Pittsburgh will never amount to anything because it's too close to Brownsville! It's true! That is what people believed in the early nineteenth century! Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the small river town 40 miles south of Pittsburgh has very little to show for today, but between 1795 and well into the twentieth century, Brownsville was the place to be!
Brownsville, Pennsylvania was the first reachable population center west of the Alleghenies barrier range on the Mississippi watershed. Essentially, Brownsville was the gateway to the west! It quickly became a huge industrial center, transportation hub, and one of the largest boat-building power towns in the country! But it only got to be this way because of some of it's earliest settlers who were wise and driven to make Brownsville a booming town of the west!
When we think of some of Brownsville's earliest star settlers and their families we think of names such as, Blaine, Brashear, Hogg, and Snowdon. People who had made great strides to make Brownsville a prime industrial town and who did, indeed, make Brownsville a prime location for new settlers looking for work for upwards of 100 years. With little left reminding us of these driven people and the mark they left on Brownsville so many years ago we can only hold on to what has been written down about them and what we can dig up in local museums and libraries. That is, except for one prominent family, the Bowman's.
Jacob Bowman moved to Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1786 from Hagerstown, Maryland, making him one of the very first settlers in Brownsville and the first to purchase property in the new town founded by Thomas Brown. Jacob saw great potential in Brownsville. Having to his advantage as a merchant the Monongahela River and the Nemacolin trail, now Route 40, the National Pike, he constructed the very first Trading Post west of the Alleghenies and received the first load of merchandise which crossed the mountains on wheels in 1789. Jacob soon realized that the price for goods was too high and the trip took too long. He decided that enough people were moving to the area and that it was more economical to have many of the goods he needed made right in Brownsville. Thus, he started a nail factory, glass factory, paper mill, and he co-founded the very first Bank in the Brownsville area.
Having such great success making Brownsville a center hub for industry, transportation, and boat building in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, you'd think that in the twenty-first century something of Mr. Bowman's must be left to show for all the hard work and dedication he put into the river town!
"'Nemacolin,' one of the finest homes on the Monongahela, with its octagon tower and its handsome grounds enclosed by massive masonry." A fairytale like description of Jacob Bowman's home. His twenty-two room house, with castle-like features is still around! The town that Jacob worked so diligently to build up is no more, but after all the businesses of Brownsville died off, the home of Mr. Bowman lives on and is one of the only things left in Brownsville that reminds us of it's once rich history.
A small cabin on the frontier in Brownsville situated next to a one room trading post located near the site of where old Fort Burd (Redstone Fort) sat just fifty years prior facing the Monongahela river is now a majestic Castle filled with treasures of the past belonging to the Bowman family! 3 architectural sections of the house can be seen in their original state. Amazingly, ninety percent of the original Bowman furniture is left in the rooms they've lived in for over 100 years. Some of the treasures that the house holds includes, a 1789 Canopy Rope bed, a 200+ year old flawless diamond-back mirror, Italian Marble fireplaces, original wallpaper and carpeting dating back to the 1800's, Leather and horse hair couch and chair, a Civil War era rocking horse and an original portrait of Jacob Bowman himself, just to name a few. A Diamond in the rough, Jacob Bowman's house has become! A beautiful example of what Brownsville once was.
As like much of everything in Brownsville, Including Brownsville itself, Nemacolin Castle (Bowman's Castle) is becoming a thing of the past! With little interest from the younger generations and only a handful of dedicated locals keeping the historic home open to the public, it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain upkeep of the twenty-two room mansion.
Help us save this Diamond in the rough, one of the last great reminder's of Brownsville's rich history and one of Pennsylvania's best kept secrets!
Nemacolin Castle is open for History tours every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12-5 pm.
Ghost Tours at Nemacolin Castle will be every Friday and Saturday Beginning the last weekend in September throughout the month of October from 6-10 pm.
Tickets are $10-Adults and $4-12 & under
You can also help by donating to the Nemacolin Castle GoFundMe: gofundme.com/2kcm6pg
