MONTOUR TOWNSHIP -- The Stone Castle Motel, a place that many people in Columbia County refer to as a landmark, is being torn down.
"It was a landmark and still is a landmark to this day, but hopefully the property is being used for a better cause now," Tim Swank said.
Tim Swank is the General Manager for Susquehanna Valley RV in the Bloomsburg area. The company recently bought the Stone Castle Motel and plans to move onto its land. Swank says it will increase their space by ten acres.
"Down there we're putting up three service bays where we'll be able to do all the work inside," Swank said.
The Stone Castle Motel opened in 1958 and closed in 2011, but it grabbed attention in 2006 when a man murdered his two sons inside one of the rooms. He also shot his wife and tried to kill himself.
But some people who live near the motel don't remember the place that way. Bill and Betty Long remember seeing famous people stay there during the Bloomsburg Fair.
"The show people who were on the grandstand. They'd come down here and rent rooms down here at the motel," Bill Long said.
The Longs say they even lived at the Stone Castle Motel for a while.
"We stayed down there when our house burned," Betty said.
The Long family tells Newswatch 16 it's hard to watch the building get torn down, but they understand it has to happen.
"Sad in a way, but everything comes to an end," Bill said.
"I knew it was going to happen," Betty said.
A representative for Susquehanna Valley RV says it plans to open at the new location later this year.
