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The Harmony Inn, located in a National Historic District, was the residence of Austin Pearce, a prominent banker, mill operator and railroad executive. He built his Italianate-style home in 1856. The structure featured black walnut and chestnut woodwork and, it was believed, had the first indoor plumbing in the area.
Pearce’s fortunes turned with the failed attempt of the PNC&E railroad and he sold his home to a member of the Ziegler family (a descendant of the Mennonites). Ziegler converted the building into a hotel and a saloon – one of the earliest licensed establishments in Butler County. At the turn of the century, a two-story wing was added to the original structure.
The Zieglers continued operating the Ziegler Hotel for many years. After the family sold the hotel, a procession of owners and names (Manor House, Harmony Hilten) became the sentinels of 230 Mercer Street. The current owners, Carl Beers and Gary and Betsy Barnes, purchased the Inn in 1985. These native Pennsylvanians and former Coloradans began a continuing process of restoring the building back to the grandness of its past.
Harmony Inn – Haunted? There have been innumerable media
reports (KDKA, WPXI, Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette, radio
stations and newspapers from all over Western Pennsylvania) on
the haunting of the Harmony Inn.
- There has been psychic documentation of (friendly) entities at
the Inn.
- There are unexplained air movements and electric impulses.
- There are unexplained images.
- Customers occasionally sense a warm presence.
- Furniture and other inanimate objects have been
transposed without human intervention.
We Believe: This Pre-Civil War Inn has been such a big part of so many people’s lives (home, hotel, meeting house, livery stable, boarding house, watering hole and restaurant), that the spirit is a sort of guardian of a big block of time and its primary goal is to link the past, present and future.
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