A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
History
A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
Architecture -- Pennsylvania; Art -- Pennsylvania; Historic buildings -- Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania -- Guidebooks; Pennsylvania -- History
The “MONT ALTO PARK,” formerly a famous picnic ground, now in charge of
State Forestry Commission, in the South Mountain, in old maps named “The
Valley of a Thousand Springs,” contains an old Protestant Episcopal
Church, near which is a native boulder, with granite tablet, marking the
place where Captain John E. Cook, of John Brown’s Army of Liberation,
was captured and disarmed, October 25, 1859, erected by the Kittochtinny
Historical Society, 1909. The STATE FOREST ACADEMY is here, where the
state educates its foresters, free of all cost; in 1900, the Bureau of
Forestry had grown to the point where it should be raised to the rank of
a department, of which the chief should be a member of the Governor’s
cabinet; there was strenuous opposition, but owing to the flood of
letters received by members of the Legislature, from the women of the
State Federated Clubs, the change was made, and Pennsylvania takes a
commanding place in the Forestry and Conservation movement. The WHITE
PINE, STATE SANATORIUM, NO. 1, free for consumptives, is also here, one
of the largest in the world. South is WAYNESBORO; good roads and notably
fine scenery in this section.
GREENCASTLE, birthplace of Robert McClelland in 1807, see Honor Roll;
directly north, on State Road, is monument, to mark where Corporal
William H. Rhil fell, first soldier killed on Northern soil in Civil
War.
MERCERSBURG, settled between 1730-35, population 1663; named for General
Hugh Mercer, who was killed in the Battle of Princeton. Mercersburg
Academy, Main Hall, built, 1833, used as hospital for wounded soldiers,
on retreat from Gettysburg, is a notable example of Southern colonial
architecture, with fine pillars and surmounted by a cupola; the ’88
Dormitory, given largely by class of 1888 of Princeton University, is
Tudor Gothic, brick and white stone; Kiel Hall, the refectory, interior,
baronial Gothic with frescoes and hangings by Tiffany; over mantel, in
wood, carved by John J. Maene, is “The Boar Hunt” from design by A.
Stirling Calder; notable collection of University shields in glass and
wood; mosaic armorial design in hearth; Laucks Hall, Tudor Gothic, has
mural painting in trophy room, “The Victor,” representing a Mercersburg
boy being crowned victor in athletic skill, artist, Edward Howland
Blashfield, also collection of portraits of distinguished men, including
President James Buchanan, Thomas A. Scott, and W. M. Irvine, by William
Merritt Chase; Dr. E. E. Highbee, by Carroll Beckwith; and Dr. Thomas
Apple by John W. Alexander; the new gymnasium, architect, Frank Miles
Day, has stained glass by Tiffany.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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