Town · Harmony, Butler County
Harmony
A small town founded in 1804 by German Pietist followers of George Rapp, with sturdy brick buildings, a history museum and the Harmonists' walled cemetery.
Harmony was built from scratch in 1804 by the Harmony Society, a community of German Pietists led by George Rapp who held their property in common and awaited the Second Coming. They stayed only ten years before moving on to Indiana, and later to Economy, near Pittsburgh, but the sturdy brick and stone buildings they left behind make the village a National Historic Landmark.
The Harmony Museum, in the society's old buildings by the square, tells their story, and the Harmonist cemetery, where the members lie in unmarked graves, is at the edge of town. Old Economy Village in Ambridge, where the society spent its last decades, is a natural second stop, and the big lake at Moraine State Park and the gorge at McConnells Mill are both within half an hour.
Make a day of it
In and around Harmony
State historic site · Ambridge, Beaver County
Old Economy Village
The final home of the Harmony Society, a celibate Christian community, with their 1820s brick and frame buildings, craft workshops and formal garden.
State park · Muddy Creek Township, Butler County
Moraine State Park
Lake Arthur, a favorite of sailors, fills a valley once scarred by coal mines and oil wells, now restored as rolling woods and fields with beaches, cabins and a lakeside bike trail.
Photo: Rona Proudfoot, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County
McConnells Mill State Park
A gorge carved by glacial meltwater, its creek churning past giant boulders, with an 1800s gristmill, a covered bridge, the short trail to Hell's Hollow Falls and whitewater for experts only.
Photo: Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Environmental education center · Brady Township, Butler County
Jennings Environmental Education Center
One of Pennsylvania's few remnants of prairie, bright with purple spikes of blazing star in late July and early August, and among the last homes of the rare eastern massasauga rattlesnake.
Photo: Clint, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Also nearby
Nearby
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Moraine State Park
Lake Arthur, a favorite of sailors, fills a valley once scarred by coal mines and oil wells, now restored as rolling woods and fields with beaches, cabins and a lakeside bike trail.
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McConnells Mill State Park
A gorge carved by glacial meltwater, its creek churning past giant boulders, with an 1800s gristmill, a covered bridge, the short trail to Hell's Hollow Falls and whitewater for experts only.