Danville PA III (4/6/2023)

Thursday, April 6, 2023

On the way to Buffalo, NY we finished the historical and architectural tour of Danville, PA.

Abigail Geisinger House (c 1850, in Queen Anne style)
at 40 Center Street with a three-story turreted tower

Abigail Geisinger was the founder of the George F Geisinger Memorial Hospital, named for her husband who earned his wealth in iron manufacturing. The hospital has since grown into a regional health care provider in central Pennsylvania.

115 Bloom Street (c 1830 in Federal style)

119 Bloom Street (1856, Victorian style)

151 Bloom Street (c 1865 in Second Empire style)

Memorial Park on Bloom Street has several
war memorials including one (1925) for the
1898-1902 Spanish-American War

The USS Maine Memorial with a
tablet cast from the metal from the
battleship destroyed in the harbor of
Havana, Cuba in 1898

Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1909)

Grove Presbyterian Church (1875 in
Romanesque style with Gothic features)
was attended by Abigail Geisinger

538 Green Street (1819 in Federal style)

Emmanuel Baptist Church (1893) was
purchased in 1914 by the AME/African American
Methodist congregation; is now a florist shop

Pine Street Lutheran Church (1858 in Greek Revival style)

116 Walnut Street (1881 in Queen Anne style) was home to
US Congressman Rufus K Polk, a descendant of
President James Polk and William Montgomery

116 Walnut Street stained glass

51 Bloom Street (c 1870 in Second Empire style)

Boyd House (1880-1885 in Queen Anne style) at 19 Bloom Street 

Again, the William Montgomery House (1792
in Federal style) at 11 Bloom Street

Villa Sacred Heart gate

Unique double house (1867 by C S Wetzel) was built for the
John Grove for his sons, Michael and John Grove, Jr
who owned the Columbia Pig Iron Furnaces

The Grove estate was purchased by the Sisters of Sts Cyril &
Methodius in 1919, and here many of the nuns have remained

While the double house is the motherhouse of the Sisters,
in 1929 they built St Cyril's Academy with a stone tower

In 1939 a Romanesque Revival style chapel was
added, which became a Minor Basilica in 1989

Geisinger Medical Center at 100 N Academy Avenue

Next: Alfred Ceramic Art Museum.