History & local legend
The Settlers Inn in Hawley began as a community hotel project in the 1920s, built on the former Delaware and Hudson Canal bed. The stock market crash stopped work before completion, and the building remained empty through the Depression and World War II. It finally opened as a hotel in 1948.
Staff later told of an elderly man appearing late at night in the Undercroft Bar. He was described as a shadowy figure, an occasional visitor without a known name. The story appeared in a 2004 collection supplied by the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau and continues in later accounts of the inn.
An early version connected the visitor with the flood of 1936, when the hotel was still unfinished.
Sources
- Pocono Record, Many local resorts, parks boast a ghost, October 30, 2004, account credited to the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau
- Paranormal in Pennsylvania, location visit and retelling of staff reports at the Undercroft Bar
- Wayne County Historical Society, Settlers Inn building history and 1948 opening
- The Settlers Inn, operator’s address and lodge history
