Nov 15, 2002 By Cindy Ekas-Brown 9 min read

LAUGHLINTOWN – Glowing candles will light the way for visitors as they listen to stories about life in the early 1800s and admire historic artifacts throughout the Compass Inn Museum, which will be decorated with natural accents for the Thanksgiving season. The visitors will see roaring flames rising from three original brick and stone fireplaces as they hear the crackling sounds of burning wood. They will smell the sweet and succulent aroma of dried fall flowers, pumpkins, Indian corn and gourds that will fill the authentically restored 1799 stagecoach stop during the annual harvest candlelight tours.

“It’s hard for me to say exactly how long we’ve offered the harvest candlelight tours,” said Lisa Hays, executive director of the Ligonier Valley Historical Society, the group that owns and operates the Compass Inn Museum in Westmoreland County. “But this is our 30th year, and we have been doing candlelight tours since almost the beginning.”

Hays said the historical society originally began to feature the harvest candlelight tours, which will be offered from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 24, as a way to enhance interest during a time of year when the inn doesn’t attract very many visitors.

“The outbuildings that are here aren’t heated so we didn’t normally get a lot of visitors once the weather turned colder,” she said. “The candlelight tours were started to enhance the inn when the outbuildings are closed. We decorate the inn with natural accents that you would find in the field and in the garden this time of the year during the harvest season.”

Hays said the tours begin on the back porch, where tour guides explain to visitors how the Compass Inn fits into the region’s history.

The building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic places, features three sections. They include the original 1799 log section built by Phillip Freeman; a stone section that was added onto the inn in 1820 to accommodate stagecoach travelers after completion of the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Turnpike; and a third section constructed in 1862.

“When the tour begins, the tour guides talk about the historical significance of the Compass Inn,” Hays said. “The Compass Inn is a restored stagecoach stop, which was closed to guests in 1860 shortly before the Civil War.”

The most interesting feature of the back porch is the original 1820 door with a built-in shutter that is raised to protect the door glass when the inn is closed, Hays said.

“You can close the built-in shutter and lock the door when the inn is closed,” she said. “A lot of the glass in the inn is period glass, and it is original. You can see the imperfections in the glass like bubbles that were typical during that time period. The back porch is a good place to begin the tours because visitors can see the log section, the stone section and the addition. It gives you an overview of what you’re going to see inside the inn.”

When visitors enter the museum through the back porch, Hays said they are escorted into the common room, which served as a gathering place for men during the early 1800s. A large stone fireplace that could accommodate open-hearth cooking serves as the room’s focal point.

The common room also features a corner bar area, tavern tables and a pewter cupboard. The antique pieces date back to before 1830. Hays said one of the unique features of the common room is an honor box, a small brass-colored box with a place to insert a coin, which was used as an 18th-century vending machine for tobacco.

“You would put a coin into the honor box, and then you were on your honor to take enough tobacco to fill up one pipe,” she said.

Robert Armor and his wife, Rachel, who owned and operated the inn in the early 1800s, owned many of the original antique pieces that are showcased during the tours, Hays said.

“We have Armor’s money bags and a beaver-felt hat in the original case,” she said. “We have liquor licenses original to the building, stagecoach tickets and the Armor family seal for sealing letters. All of those are located in the common room.”

A variety of antique firearm pieces are also displayed in the common room. Hays said a blender buss or coach gun, a weapon similar to those carried by the Pilgrims, is marked Pitt Coach Team No. 5.

“They are called coach guns because they carried them on stagecoaches for protection,” she said. “The gun was small, and it didn’t take up a lot of room. It was very handy to have on a stagecoach in case there was any trouble.”

After the tour leaves the common room, Hays said visitors are escorted into the serving kitchen, which is adorned with many antique kitchen utensils. Herbs hang from the rafters, which feature original wooden beams. A second stone fireplace with an arched top features a painted wooden mantel that was recreated for the room.

“Most of the cooking took place outside in a cook house,” Hays said. “The food was then carried into the serving kitchen where it was kept warm. It’s a work area, and there are a lot of kitchen utensils in the serving kitchen.”

The tour then continues into the ladies parlor, which is more refined than the common room. Hays said the room features an original 10-plate cast iron stove that was used for heat. The antique stove is original to the inn’s 1799 log portion.

The ladies parlor showcases an original wooden cradle and high chair, silver spoons, a reading lamp, the Armor family Bible, Robert and Rachel’s 1805 wedding certificate and wedding silhouettes.

“They weren’t wealthy enough to have their portraits painted,” she said. “But it was inexpensive to have a likeness of yourself done in a silhouette. The silhouettes were done separately. Each 6-inch-square silhouette featuring the faces of both Robert and Rachel is hanging on the wall. The silhouettes are very old, but they’re in extremely good condition.”

A 4-inch-by-4-inch hair album with a red leather-bound cover owned by Suzanne Armor is also displayed in the ladies parlor.

“Suzanne collected hair from her brothers, nieces and nephews, parents and grandparents and displayed the hair in a tiny album,” Hays said. “Some of the hair was braided very fancy, and some of the hair was displayed simply. Suzanne wrote the names underneath the hair sample so we know whose hair it is. The album looks almost like a miniature diary.”

Collecting hair samples was not very popular in the early 1800s, but Hays said it did become a common practice to collect and display hair during the Civil War era and the Victorian period in the late 1800s.

After leaving the ladies parlor, Hays said, visitors are escorted upstairs on the original 1799 wooden staircase, which feature wooden risers, treads and railing.

“The staircase is very basic,” she said. “They turned the tread over because it was worn so bad on the side that had been used for all of those years. The railing has square posts and rounded wood. It’s fairly simple.”

Four upstairs bedrooms feature many beds with authentic coverlets from the time period, blanket chests and standard chamber pots, Hays said.

“The coverlets, which are like bedspreads, were woven on a loom half at a time, and then sewn together,” she said. “The coverlets date before 1830. Most of them are a variation of red, white and blue. Those were the dyes that were cheapest and most available during that time period. Some of them feature a snowflake/pine tree design. That was a standard pattern of the time. Every weaver had his own version of the pattern.”

Each bedroom displays multiple beds. Hays explained that beds are even located in the museum’s hallways because they didn’t like to waste space during the early 1800s.

Hays said an enthusiastic group of volunteers helps with museum tours. She explained that changes have been made throughout the years to make the tours not only educational but also interesting to visitors.

“It’s really a form of entertainment,” she said. “We provide etymology, which is word and expression origins, during the tours. There are a lot of words and expressions that we use today that have their origins in our history. We will keep the expressions when the meaning no longer makes sense.”

During the early 1800s, Hays explained that everyone couldn’t afford to visit the cabinet marker to buy furniture for their homes. Instead, people would take a couple of barrels and place boards across them to make benches.

“Most people sat on benches, which were easier to make than chairs,” she said. “If there was a chair in the room, the most important person sat on the chair. That is where the expression ‘chairman of the board’ originated. There are dozens of expressions visitors will hear during the tours. People really get a kick out of those expressions and their historic origins.”

On a busy day, Hays said as many as 60 people tour the Compass Inn Museum. On slow days, the museum could greet about 20 people. The museum usually attracts visitors from a 60-mile radius, which includes the Uniontown, Greensburg and Pittsburgh areas.

“We’ve even had international guests from Australia, England, France and Poland, but I would estimate about 75 percent of our visitors do come from within a 60-mile radius. It’s a nice day trip for people who live in southwestern Pennsylvania,” she said. “We also get visitors from as far away as Hawaii, Florida and Michigan. We always have repeat customers. Some of our visitors tell us that a neighbor or friend recommended that they take the tour.”

The harvest candlelight tours are offered from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 24. Although the museum stops selling tickets at 5 p.m., the guides continue to give the tours until they have been completed.

“Even though it’s daylight during the tours, the main room is shuttered,” Hays said. “It’s dark, and visitors can still see the candles and get the full effect of a candlelight tour.”

The cost is $5 for adults and $2 for students through high school. Children age 5 and under are admitted free of charge. Walk-ins are welcome, but reservations are recommended for groups of 10 or more. Groups of 20 or more can arrange for private tours, but reservations are required. For more information, directions or tour reservations, call the Compass Inn Museum at 724-238-4983.