Category: default || By jt3y

Michelle Wardle is excited about her new job as executive director of the McKeesport Heritage Center.

"The volunteers here have done a great job, and my goal is to keep that momentum going," says Wardle, who will oversee day-to-day operations of the historical society, genealogy library and museum in the city's Renziehausen Park. She was hired by the Heritage Center's board of directors and will ultimately report to them. Wardle's first day on the job was Tuesday.

A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Wardle holds a master's in public history from Kent State University in Ohio and previously served as curator of the Kelso House Museum in Brimfield, Ohio, and as a archivist at the Sandusky, Ohio, public library.

The Kelso House is a very different museum from the McKeesport Heritage Center, she says, mainly because Brimfield is a very different type of community from McKeesport. Where Brimfield was a rural farming town before becoming a de facto suburb of the Akron, Canton and Youngstown metropolitan areas, McKeesport has been urbanized since the 19th century, and its story is one of rapid industrialization, not agriculture.

Nevertheless, Wardle says, local historical societies and museums have some things in common, no matter where they're located. "You have to pick stories you can illustrate with what you have in your collection," she says.

Created in the early 1980s and initially located in one room of Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus' J. Clarence Kelly Library, the Heritage Center has grown fairly rapidly since moving to a new building near the Renzie rose garden. It currently functions as an official repository for historic city and school district documents, U.S. Census and cemetery records, and thousands of other items ranging from a scale model of the U.S. Steel National Works to bottle caps from Menzie Dairy Co.

A large assembly room was added a few years ago for receptions, classes and other events, while another wing surrounds and protects the city's first schoolhouse, built Downtown in 1832 and moved to Renzie Park in the 1950s. More than 700 people from across the United States are currently members.

Besides city history, the Heritage Center also collects material related to all of the Mon-Yough communities that adjoin the McKeesport Area School District.

Wardle moved to the Pittsburgh area nearly two years ago when her husband Matt took a job at the corporate headquarters of Dick's Sporting Goods. They have a 1-year-old son, Scott.

Her initial tasks --- after becoming more acquainted with Center's operations and people --- will include organizing and cataloging the collection, much of which is not yet in a searchable database or index.

In addition, Wardle's also focused on storing and preserving archival documents and historic items in the collection. And she's looking forward to working with volunteers on the Heritage Center's educational and cultural programming, which now includes an ongoing series of workshops on genealogy. "Community outreach is important," Wardle says.

Right now, a handful of volunteers is indexing and databasing the Heritage Center's collection, but Wardle says more help is needed. If you can help or would like to join the Heritage Center, call (412) 678-1832 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, or 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

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Full Disclosure: The Heritage Center administered a grant from the G.C. Murphy Co. Foundation that has paid for some travel and research expenses related to the forthcoming G.C. Murphy Co. book.

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In Other Business: In case you missed it, Donna Pfister of the Tribune-Review had a great profile last Sunday of the three mayors of the Steel Valley communities, Homestead's Betty Esper, Munhall's Ray Bodnar, and West Homestead's John Dindak.

You couldn't ask for three people who cared more about their communities than this trio. Frankly, they're all characters, too.

One thing jumped out of the story, though:

"The Homestead Carnegie Library is in Munhall. Homestead Park, where 9,000 people live, is in Munhall. Homestead Cemetery is in Munhall," Bodnar said. "The tail wags the dog half the time."

Yes, Bodnar's jealous of the attention that Homestead gets. You wonder why West Mifflin is upset about accepting Duquesne students in its high school? Homestead and Munhall are still maintaining their "rivalry" 36 years after the school districts merged! Good grief!

Here's a good question that wasn't asked by Pfister: Since these three communities blend together, why isn't there a city or township of "Homestead-Munhall" by now that includes all three? Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.