As automobiles and buses replaced streetcars more than half a century ago, a small group of people with a dream came together to form an organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting the trolley era.
Washington
Settled in 1768 by migrants from western Scotland, northern Ireland, and parts of Virginia, the area around present-day Washington, Pennsylvania, became a point of contention between the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Virginia initially claimed the territory west of the Monongahela River, establishing counties such as Spotsylvania and Augusta. However, the dispute lasted 30 years and was finally resolved with the extension of the Mason-Dixon Line. In 1781, Pennsylvania officially established Washington County and designated Catfish Camp as the site for its first election.
David Hoge laid out the town plan soon after, originally naming it "Bassett, alias Dandridge Town," later revised to "Washington." The first lot was sold in October 1781. The town quickly showed civic foresight, allocating land for public spaces and gifting plots to General and Mrs. Washington. It became a borough in 1810 and a city in 1924. Once home to the Kuskuskee tribe and Chief Tingoocqua, the site transitioned to an early industrial era with the establishment of gasworks and coal mining.
By 1792, the Washington Mechanical Society launched the town's first industrial survey. The local industry included tin production, wool carding, and steam mills. Transport development followed, with turnpikes connecting the town to nearby areas, and stagecoach service began in 1819. The town also embraced railroads, investing heavily in the Washington Railroad, later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Education played a strong role early on. Washington Academy, chartered in 1787, evolved into Washington and Jefferson College. The Washington Seminary, founded in 1835, was the first girls' school west of the Alleghenies. Other schools offered instruction in French, as well as painting and drawing. The public school system arrived in 1834, further anchoring education in the region's identity.
Museums
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".
The first phase of the Duncan and Miller Glass Museum's history began in 1975, when two rooms in the Washington County Historical Society building, the LeMoyne House, became home to the young museum.