Clubhouse of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, Johnstown Flood National Memorial

---

Johnstown Flood National Memorial Self-Guided Tour Main Page

---

SELF-GUIDED TOUR STOP 2

The second stop on a self-guided tour of Johnstown Flood National Memorial is the St. Michael Historic District, home of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club’s clubhouse and a few surviving cottages once owned by club members. To get here from Stop 1, the North Abutment of the South Fork Dam, continue down Lake Drive until it dead ends into Locust Street. Take a right on Locust, and when you come to the town of St. Michael, take a left on Main Street. This curves around to the right and passes the clubhouse and cottages. Most of the remaining cottages are now private residences, so you can’t go inside. The clubhouse is also closed to the public except to those on a Ranger Guided Van Tour or attendees of the annual Clubhouse Tour held on a select Saturday in May, typically around Memorial Day. However, visitors to the park can stop at any time to see the clubhouse from the outside and to sit on the front porch. There is a parking area on the right side of the building.

The original clubhouse was completed by the summer of 1881. Although it was soon evident that it was not large enough to accommodate all members and their guests, an addition was not completed until 1886. The clubhouse then had 47 rooms as well as a larger dining area. The building that stands today is the addition. The original clubhouse was attached to the left side, but it was damaged in a fire and torn down in the late 1930s.

1886 addition to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club clubhouse, Johnstown Flood National Memorial

Members of the club who did not own a cottage were entitled to spend two weeks at Lake Conemaugh each summer season. If rooms were not booked at the time of their departure, they could stay longer. Cottage owners could spend the entire year at the lake if they so desired. Guests could stay no longer than ten days each year. Limits on stays were necessary due to the number of rooms. Furthermore, rules evolved that required members to eat all meals at the clubhouse, though this was not the case in at least the first three seasons (1881-83). A guest log was kept during this time, and whether or not a member dined at the clubhouse was recorded. Members were billed for all services. Guests were not allowed to pay for anything, and any bills they ran up were the responsibility of their hosts.

View from the front porch of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club’s clubhouse in St. Michael, Johnstown Flood National Memorial

After the flood, club members distanced themselves from the property for legal reasons, abandoning the clubhouse and cottages. The property was sold in 1903, and the new owner in turn sold off bits and pieces over the next few years. In 1904 an auction was held for the clubhouse furnishings, which included 50 bedroom suites, silver and tableware, carpet, and furniture.

In 1907 the clubhouse was purchased by John Sechler, who used it as a hotel until losing the business in 1920. Since then, various owners used the building as a hotel, boarding house, and even a restaurant and bar until it was purchased in the early 1990s by the 1889 South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club Preservation Society. The Preservation Society made renovations throughout the 1990s as funding allowed. In 2006 the clubhouse and two cottages the Preservation Society also owned were donated to the National Park Service. The exterior of the clubhouse was renovated off and on between 2014 and 2019, but work on the interior remains to be done.

South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club clubhouse addition before a mid-to late 2010s exterior renovation, Johnstown Flood National Memorial

South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club’s clubhouse addition after a mid-to late 2010s exterior renovation, Johnstown Flood National Memorial

In addition to the clubhouse, sixteen cottages were built by members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, nine of which are still standing. Until recently, nobody knew for sure exactly how many cottages were built or who owned them, as secretive club practices made original records hard to come by. Matching owners to homes was done by deduction, assumption, and guessing. Then in 2016, a box of records was found in the attic of the Cambria County Historical Society that identified all cottage owners. The records once belonged to John W. Kephart, an attorney involved with the dissolution of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

Original cottage in the St. Michael Historic District once owned by South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club member Christopher Hussey

As with the clubhouse, the cottages and furnishings were abandoned after the flood. By the early summer of 1890, families that were made homeless by the flood moved into the empty buildings and remained there at least throughout the winter. The families enjoyed the lavish furnishings left behind by the owners; very few owners, if any, came back to get their belongings. The cottages were eventually sold to the Maryland Coal Company in 1907 and used for company housing (coal was discovered in the dry lake bed). The town of St. Michael sprang up from this coal mining operation.

From 1907 until the mid 1950s, various coal companies owned the property. The cottages were used for company housing, though many were torn down over the years and replaced with new buildings, some of which were also used for company housing. All homes were eventually sold to private citizens, some of who were company employees that had been living in them for years. Today, nine original cottages are still standing, and these are marked with a plaque on the front of the building that reads THIS HISTORIC STRUCTURE WAS ONCE OWNED BY A MEMBER OF THE SOUTH FORK FISHING AND HUNTING CLUB. Six of the surviving cottages are private residences. The National Park Service owns the other three.

Home built in 1885 by South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club member J. J. Lawrence, now part of the St. Michael Historic District

One of the cottages owned by the National Park Service is the Double Cottage, which was built jointly by four club members in 1887. Prior to 2016, this building was believed to have been built by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club itself to house guests when all the clubhouse rooms were filled. However, the records discovered in 2016 revealed that this was one of the sixteen private cottages built by club members. The building contains four, two-bedroom apartments.

The Double Cottage once owned jointly by four South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club Members is now owned by the National Park Service and is part of Johnstown Flood National Memorial

When done at St. Michael, continue on your self-guided tour of Johnstown Flood National Memorial by making a trip to the third and final stop, the South Abutment of the South Fork Dam.

Back to the Top