Latodami History
The 250 acres on which Latodami Nature Center now operates is recognized as the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. In 1784, the land west of the Allegheny River, north of the Ohio River, east of the Ohio line and south of the New Castle area was purchased from Indigenous People and came to be known as the Depreciation Lands. These lands were purchased as a way to pay soldiers of the Revolutionary War, who were issued Certificates of Depreciation to obtain parcels of land within this region. It is believed that this is how Robert Kidd, the first farmer on what became Latodami Nature Center, came to obtain this land.
In 1816, Robert Kidd acquired 426 acres of land in Northern Allegheny County and named this farm “Kidd’s Pasture.”
Following ownership by the Kidd Family, the land had been split into smaller parcels and had changed hands multiple times until a Pittsburgh attorney named John D. Brown purchased 165 acres in 1895 and slowly expanded the property by purchasing adjoining acreage until it reached 239 acres named “Oak Knolls.”
John D. Brown is responsible for constructing most of the structures that still stand on Latodami Nature Center’s property today, including the main barn, the smaller “owl barn,” the pond, the mansion, the caretaker’s home, and many other structures that no longer exist today.
John D. Brown was a “gentleman farmer” and had hired Sidney Reichhold to manage the property in 1914. Sidney Reichhold and his family lived in the caretaker’s home, and the Reichhold family continued as the caretakers of this land even after Allegheny County purchased the property in 1969. John D. Brown and his family lived in a beautiful mansion that exists on the property as private apartments today. On the Oak Knolls farm were crops such as corn, oats, wheat, hay and vegetables as well as livestock including cattle, pigs, turkeys, chickens, honeybees, horses, sheep and goats. Latodami Nature Center’s barn hosts a display of the skulls of animals that once lived on the Oak Knolls farm.
In 1947, the farm was sold to Richard and Marguerite Horning, who renamed the property Latodami Farm after their four children:
Orlando (LA), Antoinette (TO), Davea (DA), and Michelle (MI).
The Horning family continued farm operations with the Reichhold family as managers until selling the property to Allegheny County in 1969.
Allegheny County was looking to expand the growingly popular North Park. Park facilities were packed every weekend, and the County hoped to expand the park in order to offer more room for interested park goers. The 239-acre Latodami Farm was a perfect opportunity to create a nature center with the purpose of educating the public on Pennsylvania’s wildlife, and so it was purchased from the Horning family in 1969 and Allegheny County’s first Naturalist, Joe Grom, was hired. Latodami Nature Center was born and is 250 acres today. Though the land is no longer farmed, many relics of the farming past remain, including the barn which is used as an educational space.
Today, Latodami Nature Center offers educational programs and volunteer opportunities in order to inspire current and future generations to care for the wildlife that calls Northern Allegheny County home.