Williamsburg Historic District

Williamsburg is a borough in east-central Blair County, Pennsylvania, laid out around 1795 by Jacob Ake on a grid with a central diamond-shaped square at High and First Streets. Its historic district holds 436 properties, most of them houses, with a commercial core along High Street. The town grew in three phases: during the canal era after 1832, when the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal carried iron, farm goods and limestone; during the railroad era after 1873; and during the paper mill era after 1905, when Charles M. Schwab helped establish a mill that became the town's main employer. The district is listed for its range of central Pennsylvania house types, from log-built I-houses and Georgian types to late nineteenth-century Queen Anne and early twentieth-century bungalows, and for its commercial buildings. The Big Spring, a limestone spring that powered mills for much of the town's history, remains part of the district.