Photo from ebay.com A postcard of the Carver House in downtown Warren.

The corner lot of Hickory St. and Pennsylvania Ave. might be a gas station today.

But when the town was founded, it was the location of one of its first homes.

And then it’s preeminent hotel – the Carver House.

The corner lot is at the heart of significant portions of J.S. Schenck’s “History of Warren County,” which details the history of the parcel.

John Gilson, Sr.. “brought his family on a raft from Olean to Warren the day John, Jr. was six years old,” Schenck wrote. “This must have been on May 20, 1803.

“They lived in a storehouse that stood where the Carver House now stands, until they put up a log house – one of the first families to settle in Warren.”

The log house turned into a frame house when Ebenezer Jackson opened a hotel and tavern on the corner in 1819.

In the early days of Warren, residents had to travel as far as Franklin when they needed to go before a judge.

That changed in 1819 when the first Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Common Pleas was convened “November 28, 1819, in an unfinished room of a house then being built by Ebenezer Jackson This house of Jackson’s, as before described, stood on the corner now occupied by the Carver House.”

The Warren County Commissioners held their first meeting in the same house a month earlier in October.

“In 1819 Ebenezer Jackson had nearly completed a building on the Carver House corner. In it the first term of court was held, commencing Monday, November 29 of that year, and here Jackson and his successors kept tavern for many years. It finally became known as the Warren Hotel, but after the lapse of thirty years from its completion gave place to the Carver House,” Schenck wrote.

The next generation for that parcel began in the 1840s.

From Schenck: “Until the year 1848 the only brick structures in the town were the courthouse and the academy, while up the fiver a short distance a few Indian wigwams and tenants were yet to be seen. During the year mentioned, however, an innovation upon the old order of things began, by the erection of the Carver House, upon the corner previously occupied by the old Warren House, or, in other words, the tavern built by Ebenezer Jackson in 1819.

“The new hotel was opened for business in March 1849 with John H. Hull, the former landlord of the old Warren House, installed as proprietor.”

The Warren Mail reported the following before the structure was completed in 1848: “Our village – or rather our borough – presents many indications of improvement. Among them we notice a fine block going up on the corner of Front and Hickory streets; the basement of chiseled stone and the body of brick. It is to be used for a hotel and store, and bids fair to be what might be expected from the energy and enterprise of its proprietors – Messrs. Carver & Hall. It will greatly improve that part of Front street (now called Water Street) and contribute to making Warren as distinguished for the elegance and convenience of its buildings as it is for the beauty and romance of its scenery.”

The First National Bank of Warren was organized in a meeting held at the Carver House in 1864.

Schenck concluded (his book was published in 1887) that the Carver House has “since enjoyed the distinction of being termed the leading hotel of the town…. An addition, sixty-five by forty feet, three stories in height, with an entrance on Hickory street, was commenced by Mr. Hull, its owner, in the summer of 1865. In April, 1867, J. B. Hall, having purchased the interest of his partner, M. W. Hull, became sole proprietor. Williams & Scott assumed control in September, 1871, and in September, 1873, Myron Waters became the owner of the property by the payment of $20,000. Of the changes in ownership to this time we have no knowledge; hence, where the term proprietor is used, as above, it refers to those who presided over its management, either as lessees or owners. Mr. Waters improved and enlarged the building to a great extent, and while owned by him it was leased and managed by different parties until about 1882, when Mrs. C. W. King, its present proprietress became the owner by purchase. Under her control, assisted by her son the ever gentlemanly George W., and B. H. Johnson, the active, watchful manager, the Carver House has gained an enviable reputation far and near. Its furnishings are first class, and kept scrupulously clean and in order. Its table d’hote is always well spread with tempting viands, game, fruits and vegetables in season, and last but not least, its employees are quiet, polite, and prompt in the performance of their duties.

“Joseph Carver operated the mill of Timothy Barnes, and rented it a year or two. Stephen Carver was his brother and partner in the mill. After a residence here of two or three years they removed to Warren. Stephen Carver built and named the Carver House in that place.”

The building continued as a hotel well into the 20th century.

Until…