Valley Oldies: No pot of gold found at the end of this Rainbow
By RON PAGLIA
It was a little more than 50 years ago when a raging fire destroyed a landmark hotel in Monessen.
The incident surfaced again with this inquiry from a reader of the Mon Valley Independent:
“What can you tell us about the fire that gutted the old Rainbow Hotel that stood out at the Westgate entrance to Monessen? According to what we’ve heard from old-timers here, the hotel was one of the first things visitors saw as they entered the city from the Charleroi-Monessen Bridge.”
According to a story in the May 9, 1969, edition of The Valley Independent, the 69-year-old Rainbow Hotel building at 1900 Schoomaker Ave., which had been unoccupied for nearly two years, “burned itself out as a landmark yesterday afternoon.”
The newspaper account of the incident said the three-story brick structure “was completely destroyed by fire of unknown origin,” according to Roy McShaffery, municipal fire chief. He said there were no injuries.
To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Monday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.
