About Crawford County Historical Society
The Crawford County Historical Society is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to helping people, locally and globally, connect with their past while at the same time, connecting our past to the present through our research archive, programming, and museums in addition to preserving properties with historic value that contribute to the area’s economic development. Ultimately, the Society’s goal is to become a self-sustaining organization with the means and resources to protect the nationally significant history of Crawford County, Pennsylvania for generations to come. Learn more about us.
About Us
Interact with Your History!
Research & Resources
The Historical Society has one of the most comprehensive research collections in western Pennsylvania, with over 20,000 photographs, tens of thousands of pages of manuscripts, 220 years of newspapers, and everything needed to start discovering the history of YOU!
Preservation
The Society strives to be an example in the field of Historic Preservation, maintaining several historically significant properties as well as leading workshops on cemetery preservation, DIY restoration classes, and more.
Learning
We are actively collecting stories through our Oral History Program, bringing history countywide in our 1921 Ford Model T Depot Hack, and more.
Visit
Mount Hope: The Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum, Johnson-Shaw Stereoscopic Museum, and the J. Russell Mosier Medical Museum are just a few of the Society’s portfolio of properties. We offer tours, special events, and even rent facilities for weddings and other events.
Events
Thanks to our many members, volunteers, partners, and corporate sponsors, the Crawford County Historical Society is able to offer a variety of educational, cultural, and fun-loving programming that a wide range of audiences will find appealing. It doesn’t matter if you like history or not; you’re likely to find an event you’ll enjoy. Review our current list of upcoming events
Browse Events
Restoring Holland Hall
Among the Society’s historic preservation efforts, is our latest project - the restoration of Holland Hall. As Meadville’s only Gilded Age mansion, Holland Hall was built by entrepreneur and philanthropist, AC Huidekoper in 1899. Today, we are in the process of turning this historically significant property into a major amenity for the region.
Donate to the Restoration
The Crawford Messenger
Drawing from the legacy of the Crawford Weekly Messenger which was the first newspaper published in NWPA, the Crawford Messenger is the Society’s blog. Here, you will find articles full of little-known bits of our history. Read about the national impact of the area’s people, places, and events that you probably didn’t learn about in school.
Leaf Through The Crawford Messager
Aaron Burr’s Conspiracy Added Gusto to Local Politics
The politics of Crawford County in the first decade of the last century were divisive and crude. Federalists and Republicans battled over land issues, internal improvements and banks. There was little they didn’t fight over....
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Meadville Rye Whiskey and Cussewago Square – A History and Look at the Future
With the recent opening of Cussewago Square, it seemed appropriate to take a moment to bring attention to the history of the location, as well as to take advantage of the opportunity to highlight one...
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Crawford County Residents Lured to Gold Rush of 1850
It was a bright Monday afternoon on January 24, 1848 when James Marshall found some gold nuggets on the American River near John Sutter’s sawmill in what is now Sacramento, California. The consequences were worldwide...
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