ENTER      Last update: May 20, 2013   

Allison-Antrim Museum is tucked into the residential community on South Ridge Avenue across from the Greencastle-Antrim Middle School, and for this reason it is somewhat camouflaged to the passersby.  Inside its front door though, lies a gem where one may discover Greencastle-Antrim's Heritage.  Admission is free, so it makes the perfect family destination during these difficult economic times.  It's located directly across from the GA School District campus and provides opportunities for students at all grade levels with educational field trips.  The Pennsylvania Department of Tourism has designated Allison-Antrim Museum an official site on the Pennsylvania Civil War Trails of History.

Museum Hours: ● Weekdays 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm ● Any other time by appointment ● Visit Website for special weekend events and dates.  ● Groups welcome, reservations required. ● Handicap information Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Contact Information: 365 South Ridge Avenue Greencastle, PA 17225 717-597-9010 Email  Directions  Note: For those looking for Antrim, PA, click here.

Please Help Support The Museum Allison-Antrim Museum is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. All donations are tax deductible. PayPal will allow you to use your credit card or PayPal to make a donation. .

Mission Statement
Allison-Antrim Museum, Inc. will serve as an educational resource and develop partnerships for and with the Greencastle-Antrim School District and other educational institutions enhancing the study of local and regional history, including: social/cultural/political development; military history; and history of industry/commerce/agriculture. Allison-Antrim Museum, Inc. is dedicated to upholding the professional and educational standards as set forth by the American Alliance of Museums.

Civil War Letters and Transcriptions
One hundred and fifty years ago on August 4, 1862 President Lincoln issued a request for 300,000 additional troops from the Northern states to step forward and serve the Union in the American Civil War.  The men of Franklin County answered that call by enlisting in nine-month regiments.  Some of the letters written by two men, George Frederick Ziegler I from Greencastle and Samuel W. North from the Mercersburg area were kept by several generations of each family.   The Ziegler letters were donated to Allison-Antrim Museum by the late David O. Nicodemus and his son John in 2004.  David married Anne Ziegler, granddaughter of G. Fred Ziegler I.  The North letters were acquired by the former Greencastle Civil War Round Table, which donated its full collection to Allison-Antrim Museum on July 9, 2003.  A third soldier from this area was Joseph A. Davison, Antrim Township, who enlisted for three years after President Lincoln’s April 1861 call for 75,000 volunteers, after the fall of Fort Sumter.  The Davison family still has Joseph’s Civil War letters but has been generous enough to share them with the museum. 
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Underground Railroad
The 1858 and 1868 Antrim Township maps show M. (Moses) Anderson (eldest son of Timothy) on Ridge Road.  On the 1868 map an additional site off of Route 11 south of Greencastle is indicated, where the Anderson family owned a lumber mill. It was here that the Andersons employed former slaves.  If the Andersons employed escaped slaves and, post-war, freed slaves, then perhaps they did more than just employ fugitives.  In September 2009, a book written in 1897 by Rev. Dr. Matthew Anderson entitled Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro was discovered to exist.  Part One was about the establishment of the Berean Presbyterian Church in northwest Philadelphia for African Americans.  Part Two…was his autobiography, where Matthew wrote, “Among the earliest impressions made upon our childish mind were the tales of horror about the South told by the fleeing fugitive as he lay in the secret enclosure of my father’s house where he was concealed.”  There it was, a primary source, a firsthand account of his father’s participation in the UGRR.
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May Exhibit
The special monthly exhibit is vintage hats and bonnets from the collection of Sherry Moon, State Line, which will be displayed in the south exhibit bay.  The oldest bonnet, a calash, sometimes called a pancake bonnet, was popular from 1770 to the 1830s.  The calash was originally designed to be worn over the high hairstyles of the 1770s.  The bulk of her collection ranges from 1800 to 1900 and continues through 1960.  Moon has been collecting for about 10 years and speaks to various groups about the many styles of hats and bonnets over the centuries.  Although DuPont invented Lucite in 1931, it was not until the early 1950s that this “plastic” became a popular medium for box purses, which came in all shapes from rectangular to round to log-shaped.  They could be clear, opaque, sparkly, patterned such as, tortoise shell, or even pink! 

June 2, 2013 (rain date June 9)
3^rd Annual Spring Garden Tour
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Greencastle-Antrim Civil War 150
Several events to commemorate Greencastle-Antrim’s Civil War 150^th are planned between Father’s Day weekend and November 2, 2013. 
Saturday, June 15
   at Allison-Antrim Museum, Civil War historians will speak about the Gettysburg Campaign.
Sunday, June16
   Allison-Antrim Museum members will be in local cemeteries honoring the veterans.
Old Home Week
   Ted Alexander will speak on "When War Passed This Way" in the museum barn
Friday, November 1 and Saturday, November 2
    Various Civil War events at Green Grove Gardens
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Exhibit - June through August:
Never before publicly seen GA Civil War exhibit.

August 3–11, 2013
Old Home Week
Allison-Antrim Museum will be open three hours for eight days that week. 
Volunteers are needed to help man the museum house and barn.

Ulsterscots of Cumberland Valley
History and Genealogy Resources by Gordon Crooks
Go to Ulsterscots
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History of Museum Property
Alexander L. Irwin bought 14 acres and 76 perches of land from Jacob Stover May 3, 1860. This piece of land was part of the original tract of land belonging to John Allison that is now known as the Tayamentasachta Environmental Center. The 1860 county tax records indicate that Irwin built the house, that is now Allison-Antrim Museum, in that same year.  The Irwin family owned "Walnut Hill" for 73 years, from May 1860 until the death of Sarah Annie, his last surviving child, in December 1933. The two youngest daughters, Sarah Annie and Margaret Belle, never married. Upon the death of Sarah Annie the property was willed to the United Presbyterian Church of North America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  We surmise that the property, while under the 2 1/2-year ownership of the church, was rented. The church then sold it to Cletus L. and Maude C. Zimmerman in September 1936. The Zimmerman's owned the property until 1988 when they sold it to the May's. Allison-Antrim Museum then bought the property in April 1998.
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The Barn
When the long-range plan for AAMI was developed in 1999, one of the objectives was to provide the proper storage environment with climate control for the museum’s collections, which would be built according to archival standards.  The primary action plan to fulfill that goal was to build a separate curatorial storage facility.

Some of the considerations included in the concept were maintaining the historic integrity of the property, the aesthetics of placing another building in proximity to the 1860 house, and the stated purpose of AAMI which is to preserve, exhibit, and interpret, items that will serve to illustrate the history of the Borough of Greencastle and Antrim Township.

The barn itself is an exhibit and the upper level provides exhibit, meeting and workshop areas. The lower level has storage for the collections.

The addition of the barn facility allows Allison-Antrim Museum to expand its programs and become more of an integral part of the Greencastle-Antrim community by strengthening its partnership with the school district and helping to increase the economic vitality of the area.

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