Lake View Visitor Center

Visitor Center

NPS

Lake View Visitor Center:

The Visitor Center is a great place to start your visit to Johnstown Flood National Memorial!

The Visitor Center overlooks the remains of the South Fork Dam and the location is where Colonel Elias J. Unger had his barn on the hillside in the 1880s. Unger was the second and last president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Unger's original farmhouse sits next to the Visitor Center as well as a springhouse.

In 2016, the Visitor Center and the area around it took on a whole new name: The Lake View Visitor Center. For years, the area had been referred to as the Unger farm and/or the Unger house. However, in the winter of 2016, park staff, reasearching The Pittsburgh Bulletin, a society newspaper in Pittsburgh from the days of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, discovered that the area was referred to by the club as the Lake View Farm and Lake View House since, at the time, it would have overlooked Lake Conemaugh. With this new information in mind, the area is now known as the Lake View Visitor Center and the Lake View House.

The Lake View Visitor Center contains two floors of exhibits and a film.

Exhibits:
Maps
Views of the former dam
Tactile Displays
Special slide show of historic photographs of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club
Reproduction Morgue Book
Audio program of Johnstown Flood survivor Victor Heiser's story
Temporary Displays

Park Film:
The 35 minute film Black Friday is shown at 15 minutes past the hour (9:15, 10:15, 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, 2:15, 3:15, 4:15). Movie times may be adjusted for school or other large groups. The film is rated PG. Due to copyright, our film is not available for purchase.

Please Note:
There are two Johnstown Flood related sites in the area. Johnstown Flood National Memorial, preserves the ruins of the South Fork Dam, part of the old lakebed, and some of the buildings of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

In the old Carnegie Library in Johnstown is the Johnstown Flood Museum, owned and operated by Heritage Johnstown. The museum features an Academy Award winning film by Charles Guggenheim called The Johnstown Flood.