Move Over, Rolls Royce: We're Going to Brookville
Created | Updated Apr 24, 2016
The sun has come out and spring has sprung in Pennsylvania. Time for a road trip.
Move Over, Rolls Royce: We're Going to Brookville
Brookville, Pennsylvania: elevation, 1,273 feet. Your mileage may vary – the roads go UP and down, DOWN and up…the usual around here. Main Street is mostly level, midway between the steep hill toward Jefferson Street and the roller coaster incline down to Redbank Creek. It's a gem of a little town, population 4,230.
Lumber, mining and human ingenuity kept this place hopping back in the 19th Century, so we're off to the Jefferson County History Center to find out more about the story of this charming town, which in 2012 was a finalist in the 'America's Prettiest Painted Places' competition. (Some of the paint jobs are breathtaking, though doing Judge Heath's historic house up in shades of purple was, well, de trop, in this architecture critic's opinion.)
But first, a bit about the Center itself. It's on 172-176 Main Street, you can't miss it, next to the Odd Fellows' Hall and across from the Opera House. (Seriously.) There's plenty of slant parking available on Main Street: try not to have to pull out during rush hour. (Also seriously, the author found it challenging.) The History Center is in the Edelblute Building, a former combination of shops-downstairs-and-residence-upstairs so familiar in Germany, where Mr Edelblute's forebears hailed from. The Historical Society has taken over this historic building, is taking excellent care of it, and you can tour the whole shebang – 9,000 square feet of exhibit space, which is amazing for a house museum – for $7 a family, $5 individual (student rates available). It's open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 am-4 pm. I promised to get all that info out there, because they'd welcome more visitors, and they deserve them. Later, I'll tell you how to get there.
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Nathan Greene Edelblute was a dry goods clerk and raiser of 'trotters', a kind of racehorse. He prospered and bought up this prime, centrally located property in 1874. There was a shop for his dry goods and a milliner's for his sister-in-law, and the family had spacious quarters upstairs. (The racehorses lived down by the river.) The house must have been impressive: here's some of their home furnishings to admire. There's also an ornate parlour organ, a harpsichord, and a combination buffet-and-china cabinet that would be too titanic for a modern living room. This massive piece of hardwood is a tribute to the cabinetmaker's art, and would no doubt be considered a wonder even in discriminating Gelsenkirchen, famed for ornate housekeeping.
One suspects the Edelblutes were very solid citizens. We bet they enjoyed that organ, and sang all of Pittsburgher Stephen Foster's top hits, possibly with help from that banjo. The racehorses did well, and the shop was even written up in an 1877 volume called Caldwell's Atlas. Not bad for a place you've never heard of before, eh?
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See that motorcar? It's a Twyford. You won't find many around. In fact, you won't find any around. They only made them for a few years in the early 1900s. But they made them in Brookville, Pennsylvania, and they made them well. Too well, unfortunately: they cost way more than Fords.
Twyfords had the honour of being the first four-wheel-drive vehicles made in North America. Since they're so rare as to be non-existent, a local resident and Twyford enthusiast, William McCracken, built this one. It's roadworthy: McCracken drove the car at local rallies and festivals before donating it to the History Center.
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Ever wonder what the 'modern' office looked like before computers? Here it is, in all its 1890s glory. The History Center has a number of clever room setups like this, to show how people lived and worked in different stages of the county's 200-year history. Yes, they've got the Senecas. And the pioneers. And a working model of a grist mill. And a whole room's worth of model train, and another of vintage toys…not to mention the Revolutionary War firearms, and the World War II stuff…you get the idea.
As the Doctor says, we like a little shop. The History Center has an excellent little shop. You can buy kits to make historical things, like cornhusk dolls, or colouring books of Brookville architecture. You can buy a jaw harp (I did). You can buy academic books of great scholarship, such as the one I shelled out for: The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War, by Thomas Lowry, M.D. (And yes, I will write a review once I've finished reading all the juicy details.) Okay, you can buy books with less dodgy titles, as well, covering the area's eras from prehistoric rock paintings to Native American lifestyles to…you name it.
I promised to explain how to get there. First, go to Pittsburgh. (From London, about 10.5 hours). Then, head north on I-79 until you reach I-80. Take I-80 East to Sigel/Brookville (Exit 78). After that, right onto PA-36, then left onto W Main Street. As I said, you can't miss it.
Want to read about the history of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania? Try A Pioneer History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania by WJ McKnight, M.D. Why? Because of the subtitle: My First Recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, When My Feet Were Bare and My Cheeks Were Brown. Who could resist?
