Award-Winning Museum & 1802 Log House
The Beaver Area Heritage Foundation oversees three major historical sites in Beaver that are a “must-see” for history-lovers and as an educational experience for children. They include:
Beaver Area Heritage Museum – The museum features important exhibits on the people, objects and events that have shaped our community’s history, and continues to grow and expand in its vision and scope. Created by the renovation of a 90-year-old freight station formerly owned by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, it opened in 1998 and received “Best Local History Museum” Award from the American Association of State and Local History. The museum houses an extensive collection of thousands of rare artifacts unique to the Beaver Area. The facility served as the site of a “whistle-stop” campaign visit by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2000. See our current exhibit.
Log House – Opened in 2002 as a project of the Museum, the log house is reconstructed of timbers found in an old log building in Beaver that may have been salvaged from Fort McIntosh. It has received a Certificate of Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums. In partnerships with local schools, the house is a center for educating hundreds of elementary students, as part of their social studies curriculum, teaching them that history is “in their own backyard.” It also is an excellent venue for adult education and corporate entertainment. The interior features cured furs, dried herbs, a spinning wheel and scores household objects that would have been found in a typical Beaver home circa 1802, as well as landscaping and plantings of flowers and herbs native to Beaver frontier homes 200 years ago.