Waynesburg Historic District

Laid out in a grid of north-south and east-west streets, Waynesburg is a county seat whose central district holds 224 structures, most of them brick with wood-joist floors and roofs. Its residential blocks are largely late nineteenth century, with vernacular Queen Anne as the most common style, joined by Second Empire, Stick and Georgian Revival houses. Many are two-story dwellings on raised sandstone bases, with porches and gable roofs, and a few retain original multicolored slate. Along High Street, commercial buildings range from early Federal and Greek Revival fronts built between 1850 and 1880 to Italianate and early twentieth century Neo-Classical blocks. The town became the county seat in 1796 and gained commercial importance from wool production and natural gas drilling in the later nineteenth century. Waynesburg College, founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and opened in 1851, anchors the north end, with Miller Hall, a four-story Second Empire building, as its most prominent structure.