Heading East Across North Central Pennsylvania...

 ...continuing with our October road trip, after leaving Ridgway Pennsylvania, we followed US Hwy 219 north and then picked up US Hwy 6 toward Wellsboro and Mansfield.  Of course we were bound to come across some history and architecture along the way.

                          

The next town that we came to that grabbed my attention was Smethport Pennsylvania.  William Halsey Wood, who is well known for designing dozens of churches across the USA and even in China, designed this spectacular church.  Saint Luke's Episcopal Church was designed with the 14th Century English Gothic style in mind.  This church was completed in 1892 and it has survived in near pristine condition.

St. Luke's Gothic ornate design continues inside the church as well.  This is a view from the area of the altar toward the front entrance.

This view of St. Luke's church from a postcard sent in 1907 shows the scope of the entire complex.

To learn more about William Halsey Wood and his spectacular church designs, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Halsey_Wood.

                         

This very imposing structure is the McKean County Courthouse in Smethport Pennsylvania.  It isn't as old as it first appears.  Courthouses in McKean County have had a tough time.  This is the fourth courthouse in the county.  With its six Ionic columns and that cupola, it was completed in 1942.  Its only a little over 60 years old.

 

The first courthouse in the county was built in 1826 and then it was replaced by a larger structure in 1851.  In 1880 it was decided that a larger structure was needed and the third courthouse was completed in 1881.  It lasted for almost 60 years but then it was destroyed by a fire in 1940.  Fortunately most of the McKean County records were saved.  That ill-fated third courthouse is shown above in photos I found on the Internet...before and after.  

Dutch land investors founded Smethport in 1807.  They'd purchased a large tract of land from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The town was named in honor of a Dutch banking family, the De Smeths, who had financed the land investments.  The lowest temperature ever recorded in Pennsylvania was at Smethport in January of 1904.  It got down to -42F.  In July of 1942, a storm produced over 30 inches of rain in less than 5 hours.

                             

Moving east along US Hwy 6, the next town we stopped to take a look at was Coudersport Pennsylvania.  This is the former Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Depot.  This short line railroad operated in Potter and McKean Counties between 1882 and 1964.  Originally a 3 foot narrow gauge railroad, it was converted to standard gauge (4 feet 8.5 inches) in 1889.  The railroad prospered with a lumber boom that ended in the early 1900s.  It was purchased by the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad in 1964 but the line was eventually abandoned in 1970.

The Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad began construction on their new brick and sandstone depot in Coudersport in 1899, opening it for business in January 1900.  The population of Coudersport more than doubled from 1890 to 1900, increasing from 1,525 to 3,217.  The estimated population in 2021 was 2,351.  The completion of this handsome red brick station in 1900 was a much-heralded event.

Coudersport purchased the station in 1975 and then they restored it.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.  It currently serves as the police station and as an office building for local government.  It is the only remaining building left from the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad.

The passenger rail car shown above is located at the Coudersport Arboretum which is adjacent to the old Coudersport railway depot.  The local Lions Club purchased the rail car from the former Knox and Kane Railroad, saving it from the scrap heap.  That railroad was a short line railway that went from a freight transfer function to a freight and tourist line...eventually closing altogether.  The passenger car was probably a Long Island Railroad commuter car.  The Arboretum also features an old caboose and it serves as a music venue as well.  Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/people/Coudersport-Arboretum-Association/100071173741302/.

One tourist attraction of note in Coudersport is the Eliot Ness Museum.  Celebrating the career of Ness, the famous American Prohibition Agent who assembled a team labeled the "Untouchables" by the press.  Ness and his team went after Al Capone and his bootlegging operations in the Midwest.  

The museum, located in 2 buildings, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features antique cars and trucks as well as many exhibits that are designed to learn about the historic allure surrounding Eliot Ness and his team.  The structures were built after a devastating fire that destroyed much of downtown Coudersport in 1880. The building at the right apparently originally served as a hardware store.  To learn more about the museum, go to 

https://www.eliotnessmuseum.org/.

Eliot Ness was born in Chicago and he graduated from the University of Chicago.  So, what was his connection with Coudersport Pennsylvania?  To make a long story short, after 1951, in order to make a living, he worked as a bookstore clerk, and a wholesaler...of electronics parts and frozen hamburger patties.  In 1956, accompanied by his 3rd wife, he went to work for a startup company in Coudersport that supposedly had developed a new method of Watermarking official documents to prevent counterfeiting.  The company had misrepresented its 'process' and Ness spent much of his free time in a local bar recounting stories from his law enforcement career.  He was nearly penniless when he died.  Learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Ness.

The old Potter County Jail in Coudersport Pennsylvania is brutal looking but by the standards of the time when it was built, its a straight-forward building lacking the embellishments many such structures had at the time.   Missing are the 'battlements and Gothic 'decor' that were so popular.  This jail was built ca. 1835.

The local community had been so angry over the cost of the new courthouse that apparently the jail was built from stone that was salvaged from the old courthouse.  The 20 foot high walls of the exercise yards on both sides of the jail were constructed with a greenish hued stone.  I was unable to discover what the old jail is being used for as it has been replaced with a modern facility.

The Potter County Courthouse is referred to locally as the "jewel of Coudersport".  The lower two floors of the building were designed in the Greek Revival style and they were completed in 1853.  The gabled upper portion is quite picturesque and it was added in 1888.  The statue of Justice is quite unusual in that she lacks the the traditional blindfold.  A copy of the original statue tops the structure while the original is on display inside the courthouse.  Between 1933 and 1934, the Depression Era Civil Works Administration strengthened the foundation and excavated the basement to create more office space.

The Coudersport Historic District encompassed 73 contribution buildings.  Most of them were built soon after the 1880 fire that destroyed most of the commercial district.  The fire was driven by high winds and it threatened the courthouse too.  As a result of the fire, new building codes required that commercial structures had to be constructed using bricks.  The fire took place on May 18, 1880.  By July 27th, a local brick factory was up and running, capable of producing 10,000 bricks a day.

The first building shown above is home to a couple of quasi governmental operations, the Potter County Domestic Relations office and the Chamber of Commerce/Artisan's Center.  In the middle one can shop at "Always in Bloom", a flower and gift shop.

The second building above is occupied by Cornerstone Abstract and Settlement as well as Acker and Larson P.C., Attorneys.  A Masonic symbol adorns the top of the building.  Apparently, this structure served as a Masonic Temple until the early 1900s when the Coudersport Consistory became a key center for Masons in Pennsylvania.  The Consistory has over 3,000 members as compared to the population of Coudersport with an estimated population of 2,351.  

FYI, Coudersport was named for Jean Samuel Coudere, a Dutch banker who loaned money to the Ceres Land Company of Philadelphia for their Pennsylvania land acquisitions.  Ceres also donated the land that the city was built on.  Lumbering was the dominant industry in the area for over 100 years.

                              

Following our stop in Coudersport, we continued our drive east along US Hwy 6 toward Wellsboro and our 2-night layover at Mansfield.  There was plenty of fine scenery along our route, although I could have done without that Quality Inn sign way off in the deep center of the second photo…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave