Category:West End Hotel. Allentown, Pennsylvania

West End Hotel 1327-1331 West Chew Street is a rooming house/hotel in Allentown's West End. The property consists of 48 rooms plus a bar and restaurant the on first floor. Each floor has several shared bathrooms, but kitchens are not available. Average stays exceed 30 days. The hotel was built in 1892 by Preston B. Schadt. Schadt was born in Sherersville on 5 August 1866. He acquired some lots at Madison and Chew street in Allentown's West End, which at the time was largely open fields. When opened, the hotel had 50 rooms and the latest facilities of the era, the hotel being considered huge at the time. Its presence also spurred also real estate development in the area. Early in its history a February 1909 fire destroyed the brick stable, killing an Allentown fireman when the front gable end fell on him while he was helping to remove the contents. Several other men were injured. The blaze resulted from crossed wires in the hay loft.

In October 1917, after the Allentown Fairgrounds had been turned over to the Army for the World War I Camp Crane training center for field hospitals, the United States government ordered the hotel to close for the duration of the war, as it was within a half-mile of the camp boundary and was considered a saloon unsuitable for trainees to frequent. In October 1918, the closed property was leased by the Trojan Powder Company and was renovated to provide housing for about ninety employees working on Army munitions contracts. The rooms were equipped with showers and bathrooms, and the saloon was converted to a cafeteria where breakfast was served and a lunch packed for the residents prior to departing for work. With the end of the war, Trojan Powder ended the lease in January, 1919, and the hotel reopened in April.

During Prohibition, the restaurant of the hotel remained open however only a limited amount of Prohibition beer was sold. It was known, however, that higher alcohol beer could be purchased at the hotel, and it was subjected to several raids by Prohibition agents during the 1920s and early 1930s. By the 1930s, the hotel had turned into a rooming house, with residents living in the hotel for extended periods of time. The restaurant obtained a new alcohol license in 1933 with the end of Prohibition and also became a nightclub. In 2003, the restaurant was renamed as the Jaber Jaws Bar and Grille. The hotel rooms are accessed by a separate entrance on Chew Street.