sharon's blog | Maple Shade Mansion

Brockway Center for Arts and Technology announces Spring Schedule!

Ceramic Artist at Brockway Center for Arts and Technology

The Brockway Center for Arts and Technology recently announced their spring events scheudle for 2023. The schedule is varied with adult classes, adult workshops, inter-generational workshops, tween workshops and open studios.

The BCAT Center has two fully equipped art studios and is staffed by working artists. The ceramics studio boasts 15 wheels, 2 large had building tables, a glaze lab, 4 indoor ceramic kilns, a Raku kiln and an outdoor gas kiln designed to fire pieces up to six feet tall.

The Pennsylvania Tourism Office releases the 2023 Happy Traveler Guide!

The guide is dedicated to ‘must-see’ attractions and exciting events and is a wonderful resource for planning your next special get-away.

Pages 78 and 79 are dedicated to the Pennsylvania Wilds. You’ll find hot spots and travel suggestions that include but are not limited to: Straub Brewery, Elk Country Visitors Center, Bilger’s Rocks, Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center and the Doolittle Station. These unique attractions are a short distance from our beautiful and charming Bed and Breakfast.

The Maid of Blue Rock: Clarion River-Toby Creek Corridor History

The valley of the Clarion River and its major tributary Toby Creek contains extensive history tracing back to the Native American tribes that called this region of Pennsylvania home. Field research and recent archeological studies indicate that the early inhabitants of what became Pennsylvania traveled the ridges of the Clarion River and Toby Creek crossing from the Lake Erie, Allegheny River drainage areas to trade and in some cases wage war with tribes on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

Famous Brockwayville (Brockway) Citizen: Wendell McMinn August

Wendell McMinn August was born in the town of Rew, McKean County ten miles from Bradford, in 1885. His mother, Charlotte (McMinn) August of Brockwayville died in childbirth and her infant son came to her hometown at the age of three weeks, taken in by his uncle and aunt, Daniel, and Margaret (McMinn) Groves. His older sister, Myrtle, was taken in by another uncle and aunt.

The Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company

The Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company was incorporated as the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Company in 1881 in Indiana, PA, by the Adrian Iselin family, Swiss investment bankers from New York City. The company's first mines were located in Jefferson County, PA, in an area known as the Saw Mill Run Valley. These mines, including the Walston Mine which, by 1885, was using much of the coal it produced to make coke, boasted the longest string of coke ovens in the world. Five hundred employees worked in the ovens alone.

The History of Shawmut's Rise and Fall

Thanks in large part to entrepreneur Joseph Veazic of Boston who elicited the help from wealthy and influential East Coast families to invest in the lands in and around Shawmut, nearly ten square miles of coal lands were purchased from Daniel Kingsbury. As explorations commenced, coal was found in all quarters of the purchase. High hills rose above the seams, affording good cover and hollows opened out in all directions, permitting drifts to be opened to mine coal at the best advantage. Everything was so encouraging that the town was platted in 1861.

The Majestic Elk

Elk viewing is a popular pastime drawing visitors from all over Pennsylvania, out-of-state, and locals alike. And fortunately, the “Elk Capitol of Pennsylvania” or Benezette is a short drive from the Maple Shade Mansion!

The History of the Shawmut & Ridgway Railroad 1861-1869

This article of local history has been an amazing adventure undertaken by Bob Imhof of the Elk County Historical Society and Rob Keith of the Brockway Historical Society over a period of several years. This short narrative documents the story of what is likely the first common-carrier railroad surveyed in Elk County beginning in 1861 to provide an outlet for coal mined in the area around the community of Shawmut.