When fire damaged the three-story apartment house at 390 Liberty Street in January of 2014, many were surprised to learn it was nearly 200 years old and had survived a similar fire 70 years ago.
The original one-story brick Meadville Academy building was constructed on the lot and opened in 1805. It was replaced by a frame building at the southeast corner along Clinton Court, the present location of the former St. Brigid school. The second building was outgrown as well so anew Academy was built on Market Street in 1826. The Cullum family bought the lot from the trustees of the Academy in 1824 and built this mansion in 1828.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Crawford County Native Won the First Indy 500
Ray Harroun 1879-1968 |
Racing Career
Harroun’s interest in automobiles lead to his early career in racing, and by 1905, he had built his first racing car. Among his initial races, Harroun participated in the original distance race from Chicago to New York in 1903, during which Ray and four others drove in shifts non-stop to establish the record of 76 hours at the end of September, 1903. That time was bested by another team nearly a year later, but Harroun and his team would re-take the title again with a time of 58 hrs, 35 min—a record that would stand for nearly two years.
Location:
Spartansburg, PA 16434, USA
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Steel, Concrete, and Politics: A History of the Mead Avenue Bridge
The architectural beauty of the Mead Avenue Bridge in modern times |
Labels:
1870's,
1910's,
Local Industry,
Meadville,
What Might Have Been
Location:
Meadville, PA 16335, USA
Sunday, May 15, 2016
The Story of James Densmore and the First Typewriter
James Densmore |
As you string out words into strings of sentences across the screen of your computer, tablet, or mobile phone, know that the keyboard layout we have all become so familiar was conceived in Crawford County. The story behind this claim begins with a man named James Densmore and the invention of the first typewriter.
James was one of seven children who arrived in Meadville when their father, Joel, moved the family from Rochester, New York in 1836 to open a water-powered plant for making wooden bowls. Despite having less than a year of formal schooling, Joel had educated himself so well that he engineered the machinery needed for his plant and could even accurately predict the various eclipses that occurred in the area. It was this grasp of mathematics and mechanics that Joel would pass along to James and his brothers.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
We'll Leave the Lights On: Hotels of Crawford County
Hotel Conneaut with new south and north wings added - 1920's |
What do the coming of the railroad, the discovery of oil, a
major lakeside resort, the healthful promise of mineral springs and travel have
in common? The answer lies in the role they played in the development of the
hotel business in Crawford County. To list every hotel from the early days of
Crawford County would be an exhaustive exercise; and thus we are limited to highlighting
a short list of notables.
Labels:
Cambridge Springs,
Conneaut Lake,
Exposition Park,
Guys Mills,
Harmonsburg,
Linesville,
Local Industry,
Meadville,
Titusville
Location:
Meadville, PA 16335, USA
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