Havens / Swafford / Chasco Inn Building

Northeast corner of Main Street & Florida Avenue, New Port Richey

This building was one of the first commercial buildings built in New Port Richey – long before the city was incorporated. It is located on the northeast corner of Main Street and Florida Avenue. However, when the building was built Florida Avenue did not yet exist, so its location was described as midway between Boulevard and Adams.

Most accounts have the date of its construction as 1915. Although according to the book “West Pasco’s Heritage” authored by the West Pasco Historical Society, it was not completed until 1916. The original owner of the building was Horace H. Havens who reportedly purchased the property in 1914. As one of the few downtown buildings at the time, news reports frequently referred to the section of Main Street where the Havens Building was located as “the Havens block”.

Horace Havens was originally from Michigan before he moved to New Port Richey. He was an accomplished violin player who often performed at dinners and parties. He was also a dance instructor at the Civic Club in Enchantment Park, and was an avid fisherman.

The post office was one of the occupants of the Havens Building. When it moved into the Havens Building, it first occupied the east side of the building (see photo at the top of this article), then moving to the west side.

The Havens Building was, however, primarily occupied by a number of businesses. One of the first was “The Cash Market” grocery store owned by George Wanner. The market occupied the east side of the Havens Building after the post office moved to the other side. In February of 1923, the business was purchased by Emil Nyman, who renamed it to “The Standard Grocery”. As well as being the owner, Emil also handled the meat department. He hired L. R. Colby to manage the grocery side of the business. The grocery store featured New Port Richey’s first electric sign on the front of the building.

The upper floor of the Havens Building was divided into apartments, one of which Horace Havens and his wife occupied. However, by 1923, the second floor was being operated as a hotel under the name “Hotel Rialto”. For a short time, Dr. L. Martin operated his dentist office from suite 10 in the hotel over the post office.

In late August of 1925, Horace Havens sold the building to Mort Swafford. The August 28th edition of the New Port Richey Press reported;

Mr. Swafford – a real estate businessman from Chicago – came to New Port Richey and became a permanent resident in 1924. He quickly established a local real estate organization, acting as an agent and broker. Soon after his purchase of the Havens Building, he applied for a permit to remodel the building by adding an addition on the back at a cost of $3,090. Just two weeks later, his building plans were a subject of some controversy, and the New Port Richey Press reported;

In October of 1925, the post office was forced to relocate into the new rear addition of the building … now being called the “Swafford Building”. The move was apparently necessary because the front of the building was now also being extensively remodeled.

When the renovations were complete, the Old Grove Company moved into the space formerly occupied by the post office in the front of the building. A space was also occupied by the Gulf Utilities Company. Both the Old Grove Company and the Gulf Utilities Company were owned by Warren Burns. The Old Grove Company sold property in his Old Grove subdivision, and Gulf Utilities Company was the electric utility for the city of New Port Richey. Another business setting up shop in the “New Swafford Building” shortly after its completion was the Fenton Electric Shop.

The second floor of the Swafford Building was operated as the “Harmony Hotel” in 1926. But this was short-lived. By February of 1927, Mort Swafford had announced that the upper floor rooms previously operated as a hotel would be made available as office spaces for businesses. One of the businesses that moved into a second floor office was the E. A. Miller Insurance Agency. And, of course, Mort Swafford had his insurance office in the building he owned.

On March 4, 1927, the New Port Richey Press carried a photo of the Swafford building with the caption;

In September of 1927, the post office – which had been located in the Swafford Building since 1925 – moved into the new Burnette Arcade Building. Shortly afterward, in January of 1928, Register’s Cash Grocery moved into the building as a major long term tenant. Formerly located in a roadside stand two blocks east on Main Street, it was known as Maloney’s. The grocery occupied the corner of the Swafford Building facing Main Street and Florida Avenue. A feed and grain department of the store was housed in the rear room previously occupied by the post office. In 1929, the exterior of the Swafford Building – still housing Register’s Cash Grocery – was painted ivory white with blue trim, the colors of the Independent Grocer’s Association.

In November of 1929, it was announced that the entire Swafford Building would soon be converted to a hotel named the “Just-A-Mere Inn”. Mrs. J. W. Breslin, manager of the Manor Inn leased the building and made renovations so that the hotel offices were on the ground floor with rooms upstairs. A dining room was also added downstairs on the east side of the building.

The Just-A-Mere Inn opened in February of 1930. Mrs. Breslin’s culinary skills were well known to the community from her tenure at the Manor Inn. And the dining room at New Port Richey’s newest hotel was reportedly always busy. News reports say that almost all rooms in the hostelry were booked by out-of-town guests.

However, the summer months when “snow-birds” returned home were tough on businesses in New Port Richey. Mrs. Breslin announced that the dining room would be closed until the fall … and the hotel business languished. After one more slow summer in 1931, the Breslins closed the hotel and moved to Tampa.

Prime property such as the Swafford Building would not stand idle for long. In September of 1931, a new lease deal was negotiated with Mrs. Mozelle Priest of Jacksonville, who formerly owned the Bradshaw Hotel in Cross City, Florida. She remodeled the space again and opened it as a hotel named the “Chasco Inn”. She said she took the name from the Chasco legend written by postmaster Lloyd DeVries.

The grand opening of the new Chasco Inn was held on Tuesday, October 20th, with a special dinner accompanied by an orchestra.

The Chasco Inn by all accounts was a successful hotel. But in late 1934 Mrs. Priest gave up the business and moved to Bradenton. The hotel continued to operate, and according to the December 28, 1934, edition of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent newspaper it was under the management of McCounich and Dreyer.

Sometime in the late 1930s, the building – now referred to as the “Chasco Inn Building” was sold by Mort Swafford. The date is unclear, but in the January 10, 1936, edition of the New Port Richey Press it was reported that Thomas Coburn owned the building, and that it had been “vacant for some time”. Mr. Coburn, who lived in Chicago and wintered in Tarpon Springs, owned a large contracting business. He was in the process of replacing the roof on the Chasco Inn Building and looking for business interests to occupy the building. Apparently he decided that the best use for the property was to continue as a hotel – because in March of that year the New Port Richey Press said “The Chasco Inn, only recently re-opened, has enjoyed a good patronage so far and this last Sunday was reported as being full to capacity”.

The typically slow summer hotel traffic must have soured Thomas Coburn on the idea of owning a hotel. He tried leasing the business to Arthur and Homer Hunn, who managed the hotel for a year with some success. But in July of 1937, Coburn sold the Chasco Inn to Jacob Lickton – an acquaintenance from his home town of Chicago who he met while in Tarpon Springs. Mr Lickton looked forward to operating the Chasco Inn as a first-class hotel.

It is unclear if there were interim owners, but about 1943, the Chasco Inn was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Mitchell. Then in November of 1946, Mrs. Mitchell became ill and they felt it best to give up the business. So they sold the building to Michael Fame, who continued to operate the hotel.

On December 10, 1948, the New Port Richey Press reported;

On October 14, 1949, the New Port Richey Press reported that Dr. and Mrs. Louis J. Colman sold the Chasco Inn to Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Franklin, longtime residents of Tampa. The newspaper reported that Dr. Colman had returned to his residence in Coral Gables to resume his practice of medicine and organize a resort for the blind.

On March 3, 1950, the New Port Richey Press reported that as of February 24th the Chasco Inn was taken over from Dr. Colman by Mr. and Mrs. Tom H. Youngblood of St. Petersburg.

On September 5, 1952, the New Port Richey Press reported that Dr. Colman had returned to New Port Richey and again has taken over the ownership of the Chasco Inn.

William and Margaret Weiskopf purchased the building in 1957 and became the proprietors of the Chasco Inn.

It should be noted that in recent years there has been some question as to whether the original Havens Building was completely razed to make room for the Swafford Building, or if the Swafford Building (subsequently known as the Chasco Inn) was, in fact, an extensive renovation of the original building. Although this seems to be a somewhat academic distinction, it is important in this regard; if the Swafford Building is a remodel of the original Havens Building, then it is the oldest existing commercial building in New Port Richey.

The Weiskopfs attached a historical marker to the south exterior wall of the building denoting this claim that the building is “The oldest building in New Port Richey”. Based on statements from persons who have examined the internal wood structure of the building, and on contemporaneous newspaper articles regarding Swafford’s remodeling permit and subsequent issues (see earlier in this article), this claim seems to be well founded.

By the 1970s the Chasco Inn Building was no longer being operated as a hotel. In 1974, the book “West Pasco’s Heritage” stated that the building housed a bus terminal and several businesses, with rented rooms on the second floor.

William Weiskopf died in 1975. Margaret Weiskopf continued to own the building until 1994 when she deeded the property over to her son William J. Weiskopf Jr. When Mrs. Weiskopf died in 2001 her obituary stated that she and her husband owned and operated Weiskopf’s Camera Shop & Studio, Weiskopf Travel Agency, and the Chasco Inn. In 2004 William Weiskopf Jr. sold the property to Eric and Beth Fregger who are the current owners.

Today, offices occupy the second floor of the Chasco Inn building. The walls have been covered with drywall, but the pine wood floors and balustrades on the stairs remain. The cupola which was added in 1925 or 1926 brings natural light onto the second floor. Restaurants occupy the ground floor.

This article was added on April 25, 2024 by Paul Herman, digital media archivist, West Pasco Historical Society
Portions of this page are based on research by Jeff Miller
Page last edited by Paul Herman on April 26, 2024