The United States Hotel Guide and Railway Companion for 1867 (New York: James Miller for the Proprietors, 1867) lists Israel Allen as the Proprietor of the “U.S. Hotel” in Havre de Grace; he died at the age of 60 in July 1862. In 1866, a sale was held at the U.S. Hotel of locally made bricks and in 1867 the Havre de Grace Post Office is said to have been in the Hotel. In 1875, after the death of Captain Willliam W. Virdin (1803-1871) his son, Dr. William W. Virdin, held a public sale of his father’s properties here in the hotel. The 1885 and 1894 Sanborn Insurance Maps show this northwest corner of Otsego and Water Streets as the location of the U.S. Hotel (sometimes confused with the United States Hotel on St. John Street). A photo is shown of the previous building known first as the U.S. Hotel and then the Saricks Hotel.

In 1872 an ownership dispute arose in court concerning this parcel of land stretching from Water Street along Otsego Street to Pearl Street between Alexander Smith and Dr. John K. Sappington, as an Executor. Court-appointed trustees sold the land in 1875 to Lewis K. Herbst, who granted a portion of the property to the state of Maryland for erecting the Havre de Grace Hay and Cattle Scales. He sold the rest of the property in 1881 to Mary A. Saricks. She, along with John H. Saricks (1829-1914) and George H. Saricks operated the Saricks Hotel on this northwest corner of Water and Otsego streets (presumably in the former U.S. Hotel premises). In 1908, the local family of J. Arthur Fletcher were walking past the Saricks Hotel on the sidewalk when some stacked beer kegs fell on their infant daughter causing her to fall down. The resulting injuries caused her left leg to be being amputated. The Fletchers successfully sued the Saricks and the City.

In 1910, Saricks Hotel was flooded with three feet of water and mud caused by an ice gorge on the river (not unusual in pre-Conowingo Dam days). By 1917, Mary Ann Saricks had relocated to Calvert County and sold part of the property to Murray V. Lawder (1891-1970) and Rebecca May Lawder. The Lawders were a well-known local family of business people. The following year the Lawders sold part of the property to DiGiuseppi Francesco and DiGiuseppi Gaetane; in two more years it was owned by Alexander and Splendore Buongori; it then went to to Annie Buongori in 1921. Between 1917 and 1924, this may have been known as the Columbus Hotel. Annie married Enrico Di Vincentis in 1924 and they sold it to J. William Bauer in 1924. In 1921 the building was marked on the Sanborn Insurance Map as a “Hotel” followed on the 1930 Sanborn Map by being marked “Apartments.”

It would appear that the present building replaced the previous hotel/apartment building that had been there; however, it is not known exactly when the current building was constructed.

This building was owned by members of the Gillotte (sometimes spelled Gillotti) family from around 1933 through 1975. There was a bar located in the building for most of that time. It was known by several names but most people recall it being the Riviera Bar, run by Fred Gillotte and Dorothy Laye Gillotte. The bar had two entrances; one from where the deck faces the river and the other facing down Union Avenue. It had booths and a jukebox inside and several locals remember dancing to music on the jukebox as young children. In 1935 Fred Gillotte was killed in an automobile accident, leaving Dorothy with three young children. She, however, continued to run the Riviera Bar alone for some time.

After the widowed Dorothy married Aloysius “Loach” Hergenrother (1890-1970) they ran the bar together. Loach Hergenrother was the son of Joseph A. Hergenrother and his wife, Elizabeth, who earlier owned the Eagle Hotel at 200 St. John Street. Rex Gordon remembers Loach as the grandfather figure he grew up with (his actual grandfather, Fred Gillotte had died in 1935), still running the Riviera Bar into his seventies. Rex says his grandmother used to tell stories of well-known jockeys, such as Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker, who used to come to town to race at The Graw and stop into their bar. They were both famous horse-racing Hall of Fame jockeys.

After the death of Loach and Dorothy Hergenrother, Dorothy’s sons, Fred Gillotte, Jr. and Charles Gillotte, sold the property in 1975 to David A. Simons, Jr. (1947-2009) and Silvana Simons. It has been said that the bar continued to operate for some time by Jim Love, who named the bar “Ellen’s Paddock” and was a State Champion Boxer at one time. The Harford County Treasurer sold the building in 1996 to J. Bays Properties LLC.

Charles Packard remembers helping to convert the building into an office for an insurance company. In 1997 the building was bought by Mary Lynn Snyder, a business partner of Allen Fair; it is now a rental property.

County Records
Built 1925. 1440 sq ft, 1 story no basement, 2 baths, 4,100 sq ft lot.