The Innkeepers
Steve and Lisa Freysz spent years visiting bed and breakfasts, talking with innkeepers, and quietly planning for the day they would make their dream come true by having one of their own. In August 2018, that day came when they purchased Spencer House and began what has become one of the most rewarding chapters of their lives.
Seven years in, the dream has taken on a life of its own. Spencer House has earned six consecutive TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards and holds the top lodging ranking in Erie — a reflection of the care Steve and Lisa bring to every guest’s stay.
Lisa brings more than 20 years of restaurant cooking experience to the breakfast table every morning, and it shows. Steve is equally at home behind the scenes and in front of guests — sharing the history of the mansion, offering local recommendations, and making sure every stay feels personal from start to finish.
Together, they provide guests with welcoming hospitality, quality service and great food making Spencer House a place where history feels lived-in and guests feel genuinely at home.
The Mansion and It’s History
The story of Spencer House begins not with the house itself, but with a family that helped shape the city around it.
Judah Colt was among the earliest settlers of Erie, arriving in the late 1790s as a land proprietor and chief agent for a land company that controlled hundreds of acres along Lake Erie. His influence over local trade made him one of the most prominent figures in the young village. In the 1830s, his nephew Judah Colt Spencer left Connecticut to come work for him, and when his uncle died, the younger Spencer chose to stay and carry on his legacy.
In 1852, Judah Colt Spencer co-founded the First National Bank of Erie — only the 12th bank of its kind in the nation — and served as its president for more than two decades. His son William followed him into the role, a Princeton graduate who had toured Europe before returning to Erie to take his place in the family business.
It was Judah Colt Spencer who had the mansion built as a wedding gift for William with completion in 1876. Family lore has it that the young woman he was to marry had a change of heart and left him at the altar — though no one has ever been able to confirm the story one way or the other. What is known is that William eventually made his way to Philadelphia, where he met Mary DuPuy — a woman with modern ideas and, notably for the era, a college education. They married in 1880 and returned to Erie, though Mary initially refused to move into the mansion since it wasn’t her house. After some time she relented and the couple went on to raise six children within its walls. Mary proved to be a woman of strong conviction beyond her own front door as well, lending her voice to the women’s suffrage movement and her support to American troops during World War 1.
Upon William’s death in 1920, the house passed to his son, known around Erie simply as J.C. Spencer, who continued the family tradition as the third generation to serve as president of First National Bank. Mary remained in the house until her passing in 1933, and J.C. carried on as the last of the Spencers to call it home. He made quite an impression on the neighborhood — remembered fondly for his oversized Halloween candy bars, his butler costume, his constant Doberman companion, and his habit of flying out of the driveway without so much as a glance at traffic. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 96.
After J.C.’s passing the home remained in the family but was not occupied by a Spencer. It was rented for a period of time and then sat vacant for a few years before Keith and Patricia Hagenbuch purchased it in 1991. Following about a year of restoration, they opened it in 1992 as Erie’s first bed and breakfast. Now, 150 years after its construction, this Second Empire Victorian mansion — with its Stick and Queen Anne flourishes — remains one of the most striking homes on West 6th Street.
As for the rumored treasure hidden somewhere in the house — that one turned out to be true, in its own way. According to Spencer family relatives, when the cornerstones were laid, a lock of the unknown fiancee’s hair was placed inside one of them. Maybe that’s why it took Mary so long to move in. We think the real treasure, though, is the house itself — built with love for the Spencer family, and now shared with ours and with every guest who walks through the door.
