The story of Johnstown is so much more than the horrific historic flood of 1889 that nearly destroyed the city, and is, in many ways a singular event that almost defines its history. Like Pittsburgh, Johnstown is seated at the confluence of two rivers, the Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek.

And also, much like Pittsburgh, Johnstown also has a legacy of industry, immigration, resilience, fine architecture, and an awesome landscape with swoon-inducing vistas. Whether through natural calamity or adjusting to the reality of a post-industrial economic realignment, Johnstown has not only endured, it has bounced back time after time.

If you are intrigued by the history of people and places, by the beauty of historic architecture, and the human scale of the built environment that helps define a place, then join us as we explore Johnstown, a city historically characterized by sheer grit of will and resilience.

Saturday, November 2
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

$100.00 per person
This tour is limited to 25 participants.

Tickets will not be available after October 30.

Click here to purchase a ticket.

Traveling in the comfort of a luxury van, we will stop first at the Johnstown Flood Museum. Through artifacts and a multi-sensory experience of the museum’s extraordinary relief map tracing the course of the flood, we will learn about this shattering event, as well as the world’s response to it—a phenomenon that will strike a chord of familiarity in our present world.
We will take a walking tour of the Downtown Johnstown National Historic District.

Containing a truly urban mix of commercial, religious, civic, and residential buildings, the district is a kind of microcosm of architectural styles from the mid-19ththrough the early 20th centuries.

Highlights will include a former mortuary in the Eastlake Style; a church modeled on Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy; the General Office of the Cambria Iron Company, which was, in various iterations, Johnstown’s dominant employer; and a former department store designed by Charles Bickel, architect of numerous commercial buildings in Pittsburgh.