Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania

 Established in 1796, (officially incorporated in 1836), the Borough of Hollidaysburg gets its unique name from Adam and William Holiday, former soldiers from the French and Indian Wars. The brothers were the earliest settlers in the area, and many of their descendants still reside in Hollidaysburg. Hollidaysburg grew from a small market town and tavern stop into an important inland shipping terminal and transfer point on the Pennsylvania Canal, the gateway to the west. Here, 82 foot long canal boats were broken into four sections and loaded onto the Allegheny Portage Railroad to begin their long trek over Cresson Mountain. The town soon became a major commercial gateway at the Allegheny Ridge between the mid Atlantic seaboard and the western frontier of the Ohio Valley. Within the next thirty years, Hollidaysburg became the seat of Blair County, and the Pennsylvania Canal eventually was supplanted by the steam locomotive and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The spire of the County Courthouse, built in 1877, still dominates the Borough's skyline. In those hundred plus years, Hollidaysburg has remained a vital government center for Blair County, with over 5,000 residents living in the Borough.

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