Published: May 29, 2009 12:40 pm      

Art, artisan festival | Ferndale Historical Society to mark 12th anniversary

BY RUTH RICE

RRICE@TRIBDEM.COM

History will be shown through art during a local society’s display.

Ferndale Historical Society will mark its 12th anniversary with an art and artisan festival from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferndale Firemen’s Recreation Building, 618 Westinghouse Ave.

A hand-sewn quilt created by the late Elizabeth Vickroy McClellan will be the centerpiece of the festival.

The quilt features scenes from the covers of Field and Stream and Outdoor Life magazines.

Crewel embroidery pieces by McClellan depicting the Jerome American Legion building and the George Washington Vickroy home along Route 56 in Pleasantville also will be on display.

Vickroy was the brother of Ferndale founder Edwin Augustus Vickroy.

Paintings include a winterscape by the late Laura Smith Sweeney, a Ferndale and Westmont elementary school teacher, and a watercolor of the J. Irving Whalley Memorial Chapel on the Pitt-Johnstown campus by the late Leora Easton.

Two oil paintings donated by Ruth Layton Biggs, a retired art teacher from North Huntington, feature a still life and a surreal depiction.

Biggs was raised in the historic Vickroy House at 549 Vickroy Ave., which Ferndale Historical Society bought from her in 2002.

The two lots were the last existing Vickroy properties originally purchased on May 6, 1786, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The bill of sale personally signed by Benjamin Franklin is in the Somerset Historical Center archives.

Historical society treasurer Gary Beuke donated a watercolor for the festival by the late Ralph Clemenson.

A large portrait of the late Frank Pasquerilla, on loan from the Inter-Service Club Council of Greater Johnstown, also will be on display.

Pasquerilla was CEO of Crown America Corp., which was founded in 1950 in Ferndale.

A family photo album of Edwin Augustus and Cornelia Harlan Vickroy, which includes an original photo of Abraham Lincoln done the same year as his assassination in 1865, also will be on display.

The historical society will honor its oldest member, former Johnstown teacher Ralph Vickroy Mostoller, who will be 102 on June 15.

He is a descendant of Charlotte Vickroy, sister of Ferndale’s founder.

Parking for the festival will be available on Westinghouse Avenue and at the Barnes, Saly and Company parking lot on Atlee Street.



Celebration

What: Art and artisan festival celebrating the 12th anniversary of the Ferndale Historical Society.

When: 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: Ferndale Firemen’s Recreation Building, 618 Westinghouse Ave.