Published: October 20, 2009 10:58 pm      

Resort remnants on auction block

Old Bedford Springs items may be bid upon Saturday

BEDFORD, Pa. — An auction on Saturday gives prospective buyers a chance to own a piece of the old Bedford Springs Resort.

Auctioneer Deryl R. Clark is responsible for selling off a variety of light fixtures, early hotel dishes, sets of fireplace tools and a 50-gallon copper apple butter kettle, among hundreds of other items. There also is a game table from 1890 and an 1838 wagon jack.

Proceeds from the sale, scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. inside the 4-H building at the Bedford County Fairgrounds, benefit the Bedford County Historical Society.

“There’s a lot of signage from the old hotel,” said resort historian Bill Defibaugh. “Some of the things are from the (19)20s and 30s.”

Bedford Springs Resort underwent a major, $120 million renovation and restoration that added a 30,000-square-foot luxury spa, a presidential suite and conference rooms. An early indoor Olympic swimming pool was restored, as were guest rooms and the grand ballroom.

Defibaugh said the new owners wanted to discard the old material that wasn’t used in the restoration project.

“They looked at the chandeliers and the wall coverings, which were very nice but it wasn’t the way they felt it should be,” Defibaugh said. “They were going to throw all that stuff out. And I objected to it. I felt it had some value, not just monetary, but historic value.”

For the past four years, the items have been stored in Naugle’s Mill, a place where farmers from the Bedford area could grind their wheat into flour. It was considered a major operation when German immigrant Frederick Nagle constructed the building in the 1770s, according to a Web site maintained by Steven G. Gaskill. The hotel now has plans for the mill building, Defibaugh said.

“We have several items the resort has held on to throughout the renovation,” said Scott Stuckey, general manager. “Essentially, some of it fit in with the (new) design, some didn’t.”

Defibaugh said the auction was moved from the resort’s property to the Bedford County Fairgrounds because of a large amount of people that could show up and participate.

“When you have large chandeliers, you wonder if there’s a place to use one,” Defibaugh said. “Not all of them are huge. Some small ones (could be) used in residences. A lot of people just like anything that comes from the Springs. Lots of times, when Springs stuff comes up, they grab ’em.”

Defibaugh said this auction has been in the planning for “five or six months.” Most of the advertising has been by word of mouth, he said. That’s worked pretty well so far.

“There’s a lot of excitement,” he said. “Everybody wants to collect a part of history from the Springs.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.