The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Loretto was founded in 1799 by Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin as an English-speaking Catholic settlement west of the Allegheny Front. He named it after the town of Loreto, Italy, site of a Catholic place of pilgrimage. Loretto was built adjoining the original settlement founded by Captain Michael McGuire, a Revolutionary War veteran, in 1788. In his will, Captain McGuire donated land to the Catholic Church on which Prince Gallitzin built St. Michael's Church in 1799.
Federal Correctional Institution, Loretto, is a U.S. federal prison located 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southeast of Loretto, on the site of a former Catholic seminary.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Loretto’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Loretto’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Loretto
See all 1 →Loretto, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Loretto is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Loretto has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is A. W. Buck House in Munster, 2.4 miles away.
Loretto and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.