smashed against an I-beam protruding from the frame supporting the inn. Janet Klein, chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, described the inn as “a significant icon of history.”

With dreams of becoming a combination museum and community meeting place to start a new life on Bill Smith Blvd, the Inn started to move at a speed of about 200 feet an hour.

The Inn had to travel down three different streets (first northbound on the six lane SR-202, then right onto South Gulph Road, then left onto Bill Smith Boulevard), through two major intersections and then through a park to reach the new site. A weak bridge on SR-202 had to be shored up by International Chimney prior to the move. Sinkholes (yes, sinkholes!) complicated the move path and had to be located with ground penetrating radar then stabilized before the move. Coordination and traffic control were a major factor to keep traffic moving and the many businesses along the move route open. Careful coordination with the appropriate companies had to be arranged to deal with power lines, signals, utilities poles, signs, and other obstructions in the move path. On move day the appropriate utility crews had to be on hand and ready for action.

The King of Prussia Inn was constructed prior to the advent of Portland cement mortar. Clay mortar used in the 1700’s resulted in very weak walls. A great deal of wooden bracing was therefore added to the building by International Chimney to hold things together during the move.

The approximately 510 ton King of Prussian Inn was moved on 21 rubber-tired dollies (168 tires in all), some of which were self powered. There were a total of 2 duplex main beams, 13 cross-steel beams, 7 rocker beams, 2 stiff-back beams and numerous other steel beams supporting the Inn during the move.

Delays during the first day of the move changed the timetable from an original plan of 12 hours to 18 hours plus. They finished Monday. One problem came up early in the day Sunday, when a hydraulic dolly failed and two others had to be brought in from South Jersey.

Restoration was more costly than anticipated. In-kind donations for the Inn included window panes painted by volunteers from the Lockheed-Martin Company, electrical service courtesy of Independent Local of Electrical Workers Union 380, phone wiring by members of the Communications Workers of America and grading and landscaping from the Gambone Brothers Development Company with a wonderful sewer lateral by American Infrastructure. Volunteers also hung pictures, cleaned floors and cut grass. Every one of them saving the project thousands of dollars that were needed.

At the end of 2002, the King of Prussia Chamber of Commerce moved into the fully restored Inn. Today the Inn is home to the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. To visit the Inn, one must contact the Chamber.

Courtesy of PECO

Courtesy of PECO

Moving day – 8/20/2000

At the end of this 1976 Courier article, readers were told of the kick off effort to save the Inn. Money was first raised to do exterior restoration in time for the Bicentennial. Eventually, on August 20, 2000, the Inn was moved – as the article suggests – “to a prominent place among the treasurers of our American heritage.”

From the King of Prussia Courier, January 1976

By Nancy Peters

At the start of every year almost since the Courier began, tradition dictates that we play “The Game of the Name” and relate how King of Prussia got its name.

If you’ve guessed the disheveled old Inn pictured above, you are right.

As the bicentennial year of 1976 gets underway my script seems to read the same: Just as I have decided that the popular vote is going to dictate shootin’ her down like an old war horse, something happens and she kicks up her heels for another year.

I went by a couple of weeks ago and, lo, three workmen were going at her roof, shoring up against winter’s blasts. To me, an old Inn history buff of 22 years, that meant that someone among the Inn’s devoted following still has not given up hope. And indeed there are still a few diehards hereabouts who will never despair of the arrival of a fund-bearing courier before death should overtake the venerable edifice.

THE LEGEND

The historical landmark which has given it name to the flourishing community surrounding it, was an inn noted for its good cheer long before Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in 1777-78.

Although the earliest record at the Court House in Norristown shows the date 1718, it is believed that the inn was built about 1709. It was named by its owner, a native of Prussia, in honor of Frederick 1st who had, a short time before, established himself as King of Prussia.

As with all inns and taverns in the colonial period, a sign was hung outside with a likeness of the King on horseback. This creaking sign was long remembered by residents of the Great Valley, and many legends concerning it were handed down through the generations that followed.

The Inn was remodeled and enlarged in 1769 by Daniel Thompson, a free Quaker who, because of his devotion to the American cause, fought through the eight years of the Revolutionary War.

Reliable records place “old Herman deVriest” as proprietor of the inn during the Revolution, and particularly during the encampment at Valley Forge. He was host to both American and British officers and many intrigues and plots were hatched within the walls of the old inn.

The two and a half story stone structure has some of the original amenities: Mantels; doors and hinges; the old stair rail and a stone sill hollowed to a depth of several inches by the footsteps of two centuries. An ancient fireplace, large enough to roast an ox, with its huge crane, massive beam and old oven, is still in existence.

On the second floor, reached by a steep narrow flight of stairs, is the room in which Washington and his Mason officers held lodge meetings and where Lafayette joined the Masonic order to please Washington. Here it was that as early as 1774 the Mount Joy Society for Recovery of Stolen Horses and Detection of Thieves convened regularly and continued to so for nearly 150 years.

The inn was a polling place and a center of debate upon current affairs . . . furnishing food, drink and comfort to the weary traveler for over 200 years.

In the first part of the present century, the inn operated as a restaurant, finally closing its doors in 1952 when the then new Route 202 highway firmly cut off all access to its hospitality.

The King of Prussia Inn, so closely associated with our country’s struggle for freedom, deserves a prominent place among the treasurers of our American heritage.

Editor’s Note: Jack Shain, of Gulph Mills, the prime mover and doer of all matters concerning the Inn, has just called with this reminder for readers:

“Please don’t forget the important meeting this coming Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. at the old Roberts schoolhouse on Croton rd.”

Said Shain: “We must cherish our children’s future and preserve this historic lore for their sakes . . . ”

Representatives from all Upper Merion organizations, clubs and township officials are expected to attend.

An important announcement will be made at that time, says Shain, regarding the Inn.

King of Prussia Inn 1976

King of Prussia Inn fireplace before restoration

King of Prussia Inn fireplace before restoration

King of Prussia Inn fireplace before restoration

King of Prussia Inn sign

Gulf (Gulph) Mills was known for an inn that was kept by John Roberts in 1786. It had for its sign the “Bird-in-Hand.” The corner where it was located until the 1950s, Balligomingo & Trinity Roads, is now vacant land.

Bird in Hand Hotel – original photo taken July 9, 1911
(Courtesy of Radnor Historical Society)