- Last Updated on Thursday, 01 August 2013 05:14
The Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum has had an active summer. We recently hosted “Try Again Homes” from Washington, PA in June for a tour of the museum along with a scavenger hunt for six children and their chaperones.
Try Again Homes is a private, non-profit corporation committed to providing safe nurturing places for children in need and dedicated to the growth, development, and empowerment of individuals and families for healthier communities through adoption and foster care programs.
Donora Smog Featured on National Cable Network
The Weather Channel’s series “Weather That Changed The World” featured Donora’s 1948 Smog on Sunday, June 16th. The show is repeating as Episode #3 of a nine part series and is titled “Pennsylvania’s Fatal Smog” and usually shows around 9:00 p.m. The show lasts 30 minutes and was filmed by Pioneer Productions from London, England who visited Donora for 3 days last November and features interviews by current and former Donorans. Consult www.weather.com for the show’s listings and more information about the series.
Donora Artifacts and Memorabilia Wanted
One of the goals at the historical society is to keep Donora related artifacts in Donora and preserve them accordingly. Artifacts can be old photos, steel mill related mementos, school related mementos, professional uniforms related to the armed services, fire and police departments, sports equipment, family genealogies, home movies, paper objects, etc., providing they have a relationship to Donora. Because the Society is a non-profit organization, we are not in a position to purchase artifacts at this time.
If you decide to entrust the Society with the safe-keeping of your family’s treasures, we ask that you briefly write down a few notes of the “what, where, and when” of the artifact. If you are physically unable to hand deliver your objects, we would be more than happy to set up appointments at the museum. Larger artifacts that may be too awkward to deliver can also be picked up by one of our historians..
If you feel like you can’t part with your artifacts at this time because of sentimental reasons, we hope that you will keep us in mind in the future and you can rest assured that your family treasures will be well kept for future generations to enjoy.
To that end, some of the newly acquired artifacts that we received are: four gold-colored pipe organ pipes from St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church.- the largest being 9.5 feet tall; a nearly 100 year old antique mangle iron that was used at the Irondale Hotel that was once located just across the street from where our museum sits today; and, an incredible collection of scrapbooks from legendary Donora football coach Jimmy Russell that date back to 1930, that contain personal mementoes and pictures from his coaching days.
The Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum is located at the intersection of Sixth and McKean in the heart of Donora, and is open Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or by appointment.
If you have additional questions about the subjects mentioned above, the society, museum, meetings or possibly volunteering, feel free to stop by or send us an e-mail to DonoraHistoricalSociety@gmail.com or by calling 724-823-0364 and leave a message. Or visit us on the web at www.DonoraHistoricalSociety.org.
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