Formerly the Cambria Public Library Building.

One of the reasons that we selected this part of the US for our vacation was to visit Johnstown -- the site of the Great Flood of 1889 which is one of the worst man-made disasters in US history. 2209 people died when a poorly-maintained dam at a millionaires' summer resort failed catastrophically and sent a volume of water equivalent to the Mississippi river down the channel of the Little Connemaugh River wiping out communities along the way and slamming into Johnstown. The debris was hung up at the stone bridge (which refused to fail), caught fire and burned for three days. David McCullough's first (and one of my favorites) book was The Johnstown Flood (1968) and a couple of documentaries have been made about the event. In the aftermath, Clara Barton brought new organization The Red Cross and she personally remained in Johnstown for five months overseeing relief and putting her organization on the map.