This edition features and an extensive analytical introduction by the noted architectural historian Dell Upton.  Containing 416 black-and-white photographs, 81 measured drawings and an extensive text, this volume presents a splendid array of the early dwellings, barns, and other outbuildings, churches, arsenals, banks, inns, commercial buildings, tollhouses, mills, and even tombstones of western Pennsylvania.

Charles Morse Stotz was an architect, architectural historian, and preservationist. He is known for his extensive study of the architectural history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. He was one of the early architects to practice in the field of preservation. He was credited with arousing "public awarenesss of the rich and significant history of western Pennsylvania