Discover these 5 Western PA house museums you probably have overlooked

There are plenty of fascinating museums to visit in the Pittsburgh area, and you might not realize that you’ve probably only heard of a fraction of them. “Hidden gem” is a moniker many of the museums on this list would rather leave behind. You’ll want to check each museum’s website before planning a visit, as many of these sites operate seasonally.

Kerr Memorial Museum

Thanks to shows like “Downton Abbey” and “The Gilded Age,” many of us are familiar with the excesses of Victorian society’s upper classes. But the Kerr Memorial Museum in Oakmont is a study in Victorian restraint. 

“We use the Kerr family as a dialogue on the middle class,” says Joan Stewart, a docent and Kerr Museum board member.

In the 19th century, the distinctions between upper- and lower-middle class didn’t exist. The “middle class” of the period might be better characterized as “professional class” – those families whose breadwinners worked as lawyers, business owners, and, in the case of the Kerrs, doctors.

Dr. Thomas Kerr operated a general medical practice out of his Oakmont home from 1897 until he died in 1931. He first worked out of a home office until moving to a small three-room cottage at the rear of the property in 1905.

His widow, Jessie, and daughter, Virginia, occupied the house until Virginia died in 1994. She willed the property to Oakmont.

“Her only request to the borough was to honor her father,” says Stewart.

Consultants brought in by the borough decided it was a wonderful example of a middle-class family at the turn of the 20th century, so the house reflects life circa 1890-1900. According to Stewart, about 60 percent of the home’s furnishings are original to the Kerr family.

Entering the home, visitors feel as if the family has just stepped out for a stroll and will return at any moment. The table is set with china and silver plate flatware; the piano is open and ready to play. Upstairs, a charming sitting area has been arranged exactly as the Kerrs left it, complete with Dr. Kerr’s natural history collection. In the former medical office, his original prescription pads and medical books are on view.

The museum periodically hosts special exhibitions inside the house. Through Aug. 23, the featured exhibit is a collection of upper-class period fashions that belonged to Margaret Boyle Brown.

A typical tour lasts about 90 minutes and covers the first and second floors as well as the basement.

“It’s like living in a live dollhouse,” Stewart says. “That’s what the house is to us.”

Capt. William Vicary Mansion

No one knows why Capt. William Vicary moved so far inland.

A retired Philadelphia merchant sea captain, Vicary moved his family to Sewickley Bottoms in 1826, where he purchased 604 acres of land. There, he happily situated his home on a hillside overlooking the Ohio River, in what is now Freedom.

The handsome sandstone mansion boasts 20 rooms and a front door made of solid oak 2 inches thick. Members of the Vicary family lived in the home from its completion in 1829 until 1912, when a granddaughter, Anna M.V. Robinson, moved to Los Angeles. 

The house has weathered multiple owners, a fire in 1916, and, finally, the construction of Route 65 in the late 1960s. Since 1999, the mansion has housed the Beaver County Historical Research & Landmarks Foundation. 

“We are not a house full of antiques,” says Brenda Applegate, the organization’s executive director. “We are a living museum.”

After a tour of the mansion, I would add “learning museum” to that description. The organization hosts a robust slate of period programming, focusing on textile work. One program, Windows Through History, allows children ages 7 to 14 to learn sewing techniques beginning in the 18th century with Native American beadwork through late-19th-century Victorian embroidery. Students use antique Singer treadle sewing machines to complete some of the work. Other classes include bobbin lace workshops, spinning and weaving. 

“Folks can rent a loom or come in and take a spinning class,” Applegate says.

In addition to textiles, period food workshops are also a focus. In the fall, the mansion hosts Applebutter Fest, when visitors can try their hand at traditional preserve-making. In the summer months, period baking demonstrations take place at the site’s outdoor oven. On the day I visited, Applegate was preparing to host a Regency-era tea event for 55, complete with reproduction blue willow and redware china.

A tour of the mansion takes about 45 minutes and covers three floors of the house. Applegate says a great time to visit is the first weekend in May during Beaver County History Weekend, when 25 participating sites throughout the county will be open to the public for free. Saturday, Aug. 10 is Vicary Day with historic crafters, demonstrators and free tours of the mansion.

Bayernhof Museum

How to describe the Bayernhof Museum? Docent Dan Mudry would prefer you didn’t try.

“Do me a favor – don’t tell your friends what you saw here,” he told our tour group. “Keep it a surprise.”

It’s in that spirit that I won’t spoil the tour for any potential visitors – but if you’re a fan of “Columbo,” the 19,000-square-foot mansion could easily be a stand-in for many of its villains’ homes, or a great place for a live-action game of Clue. 

Constructed from 1976-82 by Aspinwall native Charles Boyd Brown, the expansive home takes its design inspiration from a traditional Bavarian castle, reflecting its owner’s heritage. Brown’s great-grandfather, John Schneider Loresch, seems to be something of a patron saint of the place, appearing in various tributes around the house. Brown enjoyed hosting friends with lavish food, much of which he cooked himself in the home’s gourmet kitchen.

Brown made his money in the gas industry, manufacturing aluminum gas lanterns of the type you may have in your front yard. He spent his money building the enormous Bayernhof and filling it with every tchotchke imaginable.

“The guy collected everything he could get his hands on, whether it was worth a nickel or a thousand bucks,” Mudry says.

The part of his collection that’s worth far more than a thousand bucks is his music machines. Brown collected everything from tabletop music boxes to room-hogging vintage photoplayers and baby grand player pianos. There also are auto-playing percussion, string and wind instruments. It’s a dazzling and delightful part of the tour to be offered a comfortable seat and be treated to several different music machines throughout the house.

A typical tour lasts about two and a half hours and covers three floors of the house, plus many anecdotes about the eccentric Brown. There may be a secret passage or two – but you didn’t hear that from me!

Woodville Experience

“Idyllic” is the word that comes to mind when visiting Woodville, the early 18th-century estate of Gen. John Neville. Tucked away between Interstate 79 and Washington Pike, the unassuming farm is hiding in plain sight.

Neville was a commander of Fort Pitt and also served as federal inspector of revenue during the Whiskey Rebellion era. The Bridgeville farm wasn’t Neville’s only estate, though it was the one he fled to after some whiskey rebels burned his house at Bower Hill in 1794.

“Everything around us would be about the rebellion,” says Rob Windhorst, a volunteer interpreter. “We here are very much on the law and order side.”

I happened to visit on Woodville’s opening day for the season, and Windhorst was costumed as Isaac Craig, Neville’s friend and son-in-law. Other interpreters offered demonstrations of period weaponry and cooking. Drew Manko, a sixth-generation farmer at Ross Farm, brought his lambs and cow to graze the pasture. They were joined by Woodville’s resident Dominique hens.

“They live here year-round,” board member James Kovanis says. “They’re a period-correct breed. They can survive without modern heating and put on more feathers, which would have been used for bedding.”

The site includes Woodville, the Neville family’s home, as well as several outbuildings, including a barn and a cabin formerly occupied by enslaved peoples. Special events are scheduled throughout the season, including on Juneteenth.

Costumed interpreters offer guided tours of the house on Sunday afternoons from April to December. Tours last about 25 minutes and include the first floor, though you’ll want to allow plenty more time to explore the site afterward.

Kentuck Knob

While the existence of Kentuck Knob is old news to architecture nerds, for many folks it is lost in the shadow of its more famous kin, Fallingwater. Together, the two Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses make for a fantastic road trip.

Kentuck Knob was commissioned by I.N. and Bernardine Hagan, of local ice cream fame, in 1954. The couple had planned to build a home atop a large hill on their property, but Wright had other ideas.

“No house should ever be on any hill or on anything,” he wrote. “It should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other.”

The Hagans wound up with a house built into the side of the hill, though there is a view of the surrounding landscape just past the back patio. It’s an example of Wright’s later Usonian designs and includes his signature built-in furniture, as well as a collection of more recently acquired pieces designed by the architect.

Docents tell tales of Mrs. Hagan secretly installing storage cupboards without telling Wright, who notoriously was opposed to garages and other spaces where junk could accumulate. Mrs. Hagan’s request for a larger kitchen was met with Wright bisecting the planned patio rather than scaling the design, which also resulted in a 19-inch doorway in one spot.

“You go through and I’ll meet you on the other side,” the docent says, wisely.

Today, the house is owned by Lord Peter Palumbo, a British peer and architecture buff. Many Palumbo family photographs and mementos are visible in the home’s bedrooms.

Guided tours take about 50 minutes and include the entire first floor and patio; 90-minute in-depth tours are also available.

The Palumbos have created a sculpture garden on the grounds that is worth spending another hour or so to explore. And, of course, Hagan ice cream is sold in the café.