Donora Historical Society Prepares for Cement City Walking Tour, Environmental Conference

Last Updated on Friday, 29 August 2014 16:26

The next presentation at the Donora Historical Society is scheduled for Monday, September 7 at 7 p.m. on the Cincinnati Mine Disaster.

Even though the Cincinnati Mine was located north of New Eagle in the village of Courtney on the Mon River, the disaster that took place there in 1913 has a unique tie to Donora - 15 of the 98 miners were Catholic by faith and were brought to the St. Dominic's Catholic Cemetery in Donora to be buried in a mass grave.

On Saturday, September 13 as part of the Heinz History Center Affiliate Ambassador's Series, Smog Museum curator Brian Charlton will be presenting "Donora and the 1948 Air Quality Crisis" at 11 a.m. in Pittsburgh at the Heinz History Center. The Donora Historical Society is a Heinz History Center Affiliate member. The program is open to the public and free with paid admission to the Heinz History Center museum. Please RSVP to Sandra Baker at slbaker@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6412.

The presentation for Monday, October 6 at 7 p.m. will be on digital storytelling – "A Town Called: Donora" by Cal U students Corrine Dowlin and Rachael Fawley. In 1950, a 21-year-old German man named Guenter Kunert wrote a poem about the 1948 Smog titled "The Song of a Small Town." For him, what took place in Donora in 1948 paralleled his struggles of surviving WWII as a young German-Jew whose relatives were exterminated in concentration camps. Later, this poem was translated by Penn State University languages professor Dr. Manfred Keune and presented to the Donora Historical Society, and Guenter Kunert would go on to become one of Germany's greatest contemporary writers. In 2013, as part of a Cal U Honors English class, Dowlin and Fawley used Kunert's poem and combined it with some of their own poetic flair for their video project. They will present their video and their experiences with completing their project.

The 4th Annual Cement City Home and Walking Tour will be scheduled for Sunday, October 19 at 1 p.m. The tour will start at the museum with a photo presentation on Donora's National Historic District – Thomas Edison's Cement City, and will show artifacts and original blueprints during the construction from 1916 and 1917. A walking tour will follow in the Historic District to point out some of the various architectural details. The walk will conclude by touring the interior of at least one home where a couple of rooms have been restored to period. There is no Steelers game scheduled on this day. Space will be limited to 30 people. The proposed cost of the tour will be $10 a person. Please RSVP. If you have any questions on the tour, please give us a call or send us an email.

In collaboration with the California University of PA and the Heinz History Center, we will be holding our 2nd annual Environmental Conference on Wednesday, October 29 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Donora Borough Building with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. The conference will be "hands-on" and technology will be supplied by Cal U. Following the conference, the Smog Museum will be open for all participants from 2 to 4 p.m.

We will be deviating from our normal scientific approach for this year's conference and going with literature and film under the guidance of Dr. Fisanick from Cal U and Dr. Manfred Keune from PSU, to name a few. The inspiration for this conference will be the poem on the 1948 Smog by Guenter Kunert and the Digital Storytelling video "A Town Called: Donora" and how language can influence environmental and political issues. The primary target audience will be students in middle school through college. The general public is also welcome.

If you would like to be a volunteer for this event, we could also use your help in some capacity. If you would like to be a sponsor or have any questions, please consult our website or give us a call.

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 a.m. to 3 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 email us at DonoraHistoricalSociety@gmail.com or by calling 724-823-0364 and leaving a message. Or visit us on the web at www.DonoraHistoricalSociety.org.