Saxonburg Historic District

Saxonburg was planned in 1831 by John Roebling and a group of German emigrants on a grid of long, narrow lots fronting West Main Street. The district contains about sixty-six resources, most of them wood-frame houses and small commercial buildings set on stone foundations, with a few stone and brick churches. Its earliest houses used heavy timber framing with brick and straw infill, a Germanic method. Roebling worked on the community's layout and later developed twisted-wire cable here in 1841 while employed on the Pennsylvania Canal, a development that led to his suspension bridge work, including the Brooklyn Bridge. The district also holds examples of Greek Revival, Italianate, Eastlake and later revival styles, which together show the village's architectural development through the mid-twentieth century.