Pennsylvania Memorial Home Receives Historical Marker

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Pennsylvania Memorial Home Receives Historical Marker

October 15, 2019 9:46 am·

Author: Aly Delp

 

BROOKVILLE, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Memorial Home was honored with a new historical marker on Friday, October, 11, 2019.

(Pictured: From left: Representative Cris Dush, WRC Board Chair Cindy Russel, County Commissioner Jack Matson, Local Historian Carole Briggs, Jefferson County History Center Director Ken Burkett, Brookville Mayor Richard Beck, and JCHS Board President Tracy Zents.)

The marker rests on the corner of Euclid Ave. and 2nd St. in Brookville.

Established in 1890, the Pennsylvania Memorial Home was open to Civil War veterans and their families, widows and orphans. It was WRC Senior Services’ first community, and it was the first veterans’ home in Pennsylvania and one of the first nationwide that was so inclusive, serving as a model to others across the country. Local Woman’s Relief Corps member Kate Scott worked with social reformer Annie Wittenmyer to establish this facility and to urge Pennsylvania legislators to provide funding.

Today, the building that once housed the Pennsylvania Memorial home is now used as the Brookville Borough Building. The historical marker was installed on the corner of Euclid Avenue and 2nd Street in Brookville. On the afternoon of October 11, WRC Senior Services and the Jefferson County Historical Society jointly hosted a Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony and Reception.

WRC Senior Services’ Danielle Corrigan-Gabler (at left) and Tyler Vasbinder (at right) remove the ceremonial hood to unveil the Pennsylvania Memorial Home’s new historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

At the dedication ceremony, the marker was recognized by Tracy Zents, Board President of Jefferson County Historical Society; Ken Burkett, Executive Director of the Jefferson County History Center, and member of PHMC’s historical marker committee; Carole Briggs, the local historian who submitted the proposal to PHMC, and Cindy Russell, Board Chair of WRC Senior Services.

Carole Briggs, in her remarks during the dedication ceremony, regaled the history of the Pennsylvania Memorial Home and the women who made it possible.

“Civil War veteran and newspaperman John McMurray wrote several years before Kate Scott died, ‘No women in Pennsylvania are doing a nobler work than these Corps women.’ Kate M. Scott and Annie Wittenmyer were two of them,” Briggs said. “We are most pleased this afternoon to formally recognize the Pennsylvania Memorial Home with a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker.”

To conclude the ceremony, as the marker was unveiled, Cindy Russell, Chairwoman of WRC Senior Services’ Board of Directors, said “it is a proud day for WRC. The marker is a visible and lasting tribute to our history and legacy.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         https://www.explorejeffersonpa.com/pennsylvania-memorial-home-receives-historical-marker/