Born in Northumberland County on December 15, 1792, to Irish immigrants John and Mary Fullerton Irvine, Guy C. Irvine arrived in Brokenstraw Township in 1817.
Historic Houses
Most of us are familiar with the story of Johnny Appleseed—the barefoot, bearded, coffee-sack-and-tin-pan-hat-wearing wanderer who traversed the American wilderness in the early 1800s, casting seeds and giving rise to umpteen apple trees across the Midwest.
Providence Meeting House memorializes this region's Quaker pioneers and early settlers. The highly respected Society of Friends has been uniquely identified with our state since the day of its founder, William Penn.
On April 22, 1976, the Marshall House became the first building in Armstrong County to be added to the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places. In May 1976, it was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Baker Mansion initially was the home of Elias Baker and his family. It now hosts the museum, the county historical society, and a library with a historical archive.
This modest five-room farmhouse in Springdale, Pennsylvania, is the birthplace and childhood home of Rachel Carson, the ecologist whose groundbreaking 1962 book Silent Spring awakened global awareness of environmental responsibility.
The Hyde Murphy Company built this home for William Carman after the turn of the century. William Carman was the son of Hiram Carman, who founded Carman, PA, along the Clarion River. The village is now only a ghost town located near where Portland Mills, PA is today.
Go back over a hundred years and take a new look at a period in Pittsburgh’s history often characterized by the extremes of late 19th-century America: fabulous wealth and grinding poverty.
The Hyde Murphy company completed this home in 1900 for the Cartwright family. Mr. Cartwright had previously owned much of the real estate in the Shawmut Valley. He amassed his fortune in both the lumber and masonry businesses.
In the late 19th century, the economic boom created by coal and Greensburg's growing importance as a retail and industrial center convinced the Pennsylvania Railroad to build its Train Station in Greensburg. The railroad commissioned architect William Cookman to design the new station.
In 1832, George Dickinson moved to Ridgway and settled along the Clarion River. He owned and operated two lumber mills and a mercantile store.
The Greensburg Garden and Civic Center was built by philanthropist Katherine Mabis McKenna and donated to the City of Greensburg in 1969 as a memorial to her son, Mennel M. Smith.
In 1888, Pittsburgh businessman Russell H. Boggs commissioned a new home facing Pittsburgh's West Park, designed in a style known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Now, it is known as "Boggs Mansion" and serves as a small hotel.
The Elizabeth Township Historical Society owns and maintains the historic 220-year-old Greenock Log House on Greenock Buena Vista Road. Conservation of this landmark building provides a distinctive opportunity to learn about rural life in this place as early as 1790.
The Howe-Childs Gateway House, once known as Willow Cottage, is one of Pittsburgh’s earliest frame cottage-style Gothic Revival houses. Built just before the Civil War, it was once part of a larger estate.
The Lawrence mansion is maintained as a house that evokes the elegant lifestyle of the Lawrences rather than a museum. It houses an excellent collection of original English and American antiques.
The rehabilitation of the 1911 Homewood Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh marks the first step in a system-wide plan to update the library's image and standardize its services across the eighteen branches.
The Heinz Memorial Chapel began as a gift. Henry John Heinz, the founder of the Heinz Company established the building as a gift to his mother, Anna Margaretta Heinz. After Heinz’s death, his three surviving children added to his bequest to memorialize their grandmother and honor their father.
Mercer County's great steel magnate, Frank H. Buhl, founded the Sharon Steel Corporation, which then became the primary source of income for the Shenango Valley. After graduating from the university, Frank came to Sharon and fell in love with Julia Forker.
The original cabin, built by the Cooper family in 1810, was used as a county homestead. It was enlarged after the Civil War, and family descendants remained in it until 1963. In 1976, Cooper Cabin was deeded to the Butler County Historical Society.
The Jefferson County Area Agency on Aging has provided services to senior citizens since 1979. Looking for new office space, the Agency investigated a 14,000 square foot vacant 1875 building known as the Parker P.
David Bradford was a successful lawyer, businessman, and Deputy Attorney General of Washington County, Pennsylvania, when his house was completed in 1788. David Bradford and his family lived in this house from 1788 to 1794. By 1794, he had become a prominent figure in the "Whiskey Rebellion".
Decker's Chapel played its role as a locally important facet of the religious and ethnic heritage of this European Roman Catholic-derived community, and for its position as the last remaining of the several wayside chapels built on private property around the community in the mid-nineteenth centu
The Fayette County Historical Society is a non-profit organization established in 1971. Its mission and purpose are to find, collect, and preserve materials that portray the history of the county and the society.