Pocono History & Art Trail

Expiration: 3 years after purchase

Follow the Pocono History & Art Trail to discover important American landmarks in the Pocono Mountains! Small town museums to visit in the Poconos represent notable moments in Pennsylvania history and offer visitors a chance to dive into the richness of both the past and present.


Included Venues

See locations on an interactive map.

Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation

The Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation is home to one of the largest and most historically pertinent collections of Abstract Expressionism in Pennsylvania, often exhibiting works from the New York School, Bay Area, and local artists.

Antoine Dutot Museum & Gallery

Take a journey through time and relive the history of the Delaware Water Gap at the Antoine Dutot Museum & Gallery. A charming old brick school house (circa 1850) with a museum of local history and a restored 1930s-era classroom on the second floor. The downstairs gallery features rotating exhibits from regional artists.

Asa Packer Mansion Museum

Built in the Victorian Italianate architecture style in 1861, this beautiful home was the residence of Asa Packer. Among his many accomplishments, the multi-millionaire built the Lehigh Valley Railroad and founded Lehigh University. Today, you will see his mansion just as it stood during Packer's lifetime.

Bethany Public Library

The brick and concrete building that houses the Bethany Library was built in 1823 to contain the records of the local courthouse and county officials. It was originally known as the "Vault," or the "Fireproof Building," as a previous courthouse and jail had burned to the ground.

Carbon County Courthouse

Built in 1893 and woven in the historic tapestry of the Molly Maguires. This site is a Victorian lover's dream, refurbished in 1993 but also leaving original Victorian furnishings.

Cresco Station Museum

The history of the Cresco Station goes back to 1857 when a crude depot was built in Oakland Station (later named Cresco) for the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad that passed through. The museum displays many 1800s artifacts such as school equipment, farming tools and railroad memorabilia.

D&H Gravity Depot Museum, Waymart Area Historical Society

The history of the Cresco Station goes back to 1857 when a crude depot was built in Oakland Station (later named Cresco) for the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad that passed through. The museum displays many 1800s artifacts such as school equipment, farming tools and railroad memorabilia.

Delaware & Hudson Canal Park at Lock 31

Constructed from 1825 to 1829, with 16 miles of gravity railway and 108 locks over a 108-mile canal, it was built to transport anthracite coal from mines in northeastern Pennsylvania to markets on the Hudson River. Originally a path for mules pulling canal boats, many sections of towpath have been transformed into recreational trails.

Show more
Dimmick Memorial Library

Cottage styled cross-gabled library located in historic Jim Thorpe designed by T. Rooney Williamson first opened on October 1, 1890.

Dingmans Ferry Bridge

The Bridge at Dingmans Ferry traces its roots to the mid 18th century. This is a private toll bridge over the Delaware River connecting Route 739 in Dingmans Ferry, PA with Route 560 in Layton, NJ.

Dorflinger Factory Museum

Dorflinger Factory Museum is a regional industrial heritage museum celebrating the history and craftsmanship of the Dorflinger Glass companies in Brooklyn, New York and White Mills, Pennsylvania. Housed in the Dorflinger factory's restored cutting shop and factory office building, the Dorflinger Factory Museum is home to a premier collection of Dorflinger Glass tableware.

Show more
Dorflinger Glass Museum

The Dorflinger Glass Museum houses one of the nation's largest public displays of Dorflinger crystal. The museum maintains elegant displays of fine cut, etched, engraved, gilded and enameled crystal produced in Christian Dorflinger's factories between 1852 and 1921

East Stroudsburg Railroad Switch Tower

The East Stroudsburg Railroad Tower is a well-preserved historic structure built in 1908. It was vital to the development of East Stroudsburg, which was nurtured by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and successors through the mid- 1980s. You will be intrigued by what you see atop a 20 step climb.

Equinunk Historical Society

The Equinunk Historical Society maintains the Joel Hill Water-Powered Sawmill and the Calder House Museum. The Calder House Museum is open year-round by appointment for genealogical and historical research.

Gallery at 530 Main

The Gallery at 530 Main is a vibrant community art space in the heart of downtown Stroudsburg, showcasing a diverse collection of works from local and regional artists. With rotating exhibitions, special events, and a welcoming atmosphere, the gallery celebrates creativity across various styles and mediums.

Greene-Dreher Historical Society

The Greene-Dreher Historical Society’s mission is to preserve the history of Greentown, Newfoundland, South Sterling, La Anna and Promised Land. The society has two museums: the Peggy Bancroft Hall and a barn museum including outdoor exhibits. The society presents a monthly program from March through November.

Grey Towers National Historic Site

Milford's Grey Towers is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot was a Pennsylvania Governor, conservationist, and first Chief of the US Forest Service. The estate, built on nearly 100 acres, is one of the Forest Service's most significant cultural resources.

Hickory Run Boulder Field

Boulder field is a true relic of the past. This area is a National Natural Landmark, and State Park Natural Area. It has remained relatively unchanged for more than 20,000 years.

Hugh Moore Park

Located in Hugh Moore Park, Easton, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that preserves, interprets, and leverages the nationally significant history of the over 165-mile transportation route of anthracite coal between Wilkes-Barre and Bristol.

Joel Hill Sawmill

The Equinunk Historical Society maintains the Joel Hill Water-Powered Sawmill and the Calder House Museum. The Joel Hill Sawmill is a working, 1850s water-powered sawmill with scheduled demonstrations throughout the year.

Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Little Bethel Historical Association is a a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church building on 3rd Street in Stroudsburg, PA. It was established in 1868 and it was the only church that minorities could go to at the time. The last time this was an operating church was back in the 1970s.

Show more
Mauch Chunk Museum & Cultural Center
Monroe County Courthouse
Monroe County Historical Association
Morgan Gallery of Fine Arts

Welcome to The Morgan Gallery of Fine Arts, the premier destination for contemporary realist painting, fine American craft, and distinctive sculpture and furnishings. For over 20 years, we have proudly served the Pocono region as its oldest and most established fine art gallery.

No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum
Old Jail Museum
The winding mountain streets of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania are rich in history. Back at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the town was known as Mauch Chunk, more millionaires lived here than in any other place in the country. Most made their fortunes through mining the rich anthracite coal deposits in the surrounding mountains, and their elegant Victorian mansions can still be seen at the bottom of Broadway Street. But if you follow Broadway further up the hill, you’ll find the Carbon County Jail standing sentinel above the town. Now home to the Old Jail Museum, this building was once at the center of the infamous Molly Maguires mining conflict. By the 1870s, Irish immigrants formed a large portion of the local workforce. They faced discrimination and dangerous conditions both in the mines and aboveground, as violence and conflicts were common in the area. As miners worked to unionize, the president of the Reading Railroad hired a Pinkerton detective to infiltrate the group and gather evidence against an alleged secret society of destructive Irish immigrants called the Molly Maguires. Ultimately, 20 men were sentenced to death based on the detective’s testimony, and 7 were hung on the gallows in the Old Jail’s courtyard. But the guilt of the Molly Maguires is still debated today. One of the condemned Irishmen put his left hand on the wall of cell 17 and proclaimed that his handprint would remain as proof of his innocence. Pay a visit to the Old Jail Museum to examine it for yourself! You’ll also be walking the same hallways as Sean Connery, who starred in a 1970 movie about the Molly Maguires that was filmed on the premises.
Show more
Pike County Courthouse
Pocono Heritage Center
Pocono Historical Trolley Tour
The Pocono Historic Trolley is elegantly restored and harkens back to a bygone era with authentic interiors, turn-of-the-century design, and the music of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians flowing from the loudspeakers. Your ride down memory lane is delivered in open-air comfort as you visit the quaint town of Delaware Water Gap, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and surrounding areas.
Show more
Pocono Indian Museum
Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm
As you explore the Pocono Mountains region, you’ll pass many scenic crop fields and historic barns and farm buildings. Farmers have worked this land since the first European immigrants arrived in the area in the late1700s, and one local museum allows visitors the chance to step back in time and see firsthand what life was like in the Poconos in the past. In 1765, the Depper family sailed from Rotterdam to Philadelphia and settled just outside of Stroudsburg at what is today the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm. A Hessian soldier serving in the Revolutionary War married the only daughter, Katherine Depper, and the farm stayed in the family for close to 150 years. The 114 acres remain much as they would have been in generations past, with pastures and woodlands that are home to livestock like pigs, chickens, and the farm’s workhorses Jenny and Judy. First-person interpreters share what it was like to make a living off the land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from baking bread to braiding rugs. It was a time when most tasks were completed by hand rather than by machine, and many heritage crafts and skills are on display. Life in that time moved along with seasons, and Quiet Valley marks the passing of the year with events like Farm Animal Frolic weekends in the spring, a chance to meet adorable baby bunnies, lambs, and goats, a Civil War Encampment in the summer, a Harvest Festival with candle dipping, spinning wool, and scrapple making in the fall, and Old Time Christmas weekends in December celebrating the yuletide traditions of days gone by. Whatever the time of year, Quiet Valley Farm offers a chance for visitors of all ages to step back in time.
Show more
Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct
Did you know that New York City’s famous Brooklyn Bridge has a younger brother right here in the Poconos? Built in 1847 about 20 years before John A. Roebling would design the Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen is the oldest existing wire suspension bridge in the United States. It's also a U.S. National Historic Landmark and a National Civil Engineering Landmark. The Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River is now one of the peaceful National Parks in the Poconos, but this area once hummed with industrial activity from the historic Delaware and Hudson Canal. Constructed in the 1820s, the D&H was a 171-mile transportation network that brought fuel from the hills of Pennsylvania to power nineteenth century homes and businesses in New York City and beyond. Moving Anthracite coal from the mines to Manhattan presented many engineering challenges. In Honesdale, another spot along the Pocono History Trail, the nation’s first steam locomotive to run on commercial tracks brought the coal to the river, where it was transferred to canal boats, but coal wasn’t the only cargo that needed to cross the water. When frequent collisions between canal boats and timber rafts became a problem, John Roebling stepped in with a plan to move the canal above the river. For fifty years, the aqueduct helped alleviate river traffic until the canal closed in 1898. Today, cars and pedestrians have taken the place of canal boats and mules crossing the bridge. Book a kayaking trip or launch your own boat from the nearby Zane Grey Public Access Boat Launch to get an up close view of the aqueduct from the water. Keep an eye out for bald eagles who make their winter home in the area. Continue your trip along the Pocono History Trail with a visit to the Zane Grey Museum!
Show more
Rosemary Remembrances II Art-Gifts & Lodging
Schisler Museum and McMunn Planetarium
St. Mark's & St. John's Episcopal Church
Switchback Railroad Trail
The Art Factory of White Mills
The Columns Museum of the Pike County Historical Society
The Poconos has been a favorite getaway destination for generations of vacationers. A hundred years ago, tourists from New York and Philadelphia loved to escape from the city for a rural retreat just as they do today. Many wealthy industrialists built stately summer homes in the town of Milford near the scenic Delaware River: Grey Towers National Historic Site, former home of the Pinchot family and another stop along our History Trail, is one of them. The elegant Columns Museum on Broad Street is another. In the late 1800s, savvy Irishman Dennis McLaughlin rose from newspaper boy to largest landowner in Hudson County, and he had this neoclassical mansion built as his quiet place in the country in 1904. You’ll find memories of the McLaughlin family inside, including angels carved to represent Dennis’s eight children on the second floor, but the building now houses a wide array of artifacts as the home of the Pike County Historical Society. The most famous exhibit showcases items from the infamous Ford’s Theater. The actress Jeannie Gourlay was performing on stage at Ford’s on the night of President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. The 36-star flag, stained with Lincoln’s blood, that was used to cushion the President’s head after he was shot was brought to Milford by Jeannie, where it is now on display along with several of her stage costumes. Plan a visit to the Columns Museum to see the flag for yourself along with other exhibits that chronicle the history of the area’s residents, from the Lenape Indians to war veterans to famous Pragmatist philosopher Charles Saunders Peirce.
Show more
The Hall at Castle Inn
The Harry Packer Mansion Inn
When you look up at the imposing Victorian façade of the Harry Packer Mansion in Jim Thorpe, you may think grim grinning ghosts are about to come out to socialize. That’s because this building was referenced by Disney imagineers when they designed the Haunted Mansion attraction at Walt Disney World! Built in 1874 and designed by the architect Addison Hutton, this historic luxury inn was originally the home of Harry Packer. Harry was born in the town of Jim Thorpe, then known as Mauch Chunk, and was the youngest son of industrialist and philanthropist Asa Packer. Harry graduated from the university founded by his father, Lehigh University, in 1870 and married Augusta Lockhart in 1872. Asa lived in the other mansion on the hill just a stone’s throw away, now a museum and another stop along the Pocono History Trail. He had the Harry Packer Mansion built as a wedding gift for his son and his wife. Harry later succeeded his father as a leader in town and as president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Today, the mansion is a bed and breakfast where guests can book an overnight stay to surround themselves in the elegance of the past. The rooms are decorated in Victorian opulence, and the mantlepieces, mirrors, chandeliers, and doors are original. The front veranda offers a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains which give the area its nickname of “Little Switzerland.” Some of the bed and breakfast rooms are located in the adjacent Carriage House which was built in 1861 and served as home for the Packer family’s horses and coaches. Although this mansion isn’t haunted, the inn does offer Murder Mystery Weekends, and ghost tours are popular in town in the fall.
Show more
The Stabin Museum
Tobyhanna Train Station
TOUR - Jim Thorpe Trolley Company, Inc

Enjoy a scenic tour on an old -fashion style Trackless Trolley in and around Jim Thorpe! Tastings included with your ticket price at each of our 3 stops! Saturday afternoons by reservation and subject to availability.

Wallenpaupack Historical Society
Wayne County Arts Alliance
Wayne County Courthouse
Wayne County Historical Society

Step inside the Old Stone Jail and uncover the secrets that still echo within its walls. This historic landmark has stood for centuries, guarding stories of mystery, intrigue, and ghostly whispers from the past. Visitors daring enough to enter will experience Jail Tales—an immersive haunted tour that reveals the darker side of Honesdale’s history. Chilling, unforgettable, and steeped in legend, the Old Stone Jail invites the brave to explore where history and the supernatural intertwine.

Show more
Zane Grey Museum
The museum was the home of the renowned Western fiction writer from 1905 to 1918. A visit will take you to a quiet place, insightful of the past. Today the museum is self-guided with National Park Service rangers and volunteers available to answer questions and provide for sale a variety of Zane Grey books currently in print.