Titlow Tavern & Grille

There have been three big tourist booms in Fayette County. Congressman Andrew Stewart started one in Ohiopyle in 1871. Edgar Kaufmann donated the Ferncliff Peninsula and Ohiopyle Hotel to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which spawned Ohiopyle State Park in the 1960’s. But it was George Titlow who kicked up tourism action in Fayette County in 1913 when he organized the Summit Mountain Hill Climb races. Titlow already had a plum business serving the wealthy coal and coke barons, but after the success of the race track set up at the 1912 Home Week festivities, Titlow had an idea.    He was a lucky man and wanted others to enjoy the wonderful countryside and amenities Fayette County had to offer. When he held a meeting to form the county's first automobile club, did he envision what the next decade would entail?    After 3 years of hill climbs, some of the wealthiest men in America invested in the famous 1 and ⅛ mile board track called the Uniontown Speedway. It was made of hemlock and it's world famous drivers drew crowds of up to 50,000 to Hopwood from 1916 through 1922. The wealthiest people from all over the country traveled to Uniontown by train, silent film stars and film executives, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Willie Vanderbilt, the Chevrolet Brothers, and thousands more.    This boom ended abruptly, when the Uniontown Speedway President took off to Cuba with their money, but what a run it was. Titlow sold the Titlow Hotel due to Prohibition, and the end of the coal & coke & board-track boom, saying, “You can’t run a hotel without spirits.”