WINDBER MUSEUM & former SHAFFER HOMESTEAD

Having the distinction of being the oldest house in Windber, the Shaffer Homestead is now home to the Windber Museum. The house was moved from its original location just down the hill on the site of the Berwind-White Company office building. Shaffer bought his farmstead land in 1864 from John Messerbaugh, which included almost all of the land which is now Windber Borough. Shaffer opened a mine himself which was located near the corners of what today is Cambria Avenue and 15th Streets. In 1991 the Windber Historic District was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. The district includes most of the original Berwind-White planned grid, and encompasses land and buildings in both Cambria and Somerset Counties. Windber was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its significance to the "history of industry, community planning and development, social history, ethnic heritage and architecture," as an example of both a typical western Pennsylvania coal mining community and as a unique example of a planned company town.