THE ROBERT BARENSFELD CENTER OPENS MAY 3 AT MEADOWCROFT ROCKSHELTER AND HISTORIC VILLAGE IN AVELLA, WASHINGTON COUNTY. | COURTESY MEADOWCROFT ROCKSHELTER AND HISTORIC VILLAGE

The Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, the oldest site of human habitation in North America, is opening its new Robert Barensfeld Center on May 3 to improve the experience for visitors.

The center will include a picnic pavilion, gift shop and other enhanced visitor resources as well as a revamped meeting space to allow for larger groups of students, public programs and event rentals.

Meadowcroft, a division of the Heinz History Center, draws 16,000 to 17,000 visitors each year, and with the new upgrades to its amenities, larger crowds can be accommodated.

“It provides a better experience for the visitors,” says David Scofield, director of Meadowcroft. “The old visitor center was smaller and about half the size.”

The new space is dedicated to Robert Barensfeld, who died in 2021 and was a trustee of the Heinz History Center since it held its original name, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

“Bob [Robert] was a visionary,” Scofield says. “He was involved from the very beginning when the Meadowcroft Foundation, which owned and operated Meadowcroft since the 1960s, first approached the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania to talk about a merger.”

The merger was completed in May 2000, and Barensfeld played an instrumental role in completing the process.

“We are very grateful to the Barensfeld family for helping to make this new Robert Barensfeld Center a reality,” Scofield says.

Meadowcroft was discovered in 1955 when a Washington County farmer, Albert Miller, found a prehistoric tool on his land in Avella. However, it was not until 1973 when Miller connected with James Adovasio, a University of Pittsburgh anthropology professor, to examine the tool and land.

Adovasio determined that the tool was a prehistoric flint knife, and for the next six years the farm became an excavation site where Adovasio and a group of students discovered almost two million artifacts.

The rock ledge overhang, known as the Rockshelter, was tested by the group and found to be a prehistoric campsite for hunters and gatherers dating back 19,000 years. The land has been designated a National Historical Landmark since 2005.

In addition to the Rockshelter, Meadowcroft currently has a 16th century Monongahela Indian Village, 18th century frontier trading post and a 19th century rural village on display showing the evolution of the land’s use over thousands of years.