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
Dr. Alexander McLeod’s 1834 Letter on Vaccines in the Crawford Messenger [Guest Submission]
At a time when vaccines against the coronavirus are being produced by multiple companies, an interesting bit of Meadville history comes to our attention. First, it is important to remember why and how “immunization” and...
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A Brief History of Politics in Crawford County
Crawford County has rarely stifled its opinions regarding national politics. The tone was set by residents in 1807 who burned an effigy of Federalist, Aaron Burr outside the courthouse. And this was hardly the county’s...
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Life and Customs in Meadville, 1842
Meadville’s Diamond Park as it may have looked in the early 1800s In the central part of a letter headed Meadville, Dec 18th, 1842, my great, great grandmother Agnes Kennedy (née Craig), described her life...
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