{"nrhp_refnum":"95001253","name":"Old Conemaugh Borough Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Railroad, Adams, and Steel Sts., and Church Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Johnstown","county":"Cambria County","state":"PA","lat":40.32711198500007,"lon":-78.91070970037708,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic neighborhood district of vernacular working-class houses, Victorian mansions, a Railroad Street commercial strip and church and school buildings in the Old Conemaugh Borough area of Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. It contains 335 buildings, most dating from the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is significant for its link to the Gautier Division of the Cambria Iron Company, which employed many residents and supplied company housing, and for its canal-era commercial area along Railroad Street. It also argues the district is significant for its well-preserved vernacular architecture and its small group of high-style Federal, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Gothic Revival buildings.","narrative":"Along the crescent-shaped Railroad Street, on the slope above the old Pennsylvania Mainline Canal basin in Johnstown, sits a working-class neighborhood of plank and balloon-frame houses built between about 1850 and 1934. The district grew from a canal settlement opened in 1831 and later housed mill workers from the Gautier Division of the Cambria Iron Company, which manufactured wire from 1878. Company-built double houses on Gautier and Chapin Streets, built after 1878 for mill workers, remain largely intact. The district holds Johnstown's oldest neighborhood business strip, anchored by the American House of 1832, a Federal-style canal hotel. Its churches and schools include St. Joseph's German Catholic Church of 1868, which survived the 1889 flood. Several Victorian mansions, including Second Empire and Queen Anne houses, stand among the closely packed vernacular homes. The district's architecture is valued for its unusually complete mid-to-late nineteenth-century character.","period_of_significance":"1832-1934","architect_builder":"Walter R. Myton (architect for Central Catholic school and parsonage); C. C. Hornick and Otto M. Hornick (builders)","architectural_style":"Queen Anne; Second Empire; Greek Revival; Federal; Gothic Revival; Romanesque Revival; vernacular","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Some buildings are vacant or altered; the former Hudson Street School is described as vacant, and the 740 Railroad Street storefront is described as vacated and threatened with demolition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.066995-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/95001253.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001253/b4877f9468-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001253/b4877f9468-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Generic1139","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Conemaugh_Borough_Historic_District,_125_Singer_St.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Generic1139</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Conemaugh_Borough_Historic_District,_125_Singer_St.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995986","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Conemaugh_Borough_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083756"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/cambria-county/old-conemaugh-borough-historic-district-95001253/"}