Burtner Festival brings attention to historic house in Harrison

Many people see the outside of the historic Burtner House in Harrison — built close to the Route 28 Expressway, for which it was nearly destroyed, and located on busy Burtner Road, but not many get to go inside.

On a beautiful early fall Saturday — for one of only two days a year folks had their chance to see the inside of the 150-year-old home, part of the Harvest Festival fundraiser that’s been held for more than 50 years.

The stone house remains in excellent condition and harkens back to a time well before television, computers, cell phones and social media.

When, if you wanted to communicate with someone, you had to speak directly to them. Hard for the children, among the hundreds who came through, to imagine. But there was plenty to fascinate them, including four fire places built by Phillip Burtner, the most prominent in the living room where the cooking was done.

The Burtner House was completed in 1821. The Burtners were an important family in the area and one of the first to establish a homestead in this part of the state.

Four generations of the family have lived in the house, which was built with native stone, many dredged from the Allegheny River, and was occupied by at least one member of the Burtner family until 1970. It has lasted through much of U.S. history, through the Civil War and decades of events that came after.

Fittingly, Union Army reenactors, set up an encampment on the grounds. And a man named Rick Miller, who bears a striking resemblance to the 16th American president, walked around dressed like Abraham Lincoln.

Tents were set up for craftspeople to peddle their wares.

“Today is about (creating) awareness,” docent Pete Shiner said. “The idea is to open the house to people who never get a chance to actually see this property. We have people who come back every year, but we also get people who are brand new and are so excited because they always come by and they wonder what this house is all about. This would be a very unusual house for the period in terms of the size of it.”

When the Route 28 Expressway was built in the 1970s, the house was slated to be demolished.

“Rather than coming straight through the house, which was the original plan for Route 28, the original members of the Burtner House Restoration Society petitioned the state government to make it into an historic landmark,” said docent Dakota Jones. “The order for preserving the house came from the capital by a helicopter — not more than a few hours before the house was going to be bulldozed.

“Bulldozers were here, and the front porch was all torn off. They managed to deflect it (the path of the expressway) from going through the house over to where (Route) 28 sits today.”

Lucy Mahdik has been a docent at the Burtner House for 40 years. She has seen a marked improvement over that time.

“At one time you could only go into the living room a little bit, and a little bit into the kitchen,” Mahdik said. “Now you can go living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, attic, spring house, summer kitchen — even the outhouse.

“We are very fortunate we have this home for people to come and visit. The house will always be here, and we will come and go.”