There was an older dwelling on this lot in 1871 that had been owned by Joseph M. Simmons (who also owned the nearby Mentzer Apartments in 1870), then Hennie T. Woodrow, and then Lena R. Crothers who in 1907 rented it to James H. Robinson, Jr. and Susan N. Robinson for their Robinson’s Home Restaurant. However, when court trustees had to put it up for sale at public auction, due to a property dispute after Lena Crothers’s early death in 1926, the Robinsons bought it in 1927 and engaged the services of James H. Davis to design a new building. Until that year, the Robinsons had owned and run The Lafayette Hotel nearby on St. John Street.

The result was this three-story Hotel Chesapeake on the northwest corner of Union Avenue and Franklin Street in 1928, the height of the jazz and gambling era of Havre de Grace. The Graw racetrack, with its horse trainers and jockeys, and awesome fishing and duck hunting locally, were the focus of many who stayed at this new and modern hotel. Al Capone, one of the most famous crime mobsters in Chicago, is known to have stayed here with some of his associates during the early days of The Graw racetrack (1912-1950).

Shelley Sampson DeFries shared that her great-grandmother, Katherine Deppish-Wilson, was a baker there during the 1920s and 1930s. And beginning in 1930, the restaurant supported the Havre de Grace Yacht Club’s annual races by advertising “meals at all hours.” Kay Pearson Keetley says that her mother, Alice Johnson Pearson, worked in the restaurant from then until the early 1940s as a waitress and that is where Alice met Kay’s father, Charles Pearson. Early pictures show a bar with a wide wrap-around open porch overlooking Union Avenue, reportedly good for summer weekend fun and entertainment.

James and Susan Robinson divorced in 1934 and James deeded the property to Susan. She ran it herself until 1943 when she sold it to a former jockey, Edward De Camilis (De Camillis) , and his wife, Grace. Grace was the daughter of George and Mary Davis who lived at 131 South Washington Street, and the couple lived there with them. Edward, however, put his sister-in-law, Evelyn Richardson, wife of William Kemp Richardson, in charge of running the Hotel Chesapeake because she had restaurant experience.

That ended in two years when De Camillis sold the Hotel to Philip and Ethel Leydecker, who after renovating it reopened the Hotel Chesapeake. Then came a few more owners, William Henry Smith, Harry E. Grubb who promoted “fine foods,” and Margo, Inc., in the 1950s that advertised a “burlap bar.” But when The Graw racetrack closed suddenly in 1950, the hotel lost a great source of customers. Margo’s surviving directors sold the building to The Chesapeake Hotel, Inc. in 1959, with James R. “Jim” Collier running it.

Jim Collier struggled. Sandi Tucker is one local who remembers those days because her father leased the property from 1966-1968 and as a teenager she worked there. She enjoyed going right to Joseph’s Department Store on payday to buy a new dress and then would cross the street and buy a 45 rpm record at The Music Box. Cheryl Morrison recalls a rough period around 1980 when her mother, Deborah Morrison, ran the hotel for Jim Collier and while some of her memories of that are good, some were not so good. She mentions her Mom barring some people from “The Hideaway Diner,” throwing others out “by the seat of their pants,” successfully defending herself in court, and having her tires slashed, but Cheryl is proud that her Mom finally rented out all 16 rooms and turned a profit that made the hotel saleable again.

In 1984 the building underwent extensive renovation by a new owner, C.S. and Associates, of which R. Scott Kirkendall was President, and the first floor restaurant took on new décor. Scott Kirkendall and Linda Lee Moxley then bought the hotel in 1992 and the hotel had The Crazy Swede Restaurant on the ground floor. Melanie Hagan says it was great waitressing for Scott and the prime rib was amazing but her third floor apartment wasn’t air-conditioned! Once more, in 1999, it took on a new identity as Ken’s Steak and Rib House with David Kenneth Beyer as the new owner of The Old Chesapeake Hotel, LLC. Ken Beyer then opened Chiaparelli’s Restaurant for a while but he closed that in 2015, saying his “heart wasn’t in the restaurant business.” Ken had also been operating the Harbor of Grace Recovery Center and “helping people with chemical dependency” was where his passion was, he said.

Ken Beyer sold this building in 2016 to Go Havre de Grace, LLC, and the restaurant is now the Backfin Blues: Creole de Graw, owned by Chef Bob Steele, which opened in November 2016.

County Records
Built 1930. 6305 sq ft, commercial restaurant, 1950 sq ft lot.