Linden Hall (Sarah Boyd Moore Cochran House)

Linden Hall, named for the trees once lining the driveway, was built for Sarah B. Cochran, widow of coal and coke magnate Philip Galley Cochran. Cochran was the son of “Little Jim” Cochran, who ran the largest coal and coke operation in Fayette County in the mid-nineteenth century. Following the deaths of her husband and son, Sarah traveled in Europe and Asia before returning to Fayette County to continue the family business. She hired Pittsburgh architect and industrial designer Joseph Kuntz to build a monument to her travels. The house, shaped like a faceted crescent, has several Tudor Revival elements, including a random-laid limestone first story, stuccoed second story, clipped gables, heavy bargeboards, and massive brick chimneys. The wings have gabled projections at the intersections, and hipped-roof dormers line the roofs. Sixty Italian stonemasons worked the local limestone used on the thirty-five-room house. Mrs. Cochran had the simple adage “East, West, Home's Best” etched above her front door. Stained glass family crests from the estates she visited adorn the conservatory. The gingko trees, hydrangea, and hollyhocks that adorned her garden are re-created on the Tiffany Studio windows in the stairway landing. The house has an Aeolian pipe organ, central vacuum system, twenty-seven fireplaces, and an Otis elevator. The 785-acre estate had its own generator, gas wells, and fire-fighting equipment. East of the estate house and north of Dawson, the Cochran fairgrounds have several frame exhibition sheds, barns, and silos (PA 1002 and PA 819). After Sarah Cochran died in 1936, the home had a sequence of owners until purchased by the United Steelworkers of America, who restored it in 1976 and opened it the following year as part of a resort, including a modern motel, swimming pool, and golf course.