Angela Dawson, owner of Local Boutique 16063, and Randall Hart, former council member hold a placard of tin to be put on display. According to Hart, a number of businesses still have old tin roofs inside their business that were installed in the late 1800s.

A new program in Zelienople allows shoppers or the historically curious to view the decorative pressed tin ceiling panels that are original to many of the buildings on Main Street, most of which were constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Randy Hart, a longtime member of the Zelienople Historical Society, said the society’s historical preservation committee found that ceilings in 10 buildings on Main Street sport the panels.

They range in size from 19 by 18 inches to 35 by 35 inches with scalloping on the sides that stretches from 6 to 12 inches.

One building has three different panel designs.

“In the 13 samples, there’s not one the same as the other,” Hart said.

He said building owners over the years have obscured the panels by installing drop ceilings to decrease the amount of space they needed to heat and cool.

Hart met with the business owners as part of the borough’s Main Street revitalization and asked them to not only keep the panels, but also to restore them if possible.

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