The historic McKeever’s Tavern in North Wales may not have a wrecking ball fate, but could instead be preserved, restored and converted into apartments.
The 129-year-old former Colonial Inn/North Wales Hotel at 501 E. Walnut St. – which closed in 2014 after 28 years as McKeever’s, and subsequently sold by the McKeever family to Horsham-based developer Gregory Flynn and L&E Management Inc. – is on the agenda for the July 5 zoning hearing board, according to The Reporter..
This time, preservation and reuse of the original historic building is being proposed by applicant GPC Management LLC of Merchantville, New Jersey. This is a contrary approach to its former ethos that the building had “deteriorated too far to be preserved in that form.” Today, the McKeever’s parking lot is slowly being reclaimed by Mother Nature, and the building’s only tenants now are likely wild animals, rodents, and stray cats.
Here is what is being proposed in the zoning application, according to borough Assistant Manager Alan Guzzardo in The Reporter:
The property listing on Zillow, according to the newspaper, had a pending sale, as of January 2022 for $765,000.
Flynn is 0-2 with North Wales Borough Council: In 2015, council denied a four-story apartment building plan, and, in 2017, council shot down a plan for 10 townhomes on the property.
In 2014, North Wales historian Phyllis Byrne penned a letter to The Reporter calling the McKeever’s building “an extraordinary showplace.” It was the popular spot for early 20th-century entertainment in the borough alongside Idlewilde.
“Despite our efforts in establishing the first and only Historic District in the North Penn boroughs, our town must fight to avoid following in the footsteps of communities that have lost building after building to the wrecking ball. Our building ranks right up there with the Tremont, and it does not deserve the same ignominious fate still regretted by many. Will we never learn?” wrote Byrne. “‘Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.’”
Read more details on McKeever’s Tavern’s history and its upcoming plans here.
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