You are here

Mercersburg

-A A +A

Pennsylvania 16 passes through a fertile valley with numerous German barns to this picture-perfect village that could be the setting for an American version of Tom Brown's Schooldays. Centered on Main Street is a town square that is intersected east–west by Seminary Street that leads west to the Upper West Conococheague Presbyterian Church (1794; 1889 altered; 34 W. Seminary Street) and east to Mercersburg Academy (FR10). Houses range from eighteenth-century log settlement cabins to sophisticated stone and brick houses. At Linden and Mercer avenues is a typical country German Lutheran church, the brick Gothic Revival St. John's (1867). The Georgian-style post office at 128 S. Main Street is a 1936 design from the office of supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury Louis A. Simon. The tiny borough hall (113 S. Main Street) with its oversized belfry was constructed in 1904. The Colonial Revival style arrived early here. The town square with its Beaux-Arts First National Bank, its hotel, and the totemic log house rebuilt after a devastating fire is a quintessential Pennsylvania small town.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas

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.

,