Our History

Heritage Place sits on 40 acres of countryside just outside Rockwood, Pennsylvania, surrounded by the fields, woods, and rolling hills that have defined this part of Somerset County for generations.

The history of the property stretches back to the early 1800s. A lot has changed around Rockwood since then, but this land has remained part of the area's long agricultural history.

For more than 60 years, the property has been in the Svonavec family. During much of that time, it was a working farm, and the barn that now hosts weddings and celebrations once housed dairy cows.

It is hard to look at the barn today and picture what it would have been like back then. The building would have been part of the everyday routine of the farm, surrounded by animals, equipment, fields, and the work that came with maintaining a property of this size.

Over the years, the farm changed along with the family and the community around it. The barn eventually stopped being used for dairy cattle, but it never completely faded into the background.

For a while, it found a very different use.

From Dairy Cows to a Haunted House

Before becoming a wedding venue, the barn spent part of its life as a seasonal haunted house.

Every fall, the old farm building was transformed for Halloween. People came to the property for a much different reason than they do today, walking through a darkened barn filled with decorations and surprises.

It is one of the more unusual parts of the property's history, and one that longtime visitors still remember.

That period also showed that the barn could be more than an agricultural building. People enjoyed coming here. The property had the space and setting to bring people together, even if weddings were still years away.

As time went on, the idea of giving the property a more permanent new purpose began to take shape.

A New Chapter

In 2021, the property was refreshed and reopened as an event venue.

Years of agricultural use had given the barn the character that people loved, so the goal was to preserve that character while making the property comfortable and welcoming for weddings and events.

The surrounding 40 acres became an important part of that experience as well.

Depending on the season, the fields and woods can look completely different from one wedding to the next. Crops grow throughout the warmer months, the trees fill in around the property, and fall brings the colors the Laurel Highlands are known for.

Wildlife is also a regular part of life here. Deer are commonly seen around the fields and woods, along with pheasants, foxes, and other animals that make their way through the property.

Those surroundings are a big part of what makes Heritage Place feel like Rockwood.

Generations in Rockwood

Rockwood itself has a long history.

The community grew during the nineteenth century, surrounded by farms and forests and later shaped heavily by the arrival of the railroad. Agriculture, timber, coal, and other local industries supported generations of families throughout Somerset County.

Although the area has changed considerably since those early days, Rockwood has kept much of its rural character.

Drive a few minutes outside of town and you are quickly back among farms, wooded hills, creeks, and long stretches of open countryside.

Heritage Place has grown up alongside that community.

Over the decades, different generations of the Svonavec family have known this property in different ways. Some remember the farm. Others remember the dairy cows. Some remember the haunted house. More recent generations have watched the barn fill with wedding guests.

Each period left something behind.

Becoming Heritage Place

When the property began its next chapter as a wedding and event venue, its history became an important part of its identity.

The name Heritage Place was chosen with that history in mind.

The property had already been passed through generations of the same family. The barn had already served several purposes. There were decades of memories connected to the land before the first wedding guest ever arrived.

Much of what gives the venue its character today comes from that history.

The barn still feels like it belongs here. The surrounding fields are still part of the property. The woods still frame the landscape. Even as improvements have been made over the years, keeping that connection to the original property has remained important.

Today

Today, Heritage Place welcomes couples and families from Rockwood, Somerset County, the Laurel Highlands, and well beyond the area.

On a wedding day, the property looks very different from the working farm it once was. Guests gather outside, the barn is decorated, tables fill the reception space, and music carries through a building that once housed dairy cattle.

But many of the things that make the property special have been here much longer.

The barn is still here.

The fields are still here.

The woods are still here.

And after more than 60 years, the property is still connected to the same family.

Now, every wedding adds another memory to a place that already has plenty of them.

We hope that when people come to Heritage Place, they get to enjoy a small piece of that history while creating some of their own.