Walking Tour of Historic Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

1. Ritner Boarding House-John Brown

Mary Ritner's Boarding House is best known for its role as the temporary headquarters of John Brown, the radical abolitionist who launched a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry as part of a plan to arm and free the slaves of Virginia. Brown's intention was to create a well-armed community and force in the mountains that could defend itself and launch raids on slave plantations throughout the region. If successful, Brown hoped that slaves would rise up and join his community in ways that would lead to the end of slavery in America. Brown stayed at the Ritner Boarding House from June to October in 1859. From this location, Brown and his supporters planned the raid, received supplies, and prepared for their ill-fated mission. The historic boarding house is now a small museum operated by the Franklin County Historical Society.

2. Franklin County Historical Society-Kittochtinny and Old Franklin County Jail

Franklin County Historical Society operates several historic properties throughout the county including this Georgian-style brick building that was once home to the Franklin County Jail. The historical society has been active since 1898, and the former jail which now serves as its headquarters has stood at this location since 1818. Notable attractions at the site include a poem scrawled by a prisoner on the wall of their cell, a reconstructed gallows, and an annual haunted house. The jail held a number of prominent prisoners throughout its history and also survived the burning of the town by Confederate raiders in 1864. At the time of the building’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, it was one of the country’s oldest penal institutions still in operation. The building ceased operations as a prison when the new county jail on Franklin Farm Lane opened one year after its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. At that time, the historical society assumed ownership of the property. The Franklin County Historical Society operates a museum and genealogical library at this site and also offers tours of the old jail and other properties around the county including the John Brown House which is less than a block away. The historical society also operates Brown’s Mill School, St. Thomas Toll House, and Carrick Furnace.

3. The Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring

As Chambersburg, Pennsylvania’s oldest church, The Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring represents a living conduit to the past stretching back to the town’s founding era. Named after the nearby Falling Spring (which at one time featured a nearly 25-foot waterfall), the congregation that built the church had been meeting in the area – known itself at the time as Falling Spring – since shortly after the settlement’s founder, Colonel Benjamin Chambers, arrived in 1730. Chambers, who was himself Presbyterian, hosted religious services at Fort Chambers (the site of his home and gristmill at the confluence of Falling Spring and Conococheague Creek) for several years before building a log schoolhouse on the plot adjacent to his own in 1739 for the use of his congregation. This building lasted until 1767, when the congregation replaced it with a considerably larger wooden structure. The following year, Chambers deed the land upon which the church stood to his congregation in exchange for the payment of a single rose to him, his wife, and their descendants every year in perpetuity (an agreement that is upheld to this day). Chambers also deeded land to the church for use as a graveyard, which over the course of the congregation’s history has come to serve as not only his final resting place, but the final resting place of a number of prominent politicians and four Delaware Indians from the colonial era. Over this same period, the congregation replaced their wooden church with one built from local limestone (completed in 1803), opened a Sabbath school in 1816, added two towers to the building in 1856, and established a school for refugee former slaves living in the town as a result of the American Civil War. The church is still in operation today and is open for regular religious services and extracurricular activities, and upon advanced request.

4. The Burning of Chambersburg Historical Marker

Several historical markers and plaques near the Franklin County Courthouse relate the tragic fate of Chambersburg, which was destroyed by Confederate raiders on July 30, 1864. Cavalry under the command of General John McCausland occupied the city and demanded the payment of a ransom, threatening to destroy the city in retribution for the destruction of Virginia homes, families, and food stores should his army not be provided with a large ransom payment. While pro-Confederate raiders also destroyed Lawrence, Kansas, the destruction of Chambersburg was unique in that it was conducted by an official army of the Confederacy.

5. Franklin County Courthouse

Built in the Greek Revival architectural style which flourished in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, Franklin County Courthouse was completed in 1865 and incorporates portions of the previous courthouse that stood at this location and was burned by Confederate raiders under Brigadier General John A. McCausland on July 30, 1864. The courthouse is located just to the east of Memorial Square at the intersection of US-30 and US-11 in downtown Chambersburg and is the third county courthouse that has stood at this site. Because it includes structural elements from the second courthouse built in 1842 and attempted to replicate its basic features, the current Franklin County Courthouse of 1865 is a uniquely visible example of the change in architectural tastes from the Greek Revival to Victorian periods. The courthouse also stands as a testament to the experiences of the lone northern community to be destroyed by Confederate troops during the American Civil War, an event that spurred a nationwide aid campaign in response and resulted in the reconstruction of much of the original core of the town. The current courthouse houses the 39th Judicial District Court of Common Pleas for Franklin and Fulton Counties and is open from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM from Monday to Friday unless it is a county holiday.

6. Chambersburg Heritage Center and Old Valley National Bank Building

The Chambersburg Heritage Center on Memorial Square in the historic Valley National Bank Building provides educational resources on the history of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area of Franklin County. The Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce opened the center five years after the Chambersburg Area Development Corporation purchased the building on its behalf in 1999. The center houses a gift shop, children’s activity room, and exhibits on the frontier history, architectural history, transportation history, and Civil War history of the city. While the center may be a cornerstone of the historical community in Chambersburg, the building itself is also of significance as the work of Frank Furness, an architect whose designs have become widely celebrated in the last few decades. The Chambersburg Heritage Center is open year-round from Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, and on Saturdays, 10 AM to 3 PM, May to October. The center can also provide guided walking tours upon advance request.

7. The Capitol Theatre, Chambersburg

Founded in 1927 by the Pottstown Theatre Company, the Capitol Theatre is a historic and quaint entertainment center in downtown Chambersburg, PA. Designed in the ornate style of the Italian Renaissance, the theater was built to give Americans a fun venue to spend their leisure time and to forget the worries of the day. Currently, the theater offers visitors a variety of classical movies and performing art shows from the twentieth century. This place gives members of the local community an opportunity to create happy and life-long memories with their families and friends. The Capitol Theatre is the only old-fashioned theater of the twentieth century that still exists in Chambersburg today.

8. First Lutheran Church

The First Lutheran Church is the most recently constructed of Chambersburg’s three “rose rent” churches (behind The Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring and Zion Reformed Church), its congregation having completed construction on the current church well after its companions. The congregation has occupied the land upon which the current church stands for much longer, however, having received its deed to the land from town founder Colonel Benjamin Chambers in 1780 (the same year in which Zion Reformed Church reached its own agreement and thirteen years after Falling Spring’s). Between that time and the year of the current church’s construction, the congregation used two other buildings as its houses of worship at the same site. The first was a two-story log building the Lutherans shared with the local Reformed congregation until 1808 and the second was a brick structure for the Lutherans’ sole use. It was in this building that the congregation of the First Lutheran Church came to serve as the epicenter of a theological debate that raged within American Lutheranism for much of the early nineteenth century as a result of the Great Awakening. For two years during this period (1831-1833), the Reverend Benjamin Kurtz, a proponent of progressive change in the Lutheran Church as the editor of the Lutheran Observer and later founder of Gettysburg Seminary and Susquehanna University, served as the congregation’s minister. While there, Kurtz experimented with a number of new policies, policies (like English-language worship) that drove a portion of the congregation to establish the Second Lutheran Church in protest but ultimately went on to become cornerstones of the doctrinal reforms he advocated for within Lutheranism. First Lutheran Church remains in operation to this day and is accessible during regular worship services and upon advanced request.

9. Zion Reformed Church of the United Church of Christ

The Zion Reformed Church of the United Church of Christ has stood at the corner of Main and Liberty (originally German) Streets since its construction in 1813. The congregation had existed in the area since 1778, drawing from the growing local population of immigrants from the Germanic provinces of Europe. The church remains in operation today and belongs to the Mercersburg Association of the Penn Central Conference of the United Church of Christ. The church is notable as a historic site for a number of reasons. First, it is one of Chambersburg’s three “rose rent churches” (along with The Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring and the First Lutheran Church), each of which pays the descendants of town founder Colonel Benjamin Chambers the annual rent of a single rose. Second, the building itself is an excellent example of Georgian architecture from the early nineteenth century and in addition to serving as a house of worship contains a number of antique chandeliers and displays on the church’s history. Finally, the church served as the area’s first Sunday school and, because it was for many years the town’s largest venue, hosted a number of events featuring prominent figures. The church is currently open for regular religious services on Sundays and by advanced request. Its annual “Rose Rent” service is held on the second Sunday of every June.

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Walking Tour of Historic Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

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