LOCATION FILE
Baker Mansion
Altoona, PA
OVERVIEW
A Greek Revival stone mansion built 1844–49 for Elias Baker, ironmaster of the Allegheny Furnace, and occupied by his family until 1914; leased by the Blair County Historical Society from 1922 and owned by it since 1941. It is a museum of the county's history and of the Baker family, whose daughter Anna died in the house unmarried in 1914.
HISTORY
Baker had bought the furnace in 1836; the house was the display of that fortune. The Society keeps its collections here.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
The house's legend is the wedding dress — a gown displayed in a glass case in Anna Baker's room and said to sway or strike the glass, attributed to Anna, forbidden by her father to marry the man she chose. The Society has attributed the dress to Elizabeth Dysart, of the Bell family, rather than to Anna, and has explained the movement by loose floorboards and a case that is not airtight; the dress is reported off display. The dress has its own page in the ODPSI objects registry.
VISITING
Museum hours; tours. The Society's own explanation of the dress is part of the tour.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
INVESTIGATION RECORD
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HISTORICAL RECORD · 0 CITED ENTRIES
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COMMUNITY EVIDENCE
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