Popular Ma Deeter's bar rising from the ashes with rebuild

The historic Ma Deeter's restaurant and bar is being re-built from the ground up after it was lost to a fire in October 2015.

What's been the staple of Luzerne for more than 80 years, Ma Deeter's lives to see another day.

"Luzerne is missing something when Deeters isn't here," John Poff, Luzerne Express cook, said.

With each hammer and tool, construction workers from Indian River Custom Log Homes spent Thursday building the new Ma Deeter's.

"People have talked about, they went to Deeter's 50 years ago with their grandparents and so on and so forth," Poff said. "I don't know if it's this way everywhere but in the country if a place burns down, it doesn't go back up very often. I've been really impressed how quickly they got with it, how much progress they made."

The new building is set to be 30 feet high.

"It will accommodate anything they bring in here," Jerry Wolfgram, Indian River Custom Log Homes owner, said. "I don't care how many snowmobilers and you got a 1,400, 1,500 square feet living room. They got a nice horseshoe bar. Yeah, I want to have my first beer here."

For Wolfgram, taking on this project means so much more than just building a new restaurant. It goes deeper than that.

"At 80 years old this will be my last big adventure," Wolfgram said. "About 11, 12 years old, I can remember going up there with uncles and dad. I can remember them playing euchre and whatever and all of a sudden somebody would speak up and say, 'Ben, Bill don't forget. We got to go to Ma Deeter's.' At that time I didn't know what it was, you know, 12, 13 years old. So, that must've been in '45, '46, and '47 when the boys come home from service. Everybody like(s) to come here."

Wolfgram says there will be trusses coming in next week, then putting in plywood after that.

Wolfgram says construction was started around 7 weeks ago and that it should be complete by March.