Cambridge Springs Historical Museum

The Cambridge Springs Historical Museum documents the years of the mineral water boom. Its displays of artifacts, relics, momentos, and changing exhibits fill the first and second floors of the 1908 City Hall building.

The museum is administered by the Cambridge Springs Heritage Society, which was established in 1976. The society was begun to preserve and document the colorful history of the borough and its surrounding area. Since opening its doors in 1996, the museum has an expanding collection of local history research documents and genealogies of numerous area families.

Though settled in 1802 by Benjamin VanCourt and his father Job, Cambridge grew quietly on the banks of French Creek in northern Crawford County. Cambridge began to awaken when it wasn't until 1860, when Dr. John Gray was prospecting for oil along the creek banks and found free-flowing spring water instead.

It was discovered that these waters contained minerals of "medicinal" value. Because of the growing interest in the mineral waters, the town's first hotel, the Riverside Inn, was conceived and built in the late 1800s.

Over the next forty years, in excess of ten hotels, thirty cottages, guest houses, and at least twelve springs were in operation to handle the number of visitors to the Spa.

As the mineral years began to wane, the Rider Hotel, the largest of Cambridge's hotels, was purchased and operated by the Polish National Alliance as Alliance College.