Also known by the names The Red House, The Evergreen Hotel and The Lodge House

—New Buffalo, Pennsylvania —

This imposing three story, twelve room structure was built in 1828 by businessman John Schaffer who housed his family and offered food and rest to Pennsylvania Canal construction workers and later canal boatmen and passengers. Travel conditions were austere in the mid-1800s.

According to Anna Liddick Dorman (1880-1961), the third floor provided lodging space for both sexes, separated only by a curtain in one large open room. As many as forty persons slept on the floor on straw "tick" mattresses.

Schaffer purchased his lot from developer Jacob Baughman who in 1814 laid out eighty-one lots in what became New Buffalo. The Schaffer House is one example of the dynamic economic development that occurred along the Susquehanna River as a result of the canal. Two boat yards and two other lodging facilities, constructed in the Canal era, folded with the final closing of the Canal by 1899.

From its beginning, the structure has served multi-purposes, often as a private residence, including the Henry and Lydia Thatcher family in the 1840s. One son, Henry C. Thatcher (1842-1886) served as the first Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. His brothers, John (1836-1913) and Mahlon (1839-1916), opened banks throughout Colorado and the West, and became the wealthiest persons in the state.

Over time the left