THE HITCHING POST
Where: 4319 Hamilton-Richmond Road
Hours: Opens at 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and at noon Fridays and Saturdays
More info: 513-524-2660
A nearly two-centuries old business in this community was reopened Oct. 25 after being shuttered for more than a year.
Pat and Tasha Cain moved to Darrtown nine years ago from Fairfield, seeking a more rural setting for their family that includes a son, 17, and daughter, 9. They became even more involved in the community when they decided to buy the landmark Hitching Post, which originally opened in 1817 as an inn on the route to Cincinnati.
Tasha Cain said they did research on the history of The Hitching Post as part of their preparation and are well versed in that history, which they now share.
“We are very excited about it,” she said, adding that the community is special, too. “This is a great place to raise a family.”
The building has a new sign on the front as well on a pole in front of it, but the logo design on those signs are very familiar to long-time residents, who appreciated its use.
“We wanted to bring the history back,” she said.
Pat Cain is adding operation of The Hitching Post to his busy work life, proclaiming himself, “always busy.”
He also operates Cain’s Customs property management and has worked for 17 years for Plas-tanks, a firm dealing with fiberglass products.
Since purchase of The Hitching Post was completed in August, the Cains have been busy preparing to open the business, although they said there has not been a lot of interior remodeling, so long-time patrons will recognize a familiar scene.
“A lot of scrubbing and painting,” Pat Cain said. A smoking section was also added in back, he said.
On hand for the opening were his parents, Rick and Karen, who had some familiarity with the place. Rick Cain said his father tended bar there in the 1950s.
Longtime Darrtown residents on hand for the occasion included Ron Wiley, whose grandparents owned The Hitching Post from 1932 to 1949.
“I remember coming to do repairs on the building,” Wiley said.
He also had other childhood memories of the Darrtown landmark. His grandparents sold it to Red Huber, who famously started a Christmas party for area children there in the early 1950s, shortly after buying it.
The parties were famous because although the first one drew only local families so the children could visit with Santa Claus and take home a gift bag of fruit, popcorn balls and trinket gifts, the word quickly spread to the surrounding area and drew as many as 1,000 people in subsequent years.
Wiley looked around the room and pointed to several other long-time residents who were also in attendance at the first Hitching Post Christmas party, as well as others with the names Fred Lindley, Kirk Mee and Bob Young coming to mind, along with his own brother, Roger Wiley.
“It is very vivid in my memory,” Ron Wiley said.
Mee, who now lives in Centerville, Va., was back in the area for a funeral early in the week and stayed so he could attend the grand reopening of The Hitching Post.
Wiley recalled another historical side note to The Hitching Post, giving it some more local color — visits by famous Chicago gangster John Dillinger.
“John Dillinger would come here when it got too hot in Chicago. He had a farm house on Scott Road and came here for supplies,” Wiley said. “My grandfather knew Dillinger very well.”
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