Painted by: Virginia J Turrill

AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING...

Charles McCafferty built this home in 1883 for his personal use and lived here until 1887. Mr. McCafferty was Bellefonte’s premier builder during the last half of the nineteenth century and built most of the homes on Linn and Curtin streets, which are part of the nationally renown Bellefonte Historic District of Bellefonte.

Other buildings he erected in Bellefonte during this period were the Brockerhoff Hotel on the diamond in downtown Bellefonte.
Governor Curtin’s home (currently the Elks lodge ) just west of the hotel on High Street, and in 1867 he built the grand stone jail behind the courthouse that served the county until it was destroyed by fire in 1959.

Mr. McCafferty’s first wife was the daughter of James Williams and was a descendant of the James Harris and James Dunlop families (Two of the founders of Bellefonte). The Harris family still owned the undeveloped Curtin and Linn portion of Bellefonte and Mr. McCafferty was put in charge of its development.

For thirty years the McCafferty House was used as an office building and when we purchased it in the spring of 2001, it had no kitchen or full bath. Today there is a large kitchen, five showers and two whirlpool tubs. The larger rooms had been divided to make extra offices and have been transformed back to large rooms. The interior is completely operational with some redecorating in process.