Bowman's Castle, also known as Nemacolin Castle, was built in present-day

Brownsville, Pennsylvania Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, first settled in 1785 as the site of a trading post a few years after the defeat of the Iroquois enabled a post-Revolutionary war resumption of westward migration. The Tradin ...

, at the western terminus of the

Nemacolin's Trail 450px, Braddock's Road, General Braddock's March (points 1–10) follows or parallels (and improves upon) Chief Nemacolin's Trail from the Potomac River to the Monogahela. The route from the summit to Redstone Creek, which could be used by wago ...

on the east bank of the

Monongahela river The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...

. It was built around the original trading post, which was built near the site of

Fort Burd Redstone Old Fort — or Redstone Fort or (for a short time when built) Fort Burd — on the Nemacolin Trail, was the name of the French and Indian War-era wooden fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania militia colonel James Burd to guard the ancient ...

, the latter built by British colonists during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

. Construction on the castle, including addition of a

crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

tower, continued through the Victorian era, when it was considered an engineering marvel. ''Note:'' This includes

History

The trading post was built shortly after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, in the late 1780s. Founder of Brownsville (Thomas Brown) sold the land to a man named William Lynn in 1786. William eventually sold it to Jacob Bowman in July 1795 after his father's death the previous year, as stated in the Property Deed
Property Deed
. Jacob Bowman began constructing the castle during the late 1790s in the community once known as Redstone. The trading post was located at the Redstone Creek river crossing. The community built

flatboat A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

s for travelers and traders on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was the long-time terminus of the western part of

. Likely more than 1,200 years before construction of the fort, trading post or castle, prehistoric

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

had also found this site a strategic one. They built the earthwork

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

s which the colonists called

Redstone Old Fort Redstone Old Fort — or Redstone Fort or (for a short time when built) Fort Burd — on the Nemacolin Trail, was the name of the French and Indian War-era wooden fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania militia colonel James Burd to guard the ancien ...

. Fort Burd was built on top of its sandstone base. The Castle is one of several large buildings of the 1850s (In this case, the site holds part of Fort Burd; the well dug by the Fort Burd soldiers) still standing in western Pennsylvania. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Its alternate name, Nemacolin's Castle, was derived from Nemacolin's Trail, named after the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

chief who helped improve and mark the ancient Native American trail through the Alleghenies. It connected the valleys of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

and the Ohio River

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

on the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...

. Three generations of the Bowman family were the only ones to live in the house/castle. Jacob Bowman and his wife started building the first part of the structure sometime around 1789 (before gaining full ownership of the land in 1795), with a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

on the ground floor and one room above.Official timeline online
/ref> Finding they needed more room, they added a broad hallway. They had nine children. At Jacob's death in 1847, he left the house to his son Nelson. Nelson added the east wing of the house and the brick tower. Nelson Bowman and his wife, Elizabeth, also updated the nursery from a colonial to a Victorian style. Although Nelson married late in life, he and Elizabeth had six children. Only two survived to adulthood. When Nelson died in 1892, he left the house to their son Charles Bowman, who lived there with his wife Leila until his death. By her will, after the widow Leila Bowman died; years later The National Historical Society purchased the house and began to open it up to the public as a museum. It is now maintained and operated as a house museum by the Brownsville Historical Society. It was listed on the

in 1975. It is located in the Brownsville Northside Historic District.

In popular culture

* Interior and exterior scenes for ''Pie Head: A Kinda True Story'', directed by and starring newcomer Hollis McLachlan, were shot at the castle in May 2010.

References

External links

* * * * {{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Houses completed in 1789 Museums in Fayette County, Pennsylvania Historic house museums in Pennsylvania Houses in Fayette County, Pennsylvania 1789 establishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County, Pennsylvania

History

In popular culture

See also

References

External links