Mercersburg Historic District

Mercersburg's central district lies on high ground where Main and Seminary Streets meet at a diamond-shaped square, set among limestone hills of the Cumberland Valley. Its nearly 80 major structures are mostly built of grey limestone, red brick and log, many with front porches and brick sidewalks. The 1798 window tax recorded 48 dwellings in the town, most of them log, stone or brick. Among the surviving houses is one built by Robert Parker in 1781 of stone, now a library, and a brick house that was the boyhood home of James Buchanan, who became the 15th President. The district is valued for its unusually high number of brick buildings for the region and for the consistency of its 18th and 19th century buildings. Its educational history includes the German Reformed Seminary, established in 1835, and Mercersburg Academy, founded in 1893.