You are here

Western Pennsylvania » Ridge and Valley » Somerset County » Seven Springs » Laurel Hill State Park

Laurel Hill State Park

-A A +A
c. 1936. Trent Rd. (PA 3037), entrance 5.4 miles southeast of Seven Springs

There are several state parks in western Somerset County along Laurel Ridge, including Laurel Hill Park, which was known as a Rural Demonstration Area. It was one of five parks in Pennsylvania established in the late 1930s, using Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and WPA labor to make rural parks accessible to the commonwealth's urban dwellers. Laurel Hill State Park had five campsites, each accommodating 100 people and including cabins, latrines, recreation halls, an infirmary, an administration house, and a dining hall. In addition to the camp buildings, CCC workers built their own barracks, some of which remain in and around the camps. These are long, narrow, gable-roofed buildings with horizontal siding typical of what was used for military structures of the time. Laurel Hill State Park contains over two hundred buildings, among the largest collection of CCC-built structures in Pennsylvania.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
×

Data

What's Nearby

Seven Springs Mountain Resort
Barronvale Covered Bridge
Scottyland RV Resort
Stahl Farm, “Dairy of Distinction”
St. Paul's United Church of Christ

Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "Laurel Hill State Park", [Somerset, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-SO20.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 398-399.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,