The Charles M. Reed House was located on the north side of West 6th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut streets.
The house was demolished in 1970 to build what was then the Erie County Motor Club. Some of the original interior paneling and molding were incorporated into the dining and bar area of the ski lodge at Peek 'n Peak, Chautauqua County, New York.
This house is not the Reed Mansion, which now is the Erie Club. This was the personal home of Charles Reed who was the grandson of the first settler of Erie, Seth Reed.
This house, among other notable structures like the Hotel Lawrence, were demolished during the Redevelopment Phase of Erie’s history in the 1960s and 70s. A lot of homes that once belonged to the Settlers of Erie, or their descendants were lost. And I don’t mean some log cabin that they first lived in when they arrived, impractical to preserve and were long gone by the 20th century, but solid brick and mortar structures.
Charles M. Reed was born, April 3, 1803, in Erie. He attended the public schools and was graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1824, but did not practice. He was engaged in business in Erie with his father, an owner of vessels on the Great Lakes. He was appointed colonel of militia in 1831 and brigadier general at the expiration of his commission. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1837 and 1838.
Reed was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1844. He resumed shipping on the Great Lakes and was also engaged in banking, mercantile pursuits, and the railroad business from 1846 to 1849. Reed died December 16, 1871, in Erie, where he is interred in Erie Cemetery.
Reed's son, Charles M. Reed, Jr., served as mayor of Erie from 1872 to 1873. His election being shortly after father's death, one newspaper described the new mayor as the son of the late General Charles M. Reed
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| The Charles M. Reed House on the north side of West 6th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut streets. |