Warren, PA History

Located along the Allegheny River, Warren is a beautiful city in Warren County, Pennsylvania. During the summer months, you are sure to enjoy the many water activities, while the winter months provide for great fishing and snowmobile trails. There is something for everyone in Warren PA.

Warren was initially inhabited by Native Americans of the Seneca nation. French explorers had longstanding claims to the area which they acted to secure in an unambiguous fashion with an military-Amerindian expedition in 1749 that buried a succession of plaques claiming the territory as France’s in response to the formation of the colonial Ohio Company — and the first of these was buried in Warren but ultimately control was transferred to the British after the French and Indian War. After the Revolutionary War, General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott were sent to the area to lay out a town in 1795. It was named after Major General Joseph Warren. The first permanent structure in Warren, a storehouse built by the Holland Land Company, was completed in 1796. Daniel McQuay of Ireland was the first permanent inhabitant of European descent. Lumber was the main industry from 1810–1840, as the abundance of wood and access to water made it profitable to float lumber down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh.