Emma had been too busy to take on anything new, but she hadn't forgotten the talk at the Windy Run Diner about trying to preserve the Hotel Paradise. With her next column finished, except for a little polishing, she decided to do some investigating.
Her first stop was at the town clerk's office, where she found information on the hotel. It had been built in 1890, so was part of the Chautauqua building boom. The Paradises had always owned it, and her great grandfather's name was on the original papers. There was a little more information, but she didn't immediately know its significance. She could check back later.
Jeff Kincheloe was the county historian, and had an office in the courthouse, as well. Emma went there, hoping to arrange an appointment with him. He was alone in the office, when she arrived and introduced herself.
"Emma Graham? I know that name. Oh, the newspaper articles. You're the one writing about the girl with amnesia. Good job, by the way. I'm enjoying the story. Well, all I know about amnesia is what I've read in your columns, so you must be here for something else?"
"Thanks, I'm glad you like the story. I didn't want to interrupt your day, but I wondered if I could make an appointment with you to talk about an old building."
"Old buildings always interest me. I don't have anything pressing right now, if you have some time. Have a seat."
"Thanks. The old building I'm interested in in the Hotel Paradise, at Spirit Lake. Do you know it?"
"I know where it is, but I don't think I've ever been inside. It's vacant now, isn't it?"
"Yes, and that's why I want to talk about it. I'm a Paradise - well, the name hasn't been in my line for a couple of generations, but the original owners of the hotel were my great grandfather and great grandmother. I don't know a lot about its history. I checked in the town clerk's office, and found it was built in 1890, so it was one of the Chautauqua hotels, but I don't know if there's anything special about it. I know a lot of old buildings are just old buildings, but I know some of our local ones have been identified as historic sites. I don't think anybody ever checked ours for that purpose. I want to find out if it's unique in any way."
"Okay, that sounds like a fair request. It's shut down, now. Do you still own it?"
"No, and that's part of why I'm interested in knowing more about it. We ran the hotel until my mother died, about four years ago. Well, Spirit Lake hasn't been a hotel town for a long time, and we kept it going mainly on the strength of my mother's excellent cooking. Well, that's a little off the subject. The hotel had a very complicated ownership, thanks to my great uncle. His will left ownership divided among about a dozen people, with my father getting a share and also management of the property. My father had a good business in Pittsburgh, and wasn't interested in hotel management. My mother was, so she and my brother and I would spend our summers up here, going back to Pittsburgh for the school term.
"When she died, there was no way to keep it as a hotel, and it had to be sold to settle her estate with all the other owners. It has quite a bit of land with it, and the people who bought it planned to tear the hotel down, then sell residential lots. The problem for them is that they haven't managed to sell a single lot. Tearing the building down would be a really big expense if they're not able to do anything with the land, afterward. So, for now, it's just sitting vacant. Apparently, the outlook for selling lots doesn't get any better. That made me think that maybe we could buy back the hotel - not as a hotel, but maybe some kind of community center, or something. I haven't worked that out, yet."
Jeff stood up, stretched a little, and sat back down. "Well, that's an interesting situation. I can tell you right up front that the hotel probably wouldn't qualify for any special designation. I think we have more than our share of identified historic sites and structures, and there are a lot more like the Paradise. I could be wrong, but I think it would have to be really unique, structurally, or have an especially interesting history. Both aspects are certainly worth looking into.
"The hotel is private property, now. Would we have any trouble getting me inside, to look around and make some notes?"
"No, I don't think so. The Sheriff's Department is keeping an eye on it, and Sam has a key. He let me in to look around. You're official, so I would think he'd feel justified letting you in."
"You called the sheriff 'Sam.' I assume you know him well?"
Emma smiled. "You could say that. He's kind of my surrogate dad. My father died when I was very young, and - as I said - my mother died almost four years ago. I've known Sam since I was a little kid, and he and Maud Chadwick - you probably know Maud. She works at the Rainbow - Anyway, Sam and Maud are kind of my stand-in parents, now."
"Well, heck, with that connection to law enforcement, we should be able to do whatever we want."
Emma chuckled. "Having a sheriff for a dad is not always a bed of roses, but I think it will be okay for this."
"Okay. Well, why don't I give you some times when I could be available, then you and Sam could pick out the best time for you. I'll do a little looking to see if I can find anything written about the hotel. The other subject is the human history. Are there any records of the Paradises - you know, how important they were locally, or anything like that? George Washington obviously slept in every hotel on the East Coast, but if you could find that John Adams or Benedict Arnold or somebody was here, that might be worth knowing."
"I don't know about Paradise history. Aunt Aurora told me a lot of things over the years, but I doubt much of it was true. When she died, she did leave me all her papers and memorabilia. I've never had a chance to look through them. I'll make that a priority, now. I could also check at the library for anything about them."
"Why don't you concentrate on your aunt's papers. I'm going to look in the library for any building info. I'll start to look for personal stuff there, too.
"You know, your idea for a community center is a good one - maybe have concerts, or plays, or craft fairs. Spirit Lake is only a couple of miles from here, and I bet people would be glad to get 'out in the country' a little bit. They might even walk the old highway, rather than drive. You might also consider a nature center, a garden center, a youth hostel - well, it seems like there might be a number of possibilities.
"Now, taking this dream a little farther, I'm trying to picture the hotel setting in my mind. Isn't there quite a large area of sort of rough prairie land between the hotel and the lake?"
"There is. It's about 10 acres, I think. That's the area that is supposed to be divided into house lots."
"Well, I don't know if there's anything particularly unique about it, but it's rare to have that large of a more or less natural area left around here. There are probably some interesting plants and animals there - frogs, butterflies, birds - I don't know, exactly. But if you had kind of a nature center in the hotel, an area like that would be a real attraction."
"I hadn't thought of that. I'll ask Dr. McComb. He'll know if there's anything special there."
"Dr. McComb, the butterfly man? Is he still around?"
"Sure, he lives just outside of town. He's pretty old, I guess, but still really active, and chases butterflies around his backyard all the time. He's helped me with information about the area and the people a number of times."
"Emma, it seems like you know everybody in the county!"
She grinned at him. "Well, not quite everybody. But I guess I do know quite a few."
***
Emma stopped at the sheriff's office, and told Sam what she had been doing. He thought having the historian look over the hotel was a good idea, and they arranged to meet Jeff at Spirit Lake the next morning at 10 o'clock.
***
Sam, Maud and Emma were sitting around after dinner. "I've been wondering," Emma began, "If it isn't time for me to find another place to live."
Maud protested. "Why, Em? Aren't you happy here?"
"Of course, I'm happy. I just sometimes think I may be getting in your and Sam's way, being here all the time."
"Getting in the way, how?"
Oh, I don't know specifically. You might want to run around the house, naked, or something."
"No, I don't think we'd do that." Maud seemed to be thinking. "Maybe make love on the kitchen table."
Sam snorted, and looked shocked. Emma giggled. "Well, I wouldn't make any specific suggestions, but if I was gone it would increase the possibilities."
Sam spoke up. "You women have shocked me into making a suggestion - something I've been thinking about for some time. You know we have two houses, this one and mine. Both are very nice. One is only intermittently occupied. I have been considering asking Maud if she would let me move in here full-time. If she said yes, I could move some of my things over here, and leave my house completely unoccupied. It might be good to have someone living there, just to keep squatters from moving in, if nothing else. A daughter living there might be a good solution."
Emma liked that idea very much. "I don't know if Maud is ready to make that strong a commitment but, if she was, I think that might work out very nicely for everybody."
"Well, I'll pursue the idea with Maud, and see what she thinks." He paused. "There would be one restriction. I know you're 18, but my house, my rules. There could be no boys coming over, without an appropriate chaperone."
Emma seemed to be considering. "No boys. I think I could live with that. What about men - or, more specifically, man?"
"Sure, I don't see any problem with that."
***
Next morning, Emma decided to walk to Spirit Lake, something she'd done hundreds of times when she lived at the hotel. It was a bright summer morning, and the old highway was pretty much deserted, as usual. Sam and Jeff arrived together, just a few minutes after her. Sam let them in the hotel and Jeff began to look around. He spent some time downstairs, then looked over the upper floors. Finally, he went outside, and walked around the building, carefully noting its condition. He took about two hours altogether, while Emma and Sam sat in the sun, and talked.
Finally, he joined them. "Well, as I thought, it isn't a unique design in any way, but it's a very pleasing design. All in all, it's in very good shape."
"My mother used to call it ramshackle - or, at least, that's what the building inspectors said."
"I think the inspectors need to take another look. Obviously, it's showing its age, but the structural elements all seem very sound to me. There's no sign of termites or dry rot. If you ever did anything with it, you should probably check out the roof carefully, but none of the upstairs rooms show any sign of water leaks or mold. I think it would only need a little sprucing up to be ready for almost any use. Of course, depending on the uses, you might need to do some modifying of the space, but that's the only thing, I think."
"I'd say that's a real hopeful report," Sam said.
"Well, remember, I'm just eyeballing it, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Now, about the land. You say that everything from here down to the lakeshore goes with the hotel?"
"It was all part of the hotel grounds, and we sold it together. I don't know how it would be treated if somebody wanted to buy it, with or without the hotel."
"Right, I understand that. I'm just trying to fix a few things in my mind, for future reference. What I said in the office yesterday certainly holds up. This would be a great area to have in conjunction with a nature center. Put in a couple of trails for walkers and bird watchers, maybe have some science experiments for school kids... Well, I see a number of possibilities. You're going to talk to Dr. McComb, for his ideas?"
"For sure."
"Okay, one other thing to consider is that Spirit Lake is a public waterway, and landowners have to leave reasonable access to it. Also, nobody could build right on the lakeshore - probably no closer to the water than that old house you can see peeking through the trees across the lake."
"That's the Devereau house. That's interesting. I would think that would decrease the attractiveness of some of the lots quite a bit. Don't buyers know these restrictions when they buy?"
"Sometimes they do, but a lot of land speculators - and I suspect that's who bought the hotel - plan to buy, sell quickly, make a good profit, and let the new owners worry about the future. Another thing that sometimes happens is that the speculators think they're buying a little piece of land out in the middle of nowhere, and nobody will care what happens to it. They forget that - as isolated as we are - we are still part of the great state of Maryland, and all Maryland rules and regulations apply.
"Well, look, let's get together in a week, and go over what we've found out."
"Make it ten days, maybe? I still have one more news story to write."
"Okay, a week and a half. I'll get in touch to set a specific time. I might invite a couple of other interested people, if that's okay. I don't know who that might be yet, but I think we may have the beginnings of a good project."
"Sure, that's okay.”
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