In the GI Dayroom Coffee Shop in Meyersdale, locals have been meeting for breakfast or lunch since 1942 in the old Pennsylvania coal town.
But new faces are beginning to join them.
“One day we had a cyclist from South Africa at one end of the counter, and another from South Africa at the other end of the counter,” said Jody Saler, while topping off mugs of coffee at the Main Street diner.
Her 73-year-old father, Floyd Hetrick, owner of the diner for 30 years, still works the griddle every morning pouring pancake batter in the shape of a smiley face, his signature item. He showed a visitor a guest book from around the counter.
“Every time we bike, we LOVE eating here,” reads an entry from July 2, 2018, signed by Lisa and Andrei of Toronto, Canada.
The Canadians had been passing through on the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile rail-to-trail corridor between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md. The GAP trail project reached Meyersdale in 2004, and today riders can continue all the way to Washington, D.C.
As a result, hospitality is a new force in the Somerset County town’s economic character. Despite some challenges, the town is embracing the change and opportunity.
“It’s a cool thing,” Mr. Hetrick said. “We enjoy meeting the people and finding out where they’re from. You’d be surprised the number of ladies who are biking by themselves.”
The trail town of 2,000 along the former Western Maryland Railway — roughly 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh— sits in an opportune spot, bookended by geographic and architectural features.
![[TOWN] at a glance](http://liber.post-gazette.com/.media/2/2018/12/01/70ae91fa-0fbd-4f75-a820-35c9dd9d52e3.jpg)
The nearly 2,000-foot Salisbury Viaduct, a railroad bridge built nearby in 1912, offers vistas of the countryside. Just east of town, riders hit the 3,924-foot-long Big Savage Tunnel, where trains chugged through during much of the 20th century. Also close is the Eastern Continental Divide — nearby Mount Davis is the state’s highest point at 3,213 feet — so eastbound riders know that after Meyersdale, it’s all downhill.
In July, 1,239 people from nearly all 50 states, and some from as far away as Taiwan, are known to have visited the town via the trail, according to numbers from the Meyersdale Historical Society, housed in the early 20th-century train station. The organization counted more than 7,000 trail visitors in all of 2017.
And those are just the people who signed the station’s guestbook, noted the historical society’s Brooke Folk.
An 2016 economic impact study produced by St. Vincent College estimated that up to 1.2 million people used the entire GAP trail that year, a 9 percent increase from 2015.
Specific Meyersdale numbers are difficult to pin down, but there is money coming in.
“Anybody that’s a long-distance traveler, they’ll spend a minimum of $135 in your town,” Mr. Folk said. “If they’re just a local day tripper, they’ll spend anything from zero to some ice cream down the street.”
One visitor from York, Trent Davis, relaxed at Morguen Toole on a wing-night Wednesday after a soggy 60-mile trail ride.
“This place intrigued us,” he said.
The four-story, former 19th-century mortuary and tool manufacturing business now houses nearly a dozen private and hostel-style guest rooms, ranging from $25 a bunk to $220 for a suite with private bath. A banquet room and restaurant are on the first and second floors.
“We knew dining, lodging and entertainment were three things GAP cyclists wanted to see being developed, and we thought, ‘Well, heck, we can put all three in one building,’” said Jeremy Hoover, who estimates that 40 percent of his business comes from the trail.
Mr. Hoover, 40, and his wife opened Morguen Toole in 2011. Mr. Hoover’s parents are among the mainstays of Meyersdale, owning a conveyor belt company that services nearby industry and employs 30. Heritage Coal, one of the last remaining coal mines in town, is one of its clients.
According to Heritage, the 47-employee strip mining operation is on track to produce 500,000 tons of coal this year.
Mining once was the town’s lifeblood. Today the U.S. Energy Information Administration lists just under 20 coal mines in all of Somerset.
Meyersdale’s commerce and future was a topic one recent evening among long-time and new business owners who gather every Wednesday at the Elks Lodge #1951.
“This town is a gold mine,” said Deborah Fisher, 55, who last year purchased the Levi Deal Mansion, a restored Victorian home turned bed-and-breakfast.
She’s embracing the small-town charm after an advertising career in Atlanta, where she lived in a 33rd-floor downtown condo.
“[Visitors] want to come here, they want to eat, they want to stay, they want to get their bike fixed … and we have everything that they want, plus the beauty of the surroundings,” Ms. Fisher said.
Residents in the small town are proud of their other institutions as well.
There’s a weekly newspaper with a circulation of 3,000; a public library that houses extensive county and genealogy archives; a hospital and family medical center that employs more than 130 people; and an annual Pennsylvania Maple Festival that attracts thousands.
And locals revere hometown disc jockey Roger Wahl (aka “The Commander”) who sits at the helm of WQZS 93.3-FM, reading local headlines and news that includes school lunch menus.
“I serve the listeners, the people of this town,” he said.
But the town is not without its issues.
Mayor Michael Brant said that blighted properties have been a concern since he took office in 2007.
A glaring example is the New Colonial Hotel, now under control of the borough. Built in 1904 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the grand old building sits on Main Street in disrepair.
“The pigeons have moved in,” said Julie Kreger, who works at the local Somerset Trust Bank and helps run the Merchants Association. “They say in its day, it was one of the most beautiful buildings you’ve ever seen.”
Councilman Dan Parisi said the building is slated to be demolished but that the borough is “still open to something fortuitous happening,” like someone buying it.
Meanwhile, operating businesses face challenges finding young workers. The median age in Meyersdale is 48, a full decade older than the national average, according to census figures.
Mark Albright, CEO and president of 4 Guys Fire Truck, which manufactures and sells fire trucks, said more than half of his 65 employees have been there for 25 years or more.
“I just hope that the kids want to learn a trade,” he said.
But the town may be on the cusp of more development and attracting more families. On Wednesday, PennDOT opened the new the State Route 219 bypass, connecting Meyersdale directly to Somerset via an 11-mile, four-lane highway.
“That’s going to be huge,” said Sharon Ackerman, a lifelong resident who wears many hats and volunteers with Ms. Kreger in the Merchants Assocation.
Do the residents worry that the trail or highway and the development that follows will change the town’s character? Not much, apparently.
“I don’t think the people will allow that to happen,” Ms. Kreger said.
Ashley Murray can be reached at amurray@post-gazette.com or on Twitter at @Ashley__Murray.
First Published: November 24, 2018, 1:00 p.m.
