The Lanes, 1896 to 1948

The record on the Lane family is a complicated one, with several sales. Yet, for over 50 years the house was occupied by various members of the Lane family.

Patty and James Eldridge sold the house to William and Alta McClure in 1948.

Patty Eldridge was the sole heir of Elliott Eskridge Lane, and inherited the house at Lane's death in 1948. Elliott Lane bought the house at a public sale in 1942, when its value was thought to be about $6,500 -- Lane paid $5,000. At the time, it officially belonged to Elliott and several of his siblings, including Martha Lane/Pattie Lane Fay, Fred Lane, James B. Lane, and John H. Love. (Their parents, John Lane and Louisa Lane having presumably moved to what would eventually be Governor Hastings's mansion.)

The group had inherited the house in 1913, from J.H. Sands, when Sands died and the Pennsylvania orphans' court distributed it to the group. A notation in a historical text notes that J.H. Sands was also a relative -- his daughter was Mrs. John Lane.

The Lane family has an interesting connection to President James Buchanan, as well as some of the other movers and shakers of Pennsylvania history, such as Daniel Hastings. From Memories from Another Era: a complete collection of the articles written by Charles A. Mensch on his memories of growing up in Bellefonte, 1995:

“Living next to the Sieberts was the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Lane and their two sons, Fred and Elliott, and Mrs. Lane’s father, J.H. Sands, who had owned a bakery, later purchased by Joseph Ceader, in what was known as the Sands block on S. Allegheny Street (where the Fountain restaurant is now located). Mr. Lane was related to Harriet Lane, a niece of President James Buchanan, who served as the official hostess of the White House during her bachelor uncle’s administration. A bookcase, one of two which stood on each side of the fireplace in “Wheatland,” the President’s ancestral home and birthplace near Lancaster, was given by heirs of the Lane family to the Bellefonte Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The local chapter had it restored to its original beauty and presented it to the State and National DAR. The bookcase is now part of the completely restored shrine honoring the first and only native-born Pennsylvanian to become the nation’s chief executive.

Before the house came into the ownership of the Lanes, however, it was occupied by them. In 1896 the house was sold to J.L. Spangler and J. H. Sands by Daniel Hastings. However, the 1900 census makes it evident that the occupants of the home were the Lanes. At the time, they included:

• John N. Lane, a 48 year-old male


• Louisa S. Lane, a 40 year-old female


• Eskridge Lane, a 12 year-old male


• Fred Lane, a 15 year-old male

This situation is one of the fun things about the house -- since it is a double house, at various points it has been occupied by renters. Spangler, for example, probably never lived there, since records indicate that he lived elsewhere. More on him later.