Zelienople’s Buhl house brings visitors from the 1800s to the present
This is part two of a two-part series on the Zelienople Historical Society’s two living museums.
ZELIENOPLE — Despite being one of the oldest houses in Zelienople, the Buhl House contains items that were used by people as recently as the 1960s.
The house, which is under the ownership and care of the Zelienople Historical Society, takes people from the era of the Buhls, the early 19th century, to close to modern day. All it takes to see the time pass is a walk from the first floor to the second floor.
Jack McMichael, a docent for the Zelienople Historical Society, donated one of his childhood lunch boxes to the organization to display in the Buhl House. He gives tours of the home where he explains the significance of each item found inside. A Zelienople “lifer,” McMichael said the house-turned-museum showcases everything that made the town what it is today.
“We have two museums in this house, the first and the third floor are for the Buhl family and the second floor is for Zelienople,” McMichael said. “Even if you're not from Zelienople I think it's still enjoyable.”
Even without the artifacts and displays created and collected since the Zelienople Historical Society got the house in 1991, entering the Buhl House is a step back in time. The original building was completed around 1819. Its structure calls back to an earlier era with design choices McMichael points out to visitors.
Peggy McGrogan, a docent for the Zelienople Historical Society, said the organization restored the house over the years, but it’s structure is basically unchanged.
“Notice how wide the stairwells are, they knew they had to move a lot of furniture back in the old days,” McMichael said, gesturing to the stairs leading from the first to the second floor.
The historic look of the house gives way to help visitors relate to the stories held in its walls, which McMichael also shares on his tours.
The Buhl family is nearly as influential on Zelienople as the borough’s founder, Dettmar Basse and his daughter’s family, the Passavants. As McMichael explained, Christian Buhl has a similar story to Dettmar Basse, down to his German heritage and his journey from Europe to an area 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. The trip was arduous, according to McMichael, but Buhl went to Zelienople at the suggestion of Basse.
“He always had a yearning to come to America because he was born in 1776 and America was born in 1776. He belonged in America,” McMichael said of Christian Buhl. “He got so seasick that he said he would never go back on a ship again, and he never did. They landed in Philadelphia and he was the first one off the ship.”
A hat maker by trade, Buhl took his business on the road in Western Pennsylvania, after coming across the stretch of Connoquenessing Creek, which runs through the borough. But it wasn’t the water that caught his attention — McMichael said he “saw dollar signs in that creek.”
“The Buhl family … were couriers, hatters and trappers, they made men's top hats, elegant men's top hats and sold them all through Europe,” McMichael said of the Buhls’ origins in Germany. Once Buhl made it to Zelienople, “he built a log cabin, set up traps, captured beavers, processed their pelts, made these beautiful men's hats, took them to Pittsburgh and sold them for top dollar.”
Christian Buhl married Frederica Goehring, had 11 children with her and became a justice of the peace of Zelienople in the 1840s. Their children and ancestors moved around the U.S., with many finding success in Michigan, McMichael said. The Buhl name remains a well-known moniker around Western Pennsylvania.
One of Christian Buhl’s descendants, Frank Buhl, made a name for himself in Sharon.
“Frank Buhl was the president of Sharon Steel, so they adopted the City of Sharon as their family. They built a hospital, they built a library, they built Buhl Park which is right outside Sharon,” McMichael said. “The last free public golf course in America is in Buhl Park.”
Many relics of the Buhls remain in the Buhl House on Zelienople’s Main Street, just like the Passavant House, which is filled with items from its first family.
McGrogan said that although the two historic houses now have plenty of items from their constructing families, they didn’t come that way when the Zelienople Historical Society first took ownership of them. She said Joan Teichert gave the historical society the Buhl House for $1 in 1991, so it could use it as a hub for all of Zelienople’s history.
McGrogan said the historical society is constantly doing maintenance on the two houses, their gardens and the materials they hold.
“When we got a hold of them there was nothing,” McGrogan said of the historic homes. “It's an ongoing maintenance and restoration.”
But the materials the Buhl House holds are a little more modern compared to its counterpart just a few doors away. Its second floor has items dating back to the Civil War era, but also the last remaining phone company switchboard, given to the Zelienople Historical Society by the Harmony Museum.
“We were the last town in Pennsylvania without dial out phones, and this was the last switchboard,” McMichael said. “Back then, if you wanted to be an operator, they don't care how fat, skinny, young or old you are — they wanted to know how long your arm is.”
McMichael also said the churches of Zelienople are historic on their own, several of them founded and run by members of the Passavant and Buhl families.
St. Paul Lutheran Church was established in 1821 at the behest of Dettmar Basse, and McMichael said its German roots caused much change within the borough and the nation in the 1900s, once the U.S. became entangled in wars with the European nation. In World War I, the conflict resulted in a disposal of German items, from Bibles written in the language to hymnals. Zelienople and Harmony became targets of scrutiny by the U.S. government.
“There were so many Germans who lived in this area that the government sent infiltrators in here, they thought this was a hotbed of activity,” McMichael said. “Some changed their name; if you were Schmidt you became Smith. Wilhelm became Willard. People were so paranoid about being at war with Germany.”
Regarding more recent years in Zelienople’s history, McMichael becomes a spokesman, having been in the first graduating class of Seneca Valley High School. The school was established in the late 1960s through a consolidation of Zelienople’s school and a school in Evans City — which McMichael called a merging of rivals.
Many remnants of Zelienople’s school are kept in the Buhl House, from its basketball scoreboard to school desks to McMichael’s lunch box.
It’s like with the phone switchboard, which McMichael still remembers his home number for — the house is a keeper of history that is still coming.
“I remember my number, 1-3-6-R,” McMichael said of his phone switchboard number. “We still have an operator who worked here.”
The Buhl House is open for tours by appointment only, aside from special events in Zelienople, when its doors are kept open. To schedule a tour, call the Zelienople Historical Society at 724-452-9457.
