Category Archive: Heritage Johnstown at Home

The Epstein Family has a long and significant history in Johnstown. Their story of immigration, religion, business, and community history all embody that of many Johnstown families. Over the past few months, Richland High School student Saffron Barrett-Ross catalogued the …

This Heritage Johnstown at Home post is based on research done by members of our organization in the early 2000s as part of an extensive local African-American history project. It was researched primarily by Andrew Baraniak, an AmeriCorps volunteer, with …

By Nicholas Gehlmann. Nick is a volunteer who has been researching military history for us. We’re sharing his research on our World War II heroes for Veterans Day, as part of our Heritage Johnstown at Home series. (Photo above: Main …

October 5-11, 2025 is National Fire Safety Week. For the occasion, Amy Regan, Heritage Johnstown’s curator, takes us on a trip to the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum of Harrisburg to show a special piece of Johnstown’s history.

The Pennsylvania National Fire …

by Amy Regan, Heritage Johnstown curator

The disaster of the 1889 Johnstown Flood presents a question: what would you do if everything you had known was taken away in a single afternoon? Anna Fenn’s story exemplifies the human ability to survive …

At the time of the 1889 flood, Johnstown’s population was about 30,000 people, and 2,209 died in the disaster. Whether you survived or not was largely determined by where you were at the time the flood hit, and sometimes sheer …

By Amy Regan, Heritage Johnstown curator

At the time of the 1889 flood, Johnstown’s population was about 30,000 people, and 2,209 died in the disaster. Whether you survived or not was largely determined by where you were at the time the …

By Nikki Bosley, Heritage Johnstown staff

“It was only a question of time until the dam would break.” – John Fulton

It was 7:00 a.m. on the morning of May 31, 1889, and John Fulton, General Manager of the Cambria Iron Company, …

by Amy Regan, Heritage Johnstown curator

For Women’s History Month, we’d like to share the story of artist Helen F. Price, who was born in Johnstown to Sarah Haws Price and Charles F. Price in 1892. Her parents survived the 1889 …

In the early 2000s, AmeriCorps member Mike Burke worked with Heritage Johnstown (then known as JAHA) and the Johnstown chapter of the NAACP to research early Black history here. By poring through written documentation such as census records, early newspapers, …