Published: January 06, 2008 10:53 pm            

Nanty Glo group turning theater into museum

Preserving the past has become a passion for volunteers with the Nant-Y-Glo Tri Area Museum and Historical Society.

For more than 11/2 years, the volunteers have been pounding away at their dream of transforming an old theater in Nanty Glo into a beautiful museum, named the Liberty Museum, to showcase the heritage that made the Blacklick Valley region a great place to live.

Volunteers are hoping to have the museum, which will highlight Nanty Glo and Vintondale boroughs and Jackson and Blacklick townships, in operation by the end of the year.

The museum will detail the major industries such as coal mining, lumbering and farming that gave birth to the area, plus other facets of the community. The museum also will showcase how families lived.

James Toth, a volunteer and project co-manager, said the residents, businesses, municipalities and organizations in all four locales have been supportive of their efforts.

He said the Blacklick Valley Community Center sold them the building for $1, with the agreement that the Miners Food Pantry remain in the basement rent free. He said Nanty Glo Borough sold them an adjacent, empty lot for $1, which they will use for parking.

Commons Hardware in Nanty Glo has been providing most of the hardware needed for the museum at cost, and The Home Depot, as the corporate sponsor, will be able to save the volunteers money on building materials, he said.

With donations of money and materials to work on the building, plus a $20,000 grant from Jackson Township and money earned from fundraising events and the sale of items at their store at the Nanty Glo Library, they are nearly to the halfway point in funds needed to complete the $1.3 million project, Toth said.

He said more fundraising events are being planned. The group is hoping to get historical grants now that the former Liberty Theatre, at 1053 Shoemaker St., is registered with the Pennsylvania Historical Commission.

Toth also is thankful for the 35 volunteers who are making the project come to fruition. They have been working hard to raise funds and to prepare the building for a new interior, he said.

“It’s important to remember our past,” said Toth, a Navy veteran of the Persian Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom, the military’s response after the Sept. 11 attacks. He retired from the Navy in 2005 after suffering disabling injuries in the line of duty.

“Preserving our past for the future is important so that future generations can learn how they area was formed,” Toth said.

The building, whose exterior will be restored to its original condition, will help to revitalize Shoemaker Street. It also will help the town economically by employing five people when completed, he said.

Toth, a Loretto resident and a borough councilman, said his mother, Janet, was born in Nanty Glo, and his father, William, in Vintondale. His parents now live in Ebensburg. He joined the historical society at the urging of his mother, who was president at the time.

George Heit, of Loretto, joined the historical society after seeing what Toth was doing.

“I wanted to help the community also,” said Heit, who is employed by Loretto Borough and is firefighter for the Loretto Community Volunteer Fire Company. “I love seeing the changes to the building.”

Heit said the museum will give residents the chance to share family photographs and artifacts with others.

Richard McDowell, of Jackson Township, the other co-project manager, said the historical society has been using the library to display some of its many artifacts.

“We needed a place to permanently store and display our artifacts, said the retired draftsman from the former Johnstown Plant, Bethlehem Steel Corp. “When the theater became available, it seemed to be a pretty good fit for us.”

“It’s to preserve our heritage,” he said about the mission of the historical society. “To me that’s important. I just want to know all about what happened here. To see how the people survived when they opened up the area.”

For their efforts, the three are the Persons of the Week.

Nant-Y-Glo was the original name of Nanty Glo and means stream of coal in Welsh. Many settlers to the area came from Wales.

        

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