History

In 1957 Alta Schrock, while teaching in Indiana, had an imperative call to return to her beloved Alleghenies to serve its people - to provide a marketing arm for their cottage industries, a cultural center to showcase and preserve the area's arts and crafts, its music, history, and spiritual values and to open a restaurant to serve hearty country fare. Her search for a location led her to Little Crossings, Grantsville, Maryland.

Penn Alps Restaurant and Craft Shop are housed in the last log hospitality house on the National Pike still serving the traveler. It is situated between a 1797 gristmill and a historic stone arch bridge ( the longest single span of stone in America when built in 1813 ). Three of its six dining rooms were once part of the log stagecoach stop, Little Crossings Inn.

Penn Alps Restaurant offers a varied menu, including its well-known daily soup and salad bar and weekend buffets. The German ancestry of the Amish and Mennonite charter members of this nonprofit organization is reflected in many entrees on the menu.

The largest handicraft shop in the area is housed with the restaurant in the six times enlarged complex, of which the original log tavern is the core. Today the total crafts producer count is some 2,350 ( dating back to 1958 ). Most of the craftsmen are residents of the Tri-State area.

Dr. Alta E. Schrock

1911-2001

Founder of the Springs Historical Society
and the Springs Museum