Each time an older structure in our area crashes to the earth in the name of progress we lose a bit of our past.  Sometimes it's a major piece of that history, and other times it's little more than a footnote.  In each case, we owe it to the future to try every reasonable effort to save that past.  If we can't save the bricks, we need to save the history.

Located on the Allentown Road near the halfway point be- tween North Wales and Allentown, The Golden Horse Hotel was a popular rest stop for salesmen.

            Sometimes converting the use of the past with the needs of the present can salvage those bricks.  One example is located at the intersection of Allentown Road and Milford Square Pike, just five miles east of Pennsburg Square.  This was the former site of the Sign of the Bull's Head tavern.

           According to "Early Inns and Taverns of Milford Township," written by Terry A. McNealy and published in 1985 by the Milford Township Historical and Preservation Society, the structure was built in 1835 by John Heist.  He had originally built the structure to be "specifically used as a tavern." 

            McNealy goes on to write that "Heist applied for a liquor license in February 1836, and his petition said that there was no inn on the Allentown Road for a distance of six miles and that his house was in the middle of that dry stretch of the highway."

            Local citizens complained and objected to a tavern being operated there.  They 

The structures that housed the Golden Horse Hotel and stable still stand at the intersection of Milford Square Pike and Allentown Road in Milford Township.

protested that there were already six taverns in the township.  They also claimed, "the increase in taverns generally has a tendency to corrupt public morals without a corresponding benefit to the public."

            According to McNealy, Heist's first attempt to secure a permit in 1836 was turned down by the county court.  However, his second attempt, a year later, was approved.

            The tavern thrived in Milford Square (formerly Heistville) for nearly 80 years.  John, John S., Daniel, and Mary Heist dominated the list of innkeepers with a combined 23 years of service to the crossroads comfort station.  Indeed, there were 27 different innkeepers during the inn's 85 years of doing business.

            Not all of the innkeepers owned the building.  As was quite common during the late 1800s and early 1900s, breweries owned the facilities to provide a closed market to sell their own brew.  The Horlacher Brewery of Allentown owned the Milford Square tavern for a period of time during the late 1800s.  At that time, it was known as the Golden Horse Hotel.

            In 1901 Wilson Heaney (also listed as William Haney in newspaper accounts) of Milford Square bought the building and business from Horlacher.

            In 1902 Heaney had a stable built on the rear of the property.  He referred to it as a shed, but it was quite a bit more than that.  An item that appeared in the "Town and Country" newspaper reported, "The hotel shed is a splendid structure and provides stabling for 22 horses.  Above the shed is a commodious hall with a seating capacity for 500 people.  In addition to the amusement hall, there is a barber shop and a beautifully furnished lodge room in which the Knights of the Golden Eagle, No. 134 and the Order of Independent Americans No. 4 meet weekly." 

            That's some shed!

            In 1911 the hotel business was booming for then owner David A. Andres.  It was reported that he had a big business and transient trade, and that salesmen stopped there because "they know where good things are being served the year round and where no bed-bugs carry away one's luggage while he sleeps."

            Though used for different purposes today, the structures that housed the Golden Horse Hotel and the stable still stand at the intersection of Allentown Road and Milford Square Pike in Milford Township.  The truly beautiful thing about their continued existence is that for more than a century little has changed.  The exterior appearance is nearly identical to that built by Heist and Heaney.  What once was a prosperous business in the heart of a quiet village now houses apartments.  Appropriately, the horse stable is now home to the Milford Veterinary Clinic.