Prior to the Colonial Hotel being built at this location in 1926, there was a single family home here that had been sold by George, Josie, and Joseph Carver to Milton Heath in 1878. By 1909 the house had descended to Julia F. Heath (of New York) who sold it to John T. Murphy, who was in the roofing materials business. Upon his death in 1924, John bequeathed the home to Lula A. Murphy, his daughter, of Baltimore. The property was bought from Lula Murphy in 1926 by Pearl S. Mitchell (1882-1964), who demolished the previous home. Pearl’s parents were George Lewis Mitchell (1851-1922) and Mary Emma Mitchell who had owned the Mitchell Farm on the Old Post Road (now Route 40).

Pearl Mitchell had two sisters; one was Stella Mitchell Gilbert who married J. Lawson Gilbert of the Gulf Oil distributorship on Water Street; the other was Lillian Mitchell Bonnett (1886-1926) who married William Jacob Bonnett. Pearl’s only brother was George “Corthell” Mitchell (1894-1984) who bequeathed the Mitchell Farm to his and Pearl’s great-nephew, Donald W. Bonnett. With The Graw racetrack drawing people to the city, and the newly opened hospital across Revolution Street, Pearl saw the opportunity to build a first-class Colonial Hotel. The hotel is shown on the 1930 Sanborn Insurance Map, with W.J. Hubbard as the Manager. The hotel claimed to be “The largest and best kept hotel in Havre de Grace. . . every room with bath or hot and cold water. . . serves excellent meals. . . very convenient to the Havre de Grace Race Track.” And the hotel did house many horseracing and gambling fans, such as trumpet-playing Harry James, pink-haired Betty Grable, and band leader Guy Lombardo. The hotel was built with a small one-person elevator, used by Pearl’s great-nephew, Donald Bonnett, who as a teenager would sometimes carry guests’ suitcases to their rooms. After school he used to go to the Hotel and wait for his parents to pick him up there.

Another guest who made national news (The Port Arthur News, October 1, 1929) was Pinkerton National Detective Agency detective, H. Ambrose “Scarface” Morrison from New York, who was assigned to The Graw racetrack. He was walking from a drug store to the Colonial Hotel one evening when he was gunned down with six shots and died in the hospital five minutes later. Police Officer Clifford Santmyer found the pistol in the bushes by the hotel and theorized that the culprit was probably an “undesirable” who had been barred from the racetrack by Morrison.

Other frequent guests during 1946 were family members of the prominent Cecil County resident, Frank Donaldson Brown (1885-1965), who owned Mt. Ararat Farm just upriver. Keene Brown, the son of Frank Brown, was seriously injured in an auto accident in 1946 and struggled for his life for six months in the hospital while family stayed close by in the Colonial Hotel. Frank Brown made many local friends during those months, including John "Leo" Jones (1893-1973), who was the head waiter in the hotel’s restaurant and also known as the “Black Mayor” of Havre de Grace.

The hotel’s restaurant was popular for events and gatherings such as the Rotary Club, John Correri’s parents’ wedding, and the McLhinney News Depot annual Christmas parties for the newspaper delivery boys. And one of the restaurant’s waiters, Albert, also served as the occasional chauffeur of Pearl’s Buick, which Pearl never drove.

With The Graw racetrack having closed down suddenly in 1950, and business becoming slow, the hotel closed in the late 1950s. In 1961 the building was purchased by Jerrold F. Bress and Arthur Levin, who created the 40-bed Brevin Nursing Home in the building. They also owned Green’s Pharmacy on North Washington Street. Betty Mullin was the head supervising nurse for Brevin Nursing Home and always commented on how wonderful the Maryland style pan-fried chicken was that was served to the staff and patients. That’s all the inspiration her son, George Mullin, needed to create George’s “Original” Chicken House, a new business at Otsego Street and Route 40 in 1981. It closed sometime later.

Pearl Mitchell’s great-nephew, Donald W. Bonnett, shared some stories about his great-aunt. Pearl apparently had sold the building to Bress and Levin on condition that she be allowed to live in the nursing home for the rest of her life. She was “a woman before her time,” who used to sit in her rocking chair by the window, resting her glass of brandy on the window sill, Donald says. Pearl lived in the corner bedroom on the second floor and she had a male friend who lived in the corner room of the third floor. Whenever they wanted to get together they signaled one another by knocking on the heating pipe that connected both rooms! Donald Bonnet has fond memories of visiting Pearl with his family, and watching the Nat King Cole TV Show on Friday nights with her. Pearl lived for about a year after she sold to Bress and Levin.

The Brevin Nursing Home sold the building in 1999 to TACA LLC. The latter, under the guidance of Dr. Thomas E. Jordan (1959-2013) of Gehris Jordan Day & Associates, hired the Ward Development Group in 2000 to turn the dilapidated structure into a “Class A style Corporate Office Building.” The entire building was stripped of its years of materials down to its “original bones.” Stair towers and a larger elevator were added along with a three-story verandah. The exterior was restored with new replica roof shingles, a stucco finish, new windows (reminiscent of the originals) and a new columned arched entry porch. Photos show that where the dining room used to be on the left of the building, a tower was added for the elevator. In 2001, this project received Harford County’s Historic Preservation Commission’s “Historic Preservation Project of the Year Award.”

The building continues to be owned by TACA LLC and is a medical office building.

County Records
Built 1930. 10,833 sq ft commercial office building, 6,000 sq ft lot.