The Home Office

709 Brighton Road, Pittsburgh PA 15233

homeofficeThe William Penn Association today is headquartered in the so-called “Darlington House” on the Northside of Pittsburgh, formerly the independent city of Allegheny. It came into the possession of the William Penn Association through its 1983 merger with the Catholic Knights of St. George, an originally German Fraternal Society founded in 1881.

The builder of the mansion, Harry Darlington, was himself a self-made man, as were most of the industrial magnates of the Gilded Age. Born in Philadelphia in 1838, he moved to Pittsburgh at the age of twenty-two, where he made his fortune in beer brewing, steel, railroads, gas, and coal ventures.

He decided to have a mansion constructed in the then fashionable Allegheny City, favored by many of the new millionaires. His choice fell to the area around the meeting of Ridge Avenue and Brighton Road (709 Brighton Road), where he had a handsome brick home constructed in the early French Renaissance style. It was a highly decorated mansion with a magnificent staircase and elaborate woodwork throughout the house.

The officers and Directors of the William Penn had the Darlington House restored to its original splendor and beauty in 1983. The Darlington House now stands like a jewel among its neighbors, many of which are now part of the campus of the Community College of Allegheny County.

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