{"nrhp_refnum":"79003140","name":"Bowman Homestead","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of McKeesport at 3500 The Lane, North Versailles Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"McKeesport","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.371003630000075,"lon":-79.82520101999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-09-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story brick house with a gable roof in North Versailles Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, built beginning in 1846 by George Bowman.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the homestead is a well-preserved survivor of the township's nineteenth-century retreat for wealthy Pittsburghers, with its mid-nineteenth-century integrity largely intact in the house and grounds. It is also tied to the Bowman family's local influence, the Mellon family, and the early area school that Bowman's land supported.","narrative":"A two-and-a-half-story brick house with a gable roof in North Versailles Township, Allegheny County, built beginning in 1846 by George Bowman, who had settled there after moving from the Bowman farms of Lancaster County in the early 1800s. Timber was cut on the property, and the bricks were made from native clay and fired in a kiln Bowman built on his land. The five-bay house has six-over-six windows, a hipped porch across the front, and nine fireplaces. Bowman donated land for the area's first school, and Judge Thomas Mellon, father of financier Andrew Mellon, was a frequent visitor. Rebecca Wauchob Mellon, Andrew Mellon's grandmother and a member of the Donner wagon train, died in the house. It is valued as a rare survivor of the township's nineteenth-century retreat homes, and its mid-nineteenth-century character survives largely intact. The house has remained with the Bowman family, now in its fifth generation of occupants, while its outbuildings have been lost.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"George Bowman (builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition recorded as excellent; the original barn, carriage house, chicken coops, bake oven and smoke house no longer remain.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:29.16683-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79003140.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003140/44b4ce1786-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003140/44b4ce1786-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BowmanHomestead.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BowmanHomestead.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996432","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowman_Homestead","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4951321"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/bowman-homestead-79003140/"}