Unique Places in Pennsylvania

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Brookville is a town founded on the lumber and logging industry. Its first settlers arrived around 1790, and the town's first house was built in 1801. The area's loggers used the area streams and rivers to float logs down to Pittsburgh and beyond. The town was established in 1830 on a major transportation route called the Susquehanna and Waterford Turnpike, When Brookville was connected to the railroad, the town's exports grew to include coal as well as locally produced cars for a short period of time. Today, Brookville remains heavily involved in the logging industry, and Interstate-80 runs just north of the small town of 4,000 people, bringing in some additional business.

Judge Elijah Heath's home, at 66 Pickering Street, was part of the Underground Railroad. Judge Heath's home, built in 1836 and remodeled in 1902, has a basement passageway used to hide runaway slaves on their way into Canada.

Ewingjr98's grandfather grew up near Brookville in a town called Sigel, and Ewingjr98's great grandfather was known to have been in the logging business, floating logs down the Clarion River.

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Buchanan's Birthplace State Park is a small, off-the-beaten-path park dedicated to former President James Buchanan. Buchanan's father owned the land around this site, and the President was born and spent his first six years here before moving off to nearby Mercersburg then later Carlisle.

Before becoming president, Buchanan served as a member of the Pennsylvania state assembly, 10 years in the US house of Representatives, 10 years in the US Senate, 2 years as the foreign minister to Russia, 4 years as the foreign minister to Great Britain, and 4 years as Secretary of State. Many experts consider him to be the most experienced and well-prepared US president ever.

As president, however, his successes were limited. He is blamed for failing to prevent the Civil War as he declared secession illegal, but war to prevent secession was also illegal. He was also president during the financial panic of 1857 and the Utah War (also called "Buchanan's Blunder").

Buchanan is the only American president to never be married. Instead of a first lady, he was helped by his niece Harriet Lane. She not only helped decorate the White House and entertain guests, but she also had many humanitarian causes such as prison reform, fair treatment of native Americans, and she was a nurse in the Civil War. She also opened the first children's hospital in Washington DC. Upon her death Harriet Lane left $100,000 for two monuments to be built for her favorite uncle.

The park is between McConnellsburg and Mercersburg on PA Route 16, near the town of Cove Gap.

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Someone has got to come in last and on many people’s lists of U.S. Presidents regarding their effectiveness, James Buchanan comes in dead last, or nearly so. The man - the only President to come from Pennsylvania - is condemned mainly for his actions - and inactions - which helped lead to the American Civil War - many southern States actually left the Union while Buchanan was still in office - he didn‘t believe that the southern States could legally secede from the nation, as a whole, but he also felt that as President, he was legally powerless to stop them. He had a superb list of credentials preparing him for the Presidency - lawyer, two terms in the Pennsylvania State Assembly, ten years U.S. Congress, ten years U.S. Senate, two years foreign minister to Russia, four years foreign minister to Great Britain and four years as Secretary of State under James Polk. Buchanan never lost an election to which he had been nominated for - he wasn’t always nominated for the positions he sought, however - for example, the 1856 election in which Buchanan became the 15th President was far from the first time “Old Buck” had been aspiring to become President.

Here in the woods of Tuscarora Mountain, a tall pyramidal monument stands where Buchanan’s childhood and birthplace home once did - he was born 23 April, 1791. His father, an immigrant from northern Ireland, established a way station here on the east side of Cove Gap for travelers heading west through the Allegheny Mountains. The family moved to nearby Mercersburg when James was six - partly to give their son a better chance at receiving and education. The house can still be seen on the campus of the Mercersburg Academy to which it was moved in the 1930’s.

Buchanan was the only President to remain a lifelong bachelor - and there are many rumors regarding his sexuality. His niece, Harriet Lane Johnston, helped her uncle out during his term in the White House by serving as the de facto First Lady. She was beset by major tragedies in her family life - both of her sons and her husband dying of illness in the early 1880’s. She went on to help found what is today the pediatric teaching and research center at John Hopkins University in Baltimore - which is where she and her family lived. Her art collection became the core to what would become the Smithsonian National Gallery in 1906. In her will - she died in 1903 - she left monies for two monuments to be erected in memory of her uncle, one in Washington, D.C. - the Buchanan Memorial, located in the south part of Meridian Hill Park - and this memorial here at the site of Old Buck’s birth. The monument was built in 1907-08.

For more on the Keystone State President, see my tips in Lancaster - where Buchanan’s home, Wheatland and his grave are - see also the next tip: Mercersburg, where the original cabin that used to stand here along Buck Run was moved to.

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Robert Peary was born in Cresson in 1856 about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh. His family moved to Portland, Maine where he for the most part grew up, graduating from Bowdoin College. Peary is best known for his Arctic expeditions, exploring Greenland several times and controversially becoming the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909. He was intelligent and adaptable, utilizing Inuit survival techniques during his treks - igloos, dogs and practical furs for clothing. Fergus Fleming, in his book “Ninety Degrees North”, described Peary as “the most driven … most successful and probably the most unpleasant man in the annals of polar exploration.” The stories of Peary’s quests are quite remarkable as was his ongoing battle with Frederick Cook - who claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908 - and his relations with Inuit women resulted in children left behind. He lost eight of his toes as a result of the rigors endured on his journeys. Congress, in return for his successes, awarded him a Rear Admiral’s pension in 1911 and he retired to Eagle Island near Freeport, Maine, where his home is preserved as a historic site. The monument here shows Peary in arctic costume along with a heroic looking husky searching for the elusive North Pole. Just across the street from the small park is the imposing buildings of Mt Aloysius College.

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Robert Peary was born in Cresson in 1856 about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh. His family moved to Portland, Maine where he for the most part grew up, graduating from Bowdoin College. Peary is best known for his Arctic expeditions, exploring Greenland several times and controversially becoming the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909. He was intelligent and adaptable, utilizing Inuit survival techniques during his treks - igloos, dogs and practical furs for clothing. Fergus Fleming, in his book “Ninety Degrees North”, described Peary as “the most driven … most successful and probably the most unpleasant man in the annals of polar exploration.” The stories of Peary’s quests are quite remarkable as was his ongoing battle with Frederick Cook - who claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908 - and his relations with Inuit women resulted in children left behind. He lost eight of his toes as a result of the rigors endured on his journeys. Congress, in return for his successes, awarded him a Rear Admiral’s pension in 1911 and he retired to Eagle Island near Freeport, Maine, where his home is preserved as a historic site. The monument here shows Peary in arctic costume along with a heroic looking husky searching for the elusive North Pole. Just across the street from the small park is the imposing buildings of Mt Aloysius College.

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Like the Frick and Clayton in Pittsburgh, West Overton is a story related mainly to the industrialist Henry Clay Frick and the efforts of his daughter - Helen Clay Frick - to memorialize him. West Overton was developed as a small distillery plantation for rye whiskey by the Overholt family. They had emigrated originally from Switzerland along with other fellow Mennonite families because of religious persecution. Whiskey production was big in western Pennsyvlania throughout the 19th century - earlier as well as it was in this region where the Whiskey Rebellion took place - until the Prohibition put an end to the distilling industry. Most of the buildings here at West Overton relate to whiskey production in one way or another. Frick’s father worked in the grist mill, marrying an Overholt daughter. Henry was born in the Springhouse cottage and spent the first third of his life learning lessons he would use with success and ruthlessness later. If you want to know more about Frick, rye whiskey or the production of steel, this is a great place to start.

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The %L{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Road]National Pike was authorized in 1806 by Thomas Jefferson, but debate over who would benefit and maintain the 800 mile road lasted some 40 years. The road was opened as a free federal road in 1818 but ownership passed to the States it ran through in 1831-34. Pennsylvania erected six tollhouses - this one in 1835 - to garner tolls with which to maintain the road. The collection ended here in 1906. It was not until 1997 that this tollhouse was restored making it the second of Pennsylvania’s surviving tollhouses. Petersburg is the only stone building, making it essentially the same today as it was in the 19th century. The octagonal structure was to allow the tollkeeper a good line-of-sight in all directions. To visit, you exit US 40 at Addison and take US40A through the little town. The house is on the east end of the town. To get in, you need to go to the community museum which is a few houses to the west along the main street. The house is only open on Sunday afternoons.

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This is one of two tollhouses that were built along the National Pike in Pennsylvania that survive today. The house, restored in 1966 and located a few miles northwest of Uniontown on US 40, was named for a local prominent citizen, William Searight. The house was built around 1835 and tolls were collected here until about 1905. The National Pike was authorized in 1806 by Thomas Jefferson and was a federally-sponsored project that linked Maryland to Ohio. The pike was heavily used until 1832 when canals and railroads took over the business of moving things and people. Ninety mile of the National Pike is now US 40, passing through southwestern Pennsylvania. There is a small parking area and the house appears to be open at time though no hours were posted. Perhaps you will be luckier on your visit than I was on mine.