Melester Barn

Posted by on Nov 24, 2020 in | Comments Off on Melester Barn The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) lists about 20 properties per year in the National Register of Historic Places. PA SHPO staff responds to nominations submitted by the public to recognize a particular building, site or district for its historic value and as a course to make it eligible for grants or tax credits to support the property’s restoration or rehabilitation....
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Women Made the Breadbasket of Democracy

Posted by on Jun 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on Women Made the Breadbasket of Democracy Picturing the Pennsylvania home front during World War II might call to mind images of women working in munitions plants or shipyards. Rosie the Riveter, immortalized in a 1942 war work-incentive poster, was said to be inspired by women employed in the Westinghouse East Pittsburgh Works. Outside the factories, however, women also sustained and transformed agriculture, feeding the war effort....
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Pennsylvania Farming by Sally McMurry

Posted by on Nov 12, 2019 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Farming by Sally McMurry Pennsylvania Farming A History in Landscapes by Sally McMurry University of Pittsburgh Press, 472 pp., cloth $49.95 For generations, most Pennsylvanians were farmers. Today, farmers are only a small percentage of the population, yet the enduring pastoral and historic character of the state’s rural landscape is a source of local pride and fosters tourism in many areas. With engaging prose and an...
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Somerset County: Paths through the Roof Garden

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Somerset County: Paths through the Roof Garden Referring to the high elevation and the scenic quality of the region, Gov. Martin G. Brumbaugh called Somerset County “the Roof Garden of Pennsylvania” at an annual Farmers’ Day picnic in 1916. Since then. the description has become a familiar and respected title; the words “Roof Garden” have been in­corporated in the names of various businesses, and the complete...
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Bedford County: From Indian Trails to Tourist Resorts

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bedford County: From Indian Trails to Tourist Resorts In the summer of 1728, thirteen brave pioneers made their way north through the wilderness from Virginia. The trail brought these Virginians into the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, where they set­tled, only returning to Virginia to bring their families north. The area was rich with game and several trapped along the streams. One built a gristmill and another a trading post. These members...
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Ethnic History: Of the Children, by the Children, for the Children

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Ethnic History: Of the Children, by the Children, for the Children Interest in the study of history is drifting in conflicting directions. The teaching of Pennsylvania history in schools is steadily declining and enrollment in history classes at all levels including college has slipped. The growing idolization of exact sciences such as physics and chemistry and quantif­ication has discredited the sometimes subjective perceptions of historical studies. On the...
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Three Farmhouse Styles of Lawrence County

Posted by on Nov 28, 2013 in | Comments Off on Three Farmhouse Styles of Lawrence County During the spring of 1975, I interviewed fifteen people who had grown up in farmhouses in Lawrence County. The dwellings described by the informants had been built between 1835 and 1900; most were or are located within present-day Hickory Township in the north-central part of the county. Three typical structures will serve as examples of the influence of various architectural styles, tracing the...
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The Tax Collector of Bower Hill

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Tax Collector of Bower Hill Gen. John Neville was an aristocrat in every sense of the word. He possessed wealth, power, and prestige, but in 1794 many of his western Pennsylvania neighbors would have prefer­red to see him dead. They believed he had betrayed them when he accepted the position of inspector in charge of col­lecting the new tax on whiskey. As the fledgling nation faced a severe economic crisis resulting from...
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John O’Hara: The Child Becomes the Man

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on John O’Hara: The Child Becomes the Man He had dreams,as do all boys. At the age of twelve, he was “looking forward to the day when, like Clint Shaefer, he would own his own Mercer; when, like Al Cullum, he would be on his way to Yale; when, like Bill Ulmer, he would know the 16th Arrondissement better than the third ward.” They were Pottsville fellows, Shaefer, Cullum, and Ulmer – and so was the boy. He was John...
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No Summer Solstice: War Stories of the Home Front Survivors

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on No Summer Solstice: War Stories of the Home Front Survivors War stories. Before epic movies and documentaries changed its connotations, the phrase once implied a personal exchange, the kind that took place in barber shops, on porches, or in front of the court house on hot summer afternoons when the fish weren’t biting. They were the kind of stories that grew better in the telling, each time preserving another aspect, perhaps, of a day in a...
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