Ridgway Historic District

Written by in the A Place in Time category and the Summer 2003 issue Topics in this article: architecture and architects, Brookville, Butler County, Chester County, Dauphin County, Delaware County, Elk County, Fayette County, J. P. Marston, James K. Polk, Jefferson County, lumber, Montgomery County, National Register of Historic Places, Newtown Square, Norristown, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Quakers, Saxonburg, Scotland, Uniontown
A Place in Time spotlights a significant cultural resource - a district, site, building, structure or object - entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1833, Ridgway was platted as an unincorporated village and named for wealthy Philadelphia Quaker Jacob Ridgway (1768-1843), who owned more than one hundred thousand acres in north­central Pennsylvania. The village, originally located in Jefferson County, became the Elk County seat upon the county’s creation in 1843. Ridgway, incor­porated as a borough in 1881, emerged as an important political hub and manufacturing center for the county, which was a major producer of lumber, oil, gas, and fire clay. The community was dot­ted with sizeable tanneries and factories that produced machine tools, bedding, cig­ars, axes, wagons, sleighs, railroad cars, architectural millwork, and glass. The region’s booming lumber trade was direct­ly responsible for the community’s growth – and the meteoric rise of local for­tunes – during the late nineteenth century.

More than seven hundred buildings and structures clustered in neighbor­hoods surrounding Main Street, the com­munity’s principal commercial thorough­fare, and dating from roughly 1850 to 1950, have been named to the National Register of Historic Places as the Ridg­way Historic District. Most of the buildings in the two hundred-and-fifty-two acre-historic district were built between 1890 and 1930. The architecture of the Ridgway Historic District varies from modest vernacular dwellings and commercial buildings to commodious and highly detailed residences and business blocks, in addition to a diverse collection of churches, government buildings, schools, carriage houses, and barns.

Among the buildings cited for their dis­tinctive appearance and character are the 1879 Elk County Courthouse, designed by J.P. Marston (1832-1882), capped by an unusual tower with an open belfry, and the Ridgway Free Public Library, built in 1902 as a residence for William E. Hall, son of Congressman James Knox Polk Hall and Kate Maria Hyde Hall, founder of the library. Main Street, dominated by the Grand Central Block, is little changed from its early twentieth-century appearance and conveys an undeniable and anachronistic “small-town” charm.

 

Recent Additions to the National Register of Historic Places

Ridgway Historic District
Ridgway, Elk County
January 22, 2003

Globe Knitting Mills
Norristown, Montgomery County
January 31, 2003

Milmoral
Wyncote, Montgomery County
January 31, 2003

Saxonburg Historic District
Saxonburg, Butler County
February 14, 2003

Uniontown Downtown Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Uniontown, Fayette County
February 14, 2003

Boekel Building
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
February 20, 2003

Garrett Farmstead
Newtown Square, Chester County
February 27, 2003

Quarries of the Hummelstown Brownstone Company
Derry Township, Dauphin County
February 27, 2003

Crosley-Garrett Mill Workers’ Housing, Store, and Mill Site
Newtown Township, Delaware County
February 27, 2003

John J. Tyler Arboretum
Lima, Delaware County
February 27, 2003

Hajoca Corporation Headquarters and Showroom
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
February 27, 2003

Larkin-Belber Building
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
February 27, 2002

Pennsylvania Railroad Office Building
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
February 27, 2002

Corker Hill
Scotland, Franklin County
March 18, 2003

 

The editor acknowledges the research of David L. Taylor, of Taylor and Taylor Associates, Brookville, who nominated the Ridgway His­toric District to the National Register of His­toric Places.