The Simler House: Philipsburg's Oldest Survivor

The log cabin John Henry Simler built in eighteen oh seven still stands in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, making it the oldest remaining structure in town. Simler built it as a modest log dwelling.

Over the following decades the building changed hands and purposes repeatedly, serving at various times as a home and for other uses. That kind of layered use, multiple lives in a single structure, is exactly what keeps a building standing when most others are torn down. The Simler House outlasted generations of development in Centre County and remains a tangible link to the early days of Philipsburg.