The Beaver Area Heritage Foundation oversees three major historical sites in
Beaver that are a “must-see” for history-lovers and as an educational
experience for children. They include:
Beaver
Area Heritage Museum – The museum features
important exhibits on the people, objects and events that
have shaped our community’s history, and continues to
grow and expand in its vision and scope. Created by the renovation
of a 90-year-old freight station formerly owned by the Pittsburgh
& Lake Erie Railroad, it opened in 1998 and received “Best
Local History Museum” Award from the American Association
of State and Local History. The museum houses an extensive
collection of thousands of rare artifacts unique to the
Beaver Area. The facility served as the site of a “whistle-stop”
campaign visit by President George W. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney in 2000. See our current
exhibit.
Fort
McIntosh Site – Built by Gen. Lachlan McIntosh
in 1778, the fort was in service during the American Revolution,
and later was home of the First American
Regiment, the first standing U.S. Army in peacetime. The
site underwent an extensive archaeological excavation in 1970s,
with the restored historical park dedicated by General William
Westmoreland in 1978, and rededicated again in 2006 following
renovation.
Log
House – Opened in 2002 as a project of
the Museum, the log house is reconstructed of timbers found
in an old log building in Beaver that may have been salvaged
from Fort McIntosh. It has received a Certificate of Achievement
Award from the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums. In partnerships
with local schools, the house is a center for educating
hundreds of elementary students, as part of their social studies
curriculum, teaching them that history is "in their own
backyard." It features scores household objects that
would have been found in a typical Beaver home circa 1802,
as well as landscaping and plantings
of flowers and herbs native to Beaver homes 200 years ago.
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