Historic Zelienople: A Modern Place With Old-Fashioned Grace
Saturday, June 13
10:00 a.m. – Noon
$25 per person
This tour is limited to 20 participants.
Purchase a ticket below. Tickets will not be available after 11:30 p.m. on June 12.
Zelienople is a delightful borough of about 4000 people, located 30 miles north of Pittsburgh in Butler County. German-born Dettmar Basse laid out the town in 1803 and named it after his daughter, Zelie—by which the borough is still affectionately known. Zelie married Philippe Passavant, creating a lineage and legacy that survive in the region and elsewhere to this day.
Basse stayed in Zelienople until only 1816, but the town grew through the 19th century and into the 1990s. Today, it has a thriving commercial historic district of pedestrian-scaled buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries, operated by folks who endow the community with the “old-fashioned grace” memorialized in the town’s motto. Locally awarded plaques mark many of the historic buildings, and a local resident has created a “Trail of Tin” to honor buildings that have retained their original tin ceilings.
Join us on a tour of this storied town and explore with us several blocks of Main Street, as well as short tours of two historic homes owned by the Zelienople Historical Society: the Passavant House (c.1808-1810; National Register of Historic Places, 1977); and the Buhl House (1805), home of the ancestors of one of the founders of Pittsburgh’s Boggs & Buhl Department Store.
Tour meeting point: Porch of the Zelienople Historical Society, 243 S. Main Street, Zelienople, PA 16063
Tour ending point: Same as meeting point
Please arrive 15 minutes before start time in order to ensure that the tour gets underway on time.
Parking: Free parking is available in public lots, including the Town Center lot, at the corner of S. Clay Street and W. New Castle Street. The lot is a six-minute walk from the Historical Society. It has a three-hour time limit.
Accessibility: Main Street is flat and easily navigable. However, the Passavant and Buhl Houses both require climbing stairs to reach the spaces we will view, and neither has an elevator.
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All tour participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Children under the age of 13 may attend tours free of charge. By purchasing a ticket for this tour, you acknowledge that you are physically able to undertake the tour, assume all personal risk during the tour, consent to being photographed during the tour, and permit PHLF to use your image in our communications.
All ticket sales are final.
