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Hard work helps build dream next to bike trail

by Joseph M. Giordano

It has been a brothel, a hotel and a tavern, but now an old stone house next to the North Central Railroad Trail in Pennsylvania is an award-winning bed and breakfast thanks to a former Gray Manor resident and his wife.

In June, George and Jean Becker's Jackson House Bed and Breakfast on Main Street in Railroad, Pa., took third place in the Best Overall category of the second annual

Bestofbedandbreakfast.com

Awards among inns in the United States and Canada.

Though they had stayed in bed and breakfasts for years, the Beckers had never thought of opening one until they stayed in a B&B in Milwaukee two years ago while attending a motorcycle rally.

"We just decided to open our own up," George Becker said last month. "It was a great decision. We love it."

Becker, who grew up on Parkwood Road, and his wife, Jean, formerly of Reisterstown, were introduced to the old hotel in September 2003.

By February it was theirs and by Memorial Day 2004, the former hotel was a fully operating B&B.

"The place needed a lot of work," Becker said. "We both had full-time jobs at the time too."

Though he would not disclose the amount paid for the building, Becker estimated that the couple spent about $40,000 in renovations and repairs.

"Yeah, it had lots of wear and tear," said Becker's boyhood friend, Ron Morris Sr. "But they worked so hard on that place getting it ready."

Morris, who has yet to stay at the Jackson House, has been making trips up to his friend's hospitable endeavor just three miles from the Maryland line.

"We were going to stay but we had a death in the family," said Morris, who grew up on McComas Avenue and still lives in Dundalk. "Now we may stay in August, but [George] is getting booked fast."

Fast indeed, according to Becker.

"I can't believe how the business has taken off," said the former Bethlehem Steel employee and maintenance man. "I was just able to quit my full-time job [in June] and strictly run the business."

With four rooms - two suites and two standard -the Beckers' home can get crowded.

"We have a woman who came to stay with us last year and she brought her family with her," Becker said. "Now she has booked the whole house [for a weekend] next year for her daughter's graduation. I've already got bookings for [2006]."

A quick look at the Beckers' Web site, and it's easy to see why the house is in such demand.

Built in 1859 and opened the same year as the Jefferson House Hotel, the house sits by unused railroad tracks that now function as part of the North Central Railroad Trail (NCR), which runs from Maryland to Pennsylvania.

"When it was a working railroad, President Lincoln came by here on his way to give the Gettysburg Address," Becker said.

The tracks also carried the body of the 16th president on its way back to his home in Kentucky, though probably without stopping, according to Becker.

The hotel became a tavern and brothel somewhere around 1910, according to the new owner, with one particular customer frequenting the business so much that she is remembered to this day.

"Her name was Daisy Montogue from Baltimore," Becker said. "She's in the old registry so much that we named a room after her."

Daisy's room is done up in bright yellow with 1900-style globe lamps hanging from the ceiling.

The town of Railroad, which is about a mile from Shrewsbury and boasts a population of 300, started to decline during the post-World War II years as residents made the flight to the suburbs and industries dried up and left.

"The building was abandoned for a long time until a retired schoolteacher from Baltimore County bought it in 1990," Becker said. "But it needed so much work that she couldn't tackle making it a [bed and breakfast] on her own. So we bought it."

After a slow summer last year, the business has picked up since the Beckers introduced the Web site and a sent out a ream of fliers.

The only meal they serve is breakfast - all homemade baked goods, eggs and meat - but they have a well-stocked wine cellar for guests to sample and relatively inexpensive rooms starting at $85 a night.

Now fully renovated with rooms painted in period colors and details- the Stonewall Jackson suite has a stone-walled sitting room - the inn has a few surprises in the form of a full garden and an outdoor hot tub.

"It's taken a lot to get this far," Becker said. "But it sure is fun owning one of these. I can't imagine doing anything else."