Marietta Historic District

Marietta is a river town in Lancaster County whose streets around Market Square hold about 136 mostly 19th-century buildings, most of them two or three stories of clapboard or brick. Its early growth came from timber cut in central Pennsylvania and floated down the Susquehanna, and the town served as a rafting stop, a dismantling point and an inland port. The Pennsylvania Canal, completed in 1825, added to this trade, and several lumber mills operated in the town. Later, four blast furnaces and a brass foundry made iron the second major industry, and furnace workers and ironmasters lived in the houses that remain. The Mahaffey House, built in 1820 by ironmaster James Mahaffey, is a Federal brick house, and the Duffy Mansion is a large Victorian house built for businessman James Duffy. Front Street preserves wood buildings from 1815 to 1830 that reflect the town's rowdy early years. After about 1875 the town declined, so its architecture was altered less than most settlements of its era.