Category:Shankweilers Hotel

English: Shankweilers Hotels was a landmark restaurant in the Allentown area. There were two locations, one in Orefield, known as "Hotel Shankweiler" which opened in 1926 initially as a hotel and restaurant along original US 309 (Now PA 309). The other was in Schnecksville which opened on 26 June 1932 as a hotel and restaurant, being known as "Shankweiler's Hotel". It was along the original US 22 (Now PA 1022) at the intersection of PA 100.

Shankweilers consisted of a family family hotel and restaurants, famous for chicken and waffles. Its origins date to 1905 when Wilson Shankweiler purchased the Iron Exchange Hotel in Parryville. Shankweiler was born in 1883 in Wescoesville, just to the southeast of Allentown, where his father ran a hotel. In 1901 he met his future wife, Daisy Y. Guldin. In 1907, he left Parryville and purchased the Guthsville Hotel just northwest of Allentown, that he operated until 1926. It was in Guthsville that the Shankweilers began to attract large numbers of customers with their chicken and waffle dinners. While Wilson ran the hotel, Daisy ran the kitchen.

In April 1926 Shankweiler then opened a new hotel north along PA 309 in Orfield and moved his business there. The move was precipitated by the increase in automobile traffic along the major route, then known as the Allentown-Slatington Pike. The Foglesville location was once known as the Chicken and Waffle Shop, becoming "Shankweiler's Hotel" in August 1934. Both of the hotels run by Shankweiler had many famous guests. On April 9, 1935, Charles Curtis, vice president during the Hoover administration, along with numerous celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s would be accommodated.

On May 22 1956 Daisy Shankweiler passed and in August 1957 Wilson Shankweiler sold the Orfield location, although kept ownership of the drive-in. It subsequently went though several owners until finally closing in August 1992 as the White Lion Inn. On November 9 1963 Wilson Shankweiler passed and the management was taken over by Roy Miller, a longtime associate of Shankweiler and husband of Shankweiler's granddaughter.

Today, the Orfield location is now known as the Hunsucker Funeral Home, being converted from a hotel in 2010. It remains pretty much as it did when it was a hotel and restaurant. The Shankweiler family went out of the hotel/restaurant business at the end of 1993 when Roy Miller sold the property. The Fogelsville location was subsequently torn down, being replaced by a bank.