Black Horse runs again

By Sarah Lehr

slehr@vindy.com

GIRARD

Elmadorous Crandon has been dead for 129 years.

Yet, his name lives on at the Black Horse Tavern, a Girard bar just down the street from where Crandon opened Girard’s first saloon.

Randy Emery, a longtime high school hockey coach, first heard of Crandon as part of research into the Black Horse Tavern, founded in Girard’s downtown circa 1836.

While on a fact-finding mission, Emery found a message posted to findagrave.com by California resident Darlene Carlson. Carlson, the great-great-great-grandaughter of Crandon, was looking for information about her ancestor.

Emery responded to her post and the two now regularly share research tips.

As Carlson and Emery have learned, in addition to opening Girard’s first tavern, Crandon served as Girard’s first postmaster. At the time, the tavern was a popular hub for gossiping and hitching horses, so it made sense for a barkeeper to double as a messenger.

According to legend, soon after the tavern’s founding, a man erecting the sign bet that he could do so after downing a dozen eggs and a half pint of whiskey. As the story goes, the man successfully imbibed, but then dropped dead promptly after hammering in the sign post.

To honor Girard’s original watering hole, Emery and his brother Gerry opened their own bar in 2014 and christened it the Black Horse Tavern.

The modern-day Black Horse Tavern sits at 100 West Liberty St. Though the original Black Horse Tavern was actually situated in another location on the same street, the building selected by the Emerys has a history of its own.

Built in 1927, the building once housed the Trumbull Bank and a General Electric appliance store. Today, the building still houses treasures from its past including a bank vault in the basement and a circa 1927 hand-operated Sedgewick elevator.

Emery has managed to uncover a portrait of Crandon, depicted with a substantial neck beard, which now hangs prominently in the modern-day tavern.

Girard’s current postmaster discovered the portrait several years ago while digging through the modern-day post office basement. Terri Lyons, Girard’s first female postmaster, said the picture piqued her interest, but she never discovered exactly who Crandon was.

Emery’s deep dive into the history of the tavern and Girard itself began as a desire to “go back to his roots,” he said.

In his own words, Emery’s become “obsessed” with the life of Crandon and admits to texting his brother in the middle of the night to announce he’s uncovered new factoids about Crandon’s past.

“Too much information is what it is,” Emery said with a chuckle.

Eventually, Carlson hopes to visit Girard. She plans to stop by Crandon’s grave in Niles and have a drink with Emery at the Black Horse Tavern.