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HARMONY BOROUGH HISTORIC HARMONY INC. Municipal Building 218 Mercer St., P.O. Box 524 217 Mercer Street, P.O. Box 945 Harmony, PA 16037 Harmony, PA 16037 724-452-7341 724-452-6780 www.harmonymuseum.org www.Harmony-PA.gov
BUTLER COUNTY’S HARMONY
RECEIVES
HARMONY MUSEUM SETS ANOTHER GERMAN
DINNER
FRENCH & INDIAN WAR’S WESTERN PA.
ROOTS
HARMONY MUSEUM
HOSTS MAY 15 LOCAL ARTISTS SHOW CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator,
724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822
COMMUNITY CELEBRATED, AWARDS PRESENTED HARMONY, Pa., Feb. 15 -- Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum, presented Heritage Awards for preservation and restoration during Saturday evening’s annual Harmoniefest dinner and historical program, which was also the first of many anticipated community celebrations during 2004 to mark Harmony’s bicentennial and sesquicentennials of Jackson and Lancaster townships. Heritage Awards were presented to: * Erich and Karen Huy, Jackson Township, preservation and facade restoration of a 1920 Arts and Crafts house at 211 S. Pittsburgh St., Harmony. * Thomas and Helen Oliverio, preservation of their late 19th century Victorian home at 100 S. High Street, Zelienople. In 1966 the Zelienople mayor and his wife were cited for preserving the Rapp-Stewart House in Harmony. * St. Gregory Roman Catholic Church, preservation and restoration of its 1911 St. Gregory School, 115 Pine St., Zelienople, oldest area school building still used for that purpose, which was updated while restoring its original architectural character. President John Ruch noted that Historic Harmony has presented 84 Heritage Awards since 1991 "because more and more property owners recognize that preservation and restoration and adaptive use have economic as well as aesthetic value. In addition, many are demonstrating that they care about the architectural face of community history and can excite others about it as well. This year’s honorees represent all of these progressive virtues, and we congratulate them for jobs well done." Historic Harmony also made Zelienople Attorney Philip P. Lope an honorary member and presented him a plaque in recognition of his longtime generous service as legal counsel to Historic Harmony. A full house audience, including several public officials, filled the museum’s Stewart Hall. The program concluded with a concert by a chamber group of the Old Economy 1830 Orchestra and Singers, which reprise musical groups of the communal Harmony Society that founded Harmony in 1804. Their performance of music from the archives at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, founded in 1824 as the Harmony Society’s final home, included compositions by Christoph Muller, Harmony Society "renaissance man" whose Harmony home still stands a half-block from the museum. Ruch told the audience that architect Roger A. Weaver, whose office occupies the Muller House, was absent because he was in southwestern Indiana to represent Historic Harmony at the Harmoniefest held Friday evening in New Harmony, where the Harmony Society resided 1814-1824. Weaver gave a presentation there on "200 years of Harmony, Pa." Jackson and Lancaster were among 20 Butler County townships created on March 29, 1854. Jackson, cut from Cranberry and Connoquenessing townships, was named for President Andrew Jackson. Lancaster was also formed from part of Connoquenessing Township. There is no record of how it was named; but the origin appears to have been its principal village, Middle Lancaster, founded in 1835 by black preacher Thomas Baldwin. Half a century earlier, in the fall of 1804, Georg Rapp and the first of his Pacifist German Separatist followers began building Harmony and developing farms and mills on thousands of surrounding acres. The Harmony Society moved west to build New Harmony, then came back to western Pennsylvania to establish Economy, now Ambridge, where the celibate commune faded away as the 20th century began. In 1815 the society sold its Butler County property, including Harmony, to Mennonite Abraham Ziegler, and several Mennonite families settled on area farms while Ziegler occupied a Harmonist house on Harmony’s diamond. While the Mennonites also faded away a century ago, Harmony and its neighboring townships have continued as a living community with a unique history of national importance, and many of their descendants reside in the area. Each year the Harmony Society marked the
commune’s anniversary with a celebration they called Harmoniefest.
Historic Harmony’s annual Harmoniefest celebrates the community’s
entire heritage and history.
HISTORIC HARMONY FINISHES
BARN RESTORATION PROJECT HARMONY -- Restoration of western Pennsylvania’s oldest barn advanced substantially when installation of replacement siding and related repairs were completed last week. The barn, on Mercer Road in Jackson Township, was built in 1805 by the communal Harmony Society of German Separatists that founded Harmony 200 years ago. It has been owned since 1999 by Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum. It was re-sided with vertical hemlock boards. Wood representing Pennsylvania’s state tree was also used in replacement doors. The siding work began in January, but was interrupted by a delay in delivery of all the boards needed. In addition, a cracked post and two small areas of deterioration in still beams, revealed when old siding was removed, were repaired. "We were not replacing original siding from 1805,:" said Historic Harmony President John Ruch. "That was obvious anyway, but our architectural consultant, Roger Weaver, concluded that this is at least the second time the siding has been replaced." Major structural repairs, critical to the building’s restoration, were completed a year ago. Extensive slate roof repair was done previously. "Because the structural work last year was completed at less cost than anticipated," Ruch said, "we decided we needed to move up siding replacement. Gaps between boards allowed rain and snow inside. It took a while to get the new material, but now the building is weather tight and much more secure overall." Barn specialist Seth Byler of Volant performed the structural work last February as well as the siding project. All of the work was funded with a $15,000 Department of Community and Economic Development grant, sponsored by State Rep. Dick Stevenson, and contributions. Last fall, electrical service was also installed. According to Ruch, the next project will be to install two-inch-thick floor planks in three bays from which inadequate 20th century flooring was removed last year. He said the historical society is buying floor planks from a smaller old barn in eastern Butler County, but is looking for more. Most planking in two center bays appears to be original or old replacement. Historic Harmony purchased the barn to assure its preservation. It was built to shelter sheep by the communal Harmony Society, which left the area in 1814, and is the only Harmonist-built barn remaining among the three communities the society founded during the first quarter of the 19th century: Harmony, New Harmony, Ind., and Ambridge, Pa. Harmony and extensive lands around it were purchased in 1815 by Mennonite Abraham Ziegler. Many Mennonite farm families settled on former Harmonist land that became parts of Jackson and Lancaster townships. The barn was on the farm of Ziegler’s son, David, who modified it in the 1850s, perhaps in repairing tornado damage. Contact: Kathy Luek, Administrator 724-452-7341 2/19/04
MENNONITE BISHOP’S 1816 HOUSE HARMONY, Pa. -- The Bishop John Boyer House in Jackson Township, built in 1816 by the first pastor of Harmony’s 19th century Mennonite congregation, has become the ninth historic property of the volunteer, nonprofit organization that operates the Harmony Museum. Lillian Frankenstein of Zelienople donated the Boyer house to Historic Harmony, and the deed transfer was recorded this week. The 2 1/2 story cut stone building is on 1.2 acres at 295 Perry Highway (U.S. 19), at the north end of Mercer Road. A large spring house is in the hillside behind the house. "We are grateful that Mrs. Frankenstein valued the significance of this property to the area’s and Butler County’s heritage, for her desire to preserve it for the benefit of future generations, and for her confidence in Historic Harmony to provide that protection," said John S. Ruch, Historic Harmony president. "We are pleased to accept one of the most important structures involving the Mennonites who had a major influence in the area during the 19th century. Many descendants continue to do so," he added. "Most surviving Mennonite structures are outside of Harmony’s National Historic Landmark District, which relates largely to the communal Harmony Society that founded the town. "We have made no decisions regarding the long term future of the Bishop Boyer House," Ruch said. "It is a private residence, will likely remain one for some time, and therefore stays on the tax rolls." Boyer, also a farmer, supervised construction in 1825 of the Mennonite’s meetinghouse, or church, on Wise Road about a half-mile south of his home, where the congregation had established its cemetery 10 years earlier. He may have patterned the church on the 1755 Hereford meetinghouse in Berks County from which he came to Harmony. He died in 1828. The meetinghouse and cemetery have been an Historic Harmony property since 1977. Harmony, which celebrates its bicentennial in 2004, was founded in 1804 by German religious Separatists led by Georg Rapp who organized as the Harmony Society, 19th century America’s most successful communal group. Nearly all of its members lived in Harmony, including those who worked the commune’s outlying farmlands. The Harmonists moved in 1814 to southwestern Indiana, returned in 1824 to build Economy (now Ambridge) in Beaver County, and dissolved in 1905. When the Harmonists left, they sold about 7,000 acres, including the town, to blacksmith Abraham Ziegler, a Lehigh County Mennonite considered Harmony's second founder. The Zieglers were accompanied in settling the area by several other large Mennonite families, principally the Boyers, Moyers, Rices and Wises. Many were farmers who, unlike the Harmonists, built homes on their farms in what became Jackson and Lancaster townships, which celebrate their sesquicentennials in 2004. After failing to sell the town to a Pittsburgh pastor who founded a girls’ boarding school in a Harmony Society warehouse on the town diamond (now the Harmony Museum), Ziegler sold it in lots containing Harmonist-built houses, mills and commercial buildings. Mennonites had a significant presence through much of the 19th century, but the congregation had dwindled to an aged handful of members when it closed the meetinghouse in 1902. An Amish Mennonite Brethren congregation recently became the first group in a century to worship there regularly. Historic Harmony was founded in 1943 to preserve and promote the area’s unique history, encourage preservation of historic sites and foster tourism in support of community quality of life, economic development and related objectives. Its Harmony properties are the museum, the adjacent Mercer Street Harmonist Wagner House and nearby Harmonist-era log house museum annexes, Main Street’s Mennonite-era Henry Denis Ziegler log house museum annex, and the part of the Harmonists’ Vineyard Hill containing Rapp’s Seat, the Harmonist leader’s meditation site above the Connoquenessing Creek. Historic Harmony’s other Jackson Township properties are the Mennonite meetinghouse and cemetery, Harmony Society cemetery on Pa. 68, and 1805 Harmony Society barn on Mercer Road. CONTACT: Historic Harmony President John Ruch, 724-316-6002 or 724-452-8834, or Administrator Kathy Luek, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822. 12/30/03 Back to Top
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, DECEMBER 1753: WHAT IF WASHINGTON HAD BEEN KILLED HARMONY, Pa. -- Suppose young Virginia militia Maj. George Washington had been killed 250 years ago this month in either of two incidents in western Pennsylvania wilderness: On Dec. 27, 1753, a "French Indian" shot at him several miles from Harmony (then the site of an Indian village called Murdering Town). Two days later, he tumbled from a raft into the ice-choked Allegheny River. Would someone else have led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolution? Who would have been the new nation’s first president? Could the United States have formed without him? Answers to these and other "what if" questions can never be known. The Native American’s musket shot, perhaps the first of the French & Indian War, missed its mark in wintery wilderness somewhere northeast of today’s Evans City, Butler County, about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. And when he fell into the river, Washington somehow got back onto the raft and warded off hypothermia at an island campfire. American history unfolded as it did because Washington cheated death twice within about 48 hours while returning from meetings at a French fort near Lake Erie that precipitated the French & Indian War, during which he would survive more close calls. The 250th anniversary of the dramatic but little-known shooting that could have changed the course of history will be commemorated on Saturday, Dec. 27, with events organized jointly by Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum, and Evans City Historical Society. The observance begins at noon north of Evans City with a hike on a trail near Pa. 528 much like that traveled by Washington, guide Christopher Gist of Cumberland (then Wills Creek), Md., and the treacherous native. The Indian, apparently a French ally, offered to show major and guide a quick path to the Forks of the Ohio but led them away from the future site of Pittsburgh. Reenactors Jason Cherry of Butler as Washington, Ken Cherry of Butler as Gist, and Todd Johnson of McKeesport as the Huron Ghost in the Head, will join the hikers. [A shuttle will pick up hikers at trail end, so anyone wishing to participate must register with the Harmony Museum, 724-452-7341, by Friday, Dec. 19.] At 2 p.m., two miles east of Evans City at a Daughters of the American Revolution monument marking the 1753 incident, the Cherrys and Johnson will reenact the shooting, then describe Washington’s journey. Author and Slippery Rock University history professor David D. Dixon will explore consequences for American history had the young Washington died that December 250 years ago. In October 1753 Washington, only 21, had no military experience. Volunteering for the hazardous mission, he was appointed a major in the militia by Virginia’s royal governor, Robert Dinwiddie, and set off from Williamsburg to deliver Dinwiddie’s ultimatum that the French leave British territory. In mid-December he reached Ft. LeBoeuf (Waterford, Pa.), where French officers rejected Dinwiddie’s demand. Traveling in difficult winter conditions, Washington made it back to Williamsburg in mid-January to tell Dinwiddie the bad news. When Washington left Ft. LeBoeuf, the French moved quickly to strengthen their regional presence, evicting Virginians erecting a fort at the Forks of the Ohio and building Ft. Duquesne there.
On May 28, 1754, several miles northwest of Great
Meadows (near Uniontown, southeast of Pittsburgh), troops and Indian
allies led by Lt. Col. Washington ambushed a small French party headed by
Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, who had been dispatched
to warn the British out of New France. Jumonville and one-third of his
men died. On July 4 a large French force under Coulon’s brother, Capt.
Louis Coulon de Villiers, forced a humiliating surrender on Washington at
the hastily erected Ft. Necessity at Great Meadows.
These were the first skirmishes of the French & Indian War (1754-1760), which would help trigger history’s first global conflict, the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) that pitted Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain. The 1763 Treaty of Paris brought peace to North America, Europe and India, and ended France’s North American ambitions.
* Saturday, June 19: 5-8 p.m., Harmony Museum German Dinner, Stewart Hall * Thursday, July 1: 8 p.m., Harmony Business Association concert, Allegheny Brass Band & Zambelli fireworks, Harmony Inn * Thursday, July 15: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Dixie Doc, Harmony Inn * Thursday-Saturday July 15-17: Zelienople-Harmony Area Chamber of Commerce Horse Trading Days, Zelienople & Harmony. * Saturday, July 17: 10 a.m-4 p.m., HBA Local Artists Show & Sale, Stewart Hall; time TBA, Anything That Rolls Race, Mercer Street * Thursday, July 29: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Hewlett, Anderson & Waslousky, Harmony Inn * Thursday, Aug. 12: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Vanilla
Soul, Harmony Inn * Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 28-29: 11 a.m.-6 p.m./Noon-6 p.m., 34th annual Harmony Museum Dankfest; 5 p.m. Saturday, fiddle contest, Museum Barn Harmony Bicentennial Week, Saturday, Aug. 28-Saturday, Sept. 4 * Saturday, Aug. 28: 11 a.m., Parade, Spring St. to Museum Barn; 7 p.m., HBA concert, Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough, Museum Barn * Monday, Aug. 30: 7 p.m., "Iptingen, Germany," illustrated presentation on George Rapp’s home town by John Ruch, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Eugene & the Nightcrawlers, Museum Barn * Tuesday, Aug. 31: 7 p.m., "Harmony, The Movie," debut showing of Harmony video, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Sweet Adelines, Museum Barn * Wednesday, Sept. 1: 8 p.m., Whimsy and the Lots, Museum Barn * Thursday, Sept. 2: 7 p.m., "The Harmony Line," illustrated presentation about 1908-1931 Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railroad interurban by John Makar, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Seneca Valley High Barbershop & Beautyshop concert, Museum Barn * Friday, Sept. 3: 8 p.m., John Burgh Band Square Dance, Museum Barn * Saturday, Sept. 4: Noon-4 p.m., Doc Stewart Babies
Reunion, Stewart Hall, and Emma Kaufmann Farm Camp Reunion, Borough Building;
8 p.m., Grand Finale, Old Economy Orchestra Concert & Zambelli fireworks,
Museum Barn
(CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Harmony
Museum Administrator, 724-452-7341
6/8/04
CANDLELIGHT, TROMBONES ON ICE MARK HARMONY’S
HOLIDAY SEASON
HARMONY, Pa. --Holiday
decorations, a Trombones on Ice concert on the
diamond, a crafts market and special displays
highlight the Harmony Museum’s annual Candlelight
Christmas, 2-8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12. The
old-town center, a National Historic Landmark
District, takes on a special glow from luminaries
after sunset.
HARMONY’S CHRISTMAS MARKET OFFERS TASTE OF GERMAN
CHRISTMAS
NEW
HARMONY MUSEUM EXHIBIT TELLS HARMONY LINE HISTORY
"FOREST RAN RED" TO BE SHOWN AT HARMONY MUSEUM HARMONY -- The public is
invited to a free showing at the Harmony Museum on Sept.
14 of the award-winning French & Indian War documentary,
"When the Forest Ran Red: Washington, Braddock and a
Doomed Army."
CRAFTS, MUD STOMP, CONCERTS: HARMONY’S DANKFEST & BICENTENNIAL HARMONY, Pa. -- A celebratory parade to kick things off. Pioneer crafts, even a "mud stomp" for kids. This National Historic Landmark’s incredible history. Concerts, country and blues to 19th century sectarian and patriotic. Special displays, reunions, and A wacky Anything That Rolls race. Finally, a bang-up Grande Finale.All of this and more are offered in Harmony from Saturday, Aug. 28, through Saturday, Sept. 4, as the town that began with the sprawling communal Harmony Society of nearly 900 German immigrants observes its bicentennial. The celebration starts with the Harmony Museum’s 34th annual Dankfest, continues with daily programs and concerts, and concludes with a orchestral performance and a Zambelli Internationale fireworks show. A new book about Harmony and bicentennial mementos will also be available. The parade at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, gets things started, going west on German Street, north on Main, east onto Mercer Street at the diamond, ending at the barn built in 1805 by the German pioneers. Re-enactors portraying soldiers and Native Americans at an Old Stone House French & Indian War encampment will linger after the parade. Two Dankfest encampments will lend added atmosphere, with LegionVille Historical Society’s site including a diorama of the Army’s first (1792-93) training camp, 20 miles west in Beaver County, and Union Army reenactors representing the Civil War era. Dankfest opens as the parade concludes, presenting pioneer crafts, historical exhibits and tours. Children can help mix log house daubing mud with their feet. Antiques and collectibles will be sold at the barn. Tours of the Harmony Museum, landmark district and the Harmony Society’s 1809 church building are offered, and visitors enjoy browsing a farmers’ market and local shops. Quilts, from local collectors or locally made, will fill the 1825 Mennonite meetinghouse on Wise Road during Dankfest and throughout Bicentennial Week. Also on Saturday, antique cars will be displayed at the barn and classic sports cars and motorcycles in the diamond. A 5 p.m. fiddle contest is followed at 7 p.m. by a Harmony Business Association concert by Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough. Sunday, Aug. 29, will be Mennonite Day at Dankfest, for which descendants of local 19th century Mennonites are invited to the museum’s Stewart Hall. The borough’s Bicentennial Week continues through Sept. 4, with free concerts on the lawn at the museum’s Mercer Road barn each evening except Thursday. Programs in the museum’s Stewart Hall, all at 7 p.m., are a presentation on Monday, Aug. 30, about the German home town of Harmony and Harmony Society founder George Rapp; the debut on Tuesday, Aug. 31, of "Harmony, The Movie," and a choral performance and a presentation on Thursday, Sept. 2, about the Harmony Line interurban railway. As the celebration wraps up on Saturday, Sept. 4, two reunions are set for Stewart Hall. Dr. Arthur I. Stewart delivered some 1,400 babies while serving the community for more than six decades, and they are invited to bring photos and recollections of "Doc." Also, people who as children of Pittsburgh families attended Harmony’s Emma Farm Camp between the 1930s and 1970s will enjoy a special exhibit and share recollections. A block west on Mercer Street, gravity-powered vehicles will compete in an Anything That Rolls Race, postponed from mid-July. That evening, Old Economy Orchestra, from the Harmony Society's final home in Beaver County, an historic site administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, will perform at the Mercer Road barn. Capping the bicentennial celebration will be a Zambelli Internationale Fireworks show. Harmony’s history began with a Delaware village visited by George Washington during his 1753 mission to the French Ft. LeBoeuf, sparking the French & Indian War. Near here, a "French Indian" fired what some consider the war’s first shot at Washington. Harmony was founded in 1804 by George Rapp’s communal Harmony Society of German Lutheran Separatists. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites whose congregation faded away in the early 1900s. Stephen Foster lived here briefly as a child, Charles Flowers made fine percussion rifles, and the area participated in an oil and gas boom a century ago. Dankfest parking and admission is free, with modest fees for tours and the quilt show. Hours both days are noon to 5 p.m. Most Bicentennial Week events are at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., and the quilt show will be open daily except Monday 1-4 p.m. Harmony is at Interstate 79 exits 87-88, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and 30 miles south of Interstate 80. Follow Historic District and Dankfest signs. CONTACTS:
BICENTENNIAL, DANKFEST, CONCERTS, MORE: HARMONY, Pa. -- The Harmony Museum’s 34th annual Dankfest pioneer craft festival on the last weekend of August is extra-special this year. On Saturday, Aug. 28, a parade precedes the festival’s opening and formally begins the National Historic Landmark borough’s week-long bicentennial celebration that includes free evening presentations, concerts and a fireworks show.Participants in Saturday’s 11 a.m. parade will include the Seneca Valley High School marching band; antique autos and sports cars; historical military groups; public officials; local organizations; and fire fighting vehicles. The parade will proceed from Spring and German streets to Main Street, through the diamond and then along Mercer Street to the museum’s 1805 barn. Dankfest presents authentic pioneer crafts, historical exhibits and tours. Most artisans will demonstrate their skills near log houses on Mercer Street, while others will be at the museum’s Stewart Hall. They show a public that has always known the ease of modern life the technologies that sustained pioneers. Antiques and collectibles will be sold at the barn. The museum’s 1825 Mennonite meetinghouse on Wise Road will be filled with quilts, a display that continues through Bicentennial Week. Museum and National Historic Landmark District tours are offered, and visitors enjoy browsing the Dankfest farmers’ market and Harmony’s shops. A LegionVille Historical Society encampment will show a diorama of the first U.S. military training camp where Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne readied the Legion of the United States (later the Army) in 1792-93. Union Army reenactors will present a Civil War camp. Soldiers and Native Americans, participating in a weekend French & Indian War encampment at the historic Old Stone House north of Moraine State Park, will stroll Dankfest for a time on Saturday after marching in the parade. On Saturday, antique cars will be displayed at the barn and classic sports cars in the diamond. Sunday, Aug. 29, will be Mennonite Day, with descendants of local 19th century Mennonites invited to bring along genealogical information and old photos of family and area sites and to sign a guest book at Stewart Hall. Dankfest is also known for good food and refreshments with a German touch, including sausages, chicken, roast beef, potato pancakes and homemade root beer. On Saturday at the museum’s barn, a late-afternoon fiddle contest is followed at 7 p.m. by the Harmony Business Association’s final free summer concert, a performance by Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough. Dankfest concludes late Sunday, but Bicentennial Week continues Monday, Aug. 30, through Saturday, Sept. 4, with free concerts at 8 p.m. daily on the lawn at the museum’s Mercer Road barn. Programs at 7 p.m. in the museum’s Stewart Hall, are Monday’s presentation about the German home town of Harmony and Harmony Society founder George Rapp, Tuesday’s debut of "Harmony, The Movie," and Thursday’s presentation on the early 20th century Harmony Line interurban railway. Reunions are part of the celebration’s final day. Dr. Arthur Stewart, a physician who served Harmony for more than six decades and was a founder of Historic Harmony, the historical society that operates the Harmony Museum, delivered some 1,400 babies. They are invited to Stewart Hall with photos and recollections of "Doc" Stewart. A block away at the Borough Building, people who as Pittsburgh children attended the Emma Farm Camp here between the 1930s and early 1970s are invited to view a camp photo exhibit and share recollections. That evening brings the grand finale of Harmony’s Bicentennial Week, an Old Economy Orchestra concert at the barn followed by a Zambelli Internationale Fireworks show. A new book about Harmony and bicentennial mementos will be available during the celebration. Harmony’s recorded history began with a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) village visited by George Washington during a 1753 mission to the French at Ft. LeBoeuf, sparking the French & Indian War. Nearby, a "French Indian" fired at Washington what may have been the war’s first shot. Harmony was founded in 1804 by the communal Harmony Society of religious German Separatists. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites whose congregation faded away by the early 1900s, although many of their descendants remain. Stephen Foster lived here briefly as a child, Charles Flowers made fine percussion rifles, and the area participated in the region’s oil and gas boom of a century ago. With many buildings restored or refurbished, Harmony retains the architectural character of a rural German village. One of only 22 National Historic Landmarks in all of western Pennsylvania, this year it received the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs’ Historic Preservation Award for its comprehensive commitment to preserving heritage resources while emphasizing economic and community revitalization. Dankfest parking and admission is free, with modest fees for tours and the quilt show. Hours both days are noon to to 5 p.m. Harmony is at Interstate 79 exits 87-88, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of Pennsylvania Turnpike exit 28, and 30 miles south of Interstate 80. Follow Historic District and Dankfest signs. CONTACTS:
HARMONY BICENTENNIAL WEEK Thursday,
Sept. 2 Friday,
Sept. 3
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