Zelie historical society preserving Passavant House
The Zelienople Historical Society is marking its 50th anniversary by revamping its 215-year-old crown jewel, the Passavant House.
The 19th century house is undergoing necessary repairs to maintain its longevity. While some elements of the preservation are superficial, other elements, like replacing the beams underneath the house to maintain its stability, require the historical society to organize and come up with needed money.
“We’re a very small group, we’re 100% volunteers. We are very blessed to have people who are passionate, who love the community and its history,” Karen Hungerford, president of the historical society, said. “When people hear the name Passavant, they don’t realize that family all throughout the Pittsburgh area, and into other cities too, that family started here in Zelienople.”
The house is part of a family legacy ingrained in Zelienople. It was originally built from 1808 to 1810 by Philippe Passavant and his wife Zelie, the daughter of Zelienople founder Dettmar Basse. Their son, William Alfred Passavant, went on to establish hospitals and Lutheran missions throughout the country.
Basse founded the borough of Zelienople in 1802 after emigrating from Germany and purchasing 10,000 acres to establish the town named after his daughter. The house stayed in the Passavant family for about 150 years, according to the Zelienople Historical Society. The historical society bought the home in 1978 to restore it. The Passavant Home is listed on the Pennsylvania and National registers of historical places.
The house has shown signs of deterioration. It was determined a couple of years ago the house was starting to sink in the middle and needed new support beams. The historical society also realize a back section of the house that had been added on later was built completely on dirt, without any foundation.
“It was literally on dirt and the house was sinking. We were kind of panicked,” Hungerford said. “We got a Keystone grant from the state which is a good thing. The only challenge has been to match the grant. We didn’t have that in the budget.”
Efforts to raise money to preserve the house included marketing, creating a GoFundMe, sending out letters to the community and society members describing what was going on. So far, the efforts have helped the historical society complete a project to shore up the foundation of the house.
“We were pretty worried about jacking up the house. We were worried about the work cracking plaster walls, messing up the windows,” Hungerford said. “Now, the home will be there for hundreds and hundreds of years longer.”
The historical society is still making efforts to raise money for work on the outside of the back addition, as well as putting in new doors in parts of the house, and fixing a stairwell and brick walkways outside.
The repairs come at an important time for the Zelienople Historical Society. The society said it is trying to hold various events throughout the year in celebration of its anniversary. On July 10, it held a cake cutting event celebrating the anniversary, with hot dogs, sauerkraut and German music playing.
“This was an extra special year. We’re just trying to get our information out there so people know of all the things we have and we want to share with the public,” Peggy McGrogan, a docent for the Passavant House, said. “We’ve wanted to do a German-themed event with hot dogs and sauerkraut, special beer if we could. We’re always trying to come up with ideas.”
Despite the house’s age, the society is striving to keep the house in decent condition for the foreseeable future. The society emphasizes how important of a landmark the house is in the town’s history, which the group thinks is worth celebrating.
“We were so exited. Any time a donation came in we kept adding it. We were hopeful and we were confident it was going to happen and people came through. We were delighted that people cared,” McGrogan said.
