Dr. Michael Cary, Seton Hill University professor of political science/history, and Dr. Timothy Kelly, associate history professor at Saint Vincent College, general editors (and contributing authors) of “This American Courthouse: One Hundred Years of Service to the People of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,” will discuss the book at a free, public lecture Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. in room 205 of Prep Hall, located next to the Library on the campus of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. The lecture is sponsored by the Westmoreland County Historical Society and St. Vincent College. For more information, call the historical society at 724-836-1800.

“This American Courthouse,” commissioned by the Courthouse Centennial Committee, chronicles the history of the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania courthouse, completed in 1907, through photographs (historical and contemporary) and chapters dedicated to such varying topics as the courthouse’s place and function in the community throughout its history, the building’s distinctive Beaux-Arts architecture, and the history of the Westmoreland County Bar Association. Drs. Cary and Kelly coordinated the efforts of local authors, historians, and members of the legal community to produce the commemorative history, which was unveiled at the Westmoreland County Courthouse Centennial Celebration in September 2007. The 180-page hardbound, full-color book (which includes a chapter contributed by Seton Hill alumna Erin Pearson, now an associate at a Pittsburgh-based national law firm, titled "The Social Environment of the County Seat in the Early Twentieth Century"), published by the Saint Vincent College Center for Northern Appalachian Studies, is available now at the Saint Vincent College Bookstore and Barnes & Noble.