…only 15 minutes from the Spillway at Pymatuning State Park
The cool thing about opening the Gibson House Manor to the public every single day is that we meet the most amazing visitors from all across the country and regionally who are searching for interesting destinations to visit in their travels. We also get to meet the local residents who they are visiting and who often bring their guests to the Manor as a cool, new destination. There has never been a venue quite like the Gibson House Manor in northern Mercer County before.
Our primary mission is historic education, so we give fascinating tours about the history of the Underground Railroad and how conductors and safehouses were used to help runaway slaves escape to freedom. Two weeks ago we hosted the entire 8th grade of Greenville High School in Greenville, PA. Last week we hosted a broad cross section of grades from New Castle School District. They got to walk through the house and Carriage House and see all 11 places in the house that were designed to hide and protect slaves on their way to Lake Erie and Canada just before the breakout of the Civil War. Those tours are available 7 days a week from 11 am to 2 pm at the Manor. You can buy tickets on our website or make reservations by calling or texting 724.456.4983.
Two new calendar items worth mentioning: We now offer a Champagne Sunday Brunch every Sunday with our tours. Mimosas, Cranberry Juice Poinsettia’s and Champagne Bloody Mary’s along with a full hot breakfast and sausage, ham and bacon and baked sweet treats. Plenty of hot coffee and tea and tours running during the event. We also have a monthly British High Tea one Friday per month that restores your faith in old fashioned, elegant conversation, music and wonderful food in the British tradition. We used to only offer this tea at Christmas time and found that many people preferred having tea at other times of the year. We started our monthly series in March of 2025, and it has been well-received. We intend to continue the tradition indefinitely.
We started a lecture series for women in the region in April featuring the international lifestyle author, Alexandra Stoddard. We zoomed her in from Stonington, CT and she joined our group virtually to talk about “Living a Beautiful Life.” We were amazed at how each woman who attended seemed to be on the brink of a new chapter in their lives and the theme really resonated with them. Everyone got to share their own story, and we made new friends. In May we did another session with a new group of women and Alexandra really got to speak to each member of the group. We all left feeling revitalized and grateful for those few hours with good food, good new friends and a thoughtful speaker. Our monthly series continues on June 27th, July 11th, and August 8th. Check out the calendar below for topics.
Dad’s Day on June 15th with a manly lunch, a mystery tour of the Manor and Carriage House…okay a few ghost stories….from 11 am to 3 pm…with libations $38 per person and $16 for children….without libations $27 per person and $16 for children….$5 off for veterans and veteran family members (show identification). Call for reservations or sign up directly on our website 724.456.4983.
This will be our first summer offering a one-week Summer History “Time Traveler” Camp for Students from 3rd to 7th grade at the Manor from 10 am to 2 pm daily Monday through Friday the week of June 23rd and July 21st. Call 724.456.4983 for reservations and information about scholarships. $135 for the week without a scholarship. Fun activities every day that educate students about life in the 1800’s.
Juneteenth (Thursday, June 19th) is right around the corner (when Texas finally conceded the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves under Executive Order from President Abraham Lincoln). In honor of the day, we are having an evening dinner/fundraiser (recommended donation $20 per person) for dinner and a presentation by President Abraham Lincoln himself on how he came about drafting the Emancipation Proclamation and the impact it had on the country. Call 724.456.4983 for reservations.
Our international dinner series has been fascinating to us. We saw the interest at Christmas when we offered the Victorian Christmas Around the World Theme. We featured 11 countries that emigrated to the United States in the 1800’s. After Christmas we decided to feature those countries in an International Dinner Series. We had already researched the Christmas traditions of those countries. Now we got to research the foods and search for chefs from those countries to validate our recipes. We even started taste testing our recipes a few weeks before the event just to make sure we had the recipe perfected. In June we will feature the menu from an 1895 State Dinner held by Czar Nicholas and Alexandra from historic Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution. In July we are doing Hungary, in August we are doing Austria and in September, Switzerland. We always have libations from Gatehouse Winery with these dinners. Reservations can be made online or by phone up to a year in advance.
Speaking of Christmas, it is around the corner again. We are already planning the countries we will feature this year, and our Historic Education Christmas Committee is starting to meet. We are actively recruiting groups and organizations that would like to help us with decorating one of the rooms from November 3-6 from 3:15 pm to 6:15 pm. We will provide food, snacks and drinks and theme ideas for that country. We are asking each group to supply one décor/traditional decoration from that country and we will provide the rest. Our goal is to close the Manor for four days and complete all decorating before Friday of that week. The countries the committee has decided on are as follows: England (2 rooms), Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary/Austria, Yugoslavia, Japan, Poland, Greece, America 1776 to 1900 including African American decorations from the 4 million slaves occupying the US during that time. Note that the organizations who helped last year will get to choose their countries first. Then we will open up the rest of the countries to new organizations.
About Us: Built in 1856 as a private residence for Dr. and Mrs. William Gibson, the house was occupied by private residents until 1956 (after the Gibson’s passed away, they willed the house to the McMasters, who kept it in their family for another 50 years). In 1956 the house was sold to two gentlemen from Greenville who turned it into a restaurant. From 1956 until 1996, the house passed through a few hands and was actually 6 different restaurants, until the last one closed in 1996. In 2002 the house was purchased by a non-profit organization that was committed to preserving the house. During the next thirteen years the house was mostly under renovations and for a brief period, was rented to two different restaurant owners who leased the space and operated it as a commercial restaurant. Unfortunately, in 2015 the house went into receivership and then was bought by a conservation foundation in New York. That foundation held it until 2023 when the Friends of the Manor Charitable Trust was formed and took over operation of the Manor as a historic education visitors center. Our very first Underground Railroad Tour was in March of 2023 for the Mercer County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau who had organized an all-day bus tour of Underground Railroad landmarks in Mercer County. That was when we learned that the Gibson House Manor was one of the only underground railroad safehouse still virtually intact from 1856 that was still standing and open for tours. Since then, we have learned that there are only a handful of similar safehouses in the entire United States. So, we are privileged to be the caretakers and owners of this property.
For a complete calendar of events, download https://gibsonhousemanor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Event-Calendar.pdf. Happy June! AFB MMS JEB