What's New?
Candlelight Tour of St. John's Cemetery
The ghosts of Slate Belt will tell their tales during a candlelight tour of St. John's Cemetery on Friday, October 14, starting at 7 p.m.
More info here.
On April 3rd, 2011, we launched the fifth of our ethnic heritage books: Pennsylvania Slate Beckons the Cornish Quarryman "to North Americay" by authors Carolyn Bray, Harry Bray, and Brad Landon.
It is available for sale at the Heritage Center and Merchants Bank.
Monthly Lecture Series
Summer lectures are the 2nd Thursday of the month from April to November at 7:00 pm.
Winter lectures are the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2:00 pm.
Check the schedule often as lectures may change.
Upcoming lectures feature:
Jan. 8th, 2012 at 2:00pm
Marc Blau and Walter Cole
"The Oral History Project: In Their Own Words, WWII Stories." Marc Blau and Walter Cole will present segments from 6 interviews concerning WWII. Several of the interviewees will be present to answer questions.
Contact: Marc Blau 570-897-5459
Feb. 12, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Rev. Kenneth Klingborg
History of Chapman Quarries
Contact: 610-837-0935
March 11, 2012 at 2:00pm
Dr. Gary Williams
Dr. Willams will be portraying Joseph Kellow You can get information from the April issue of the Blue Valle Times or contact Gary at wmszzzpa@epix.net
April, 12, 2012
Angela Herrlinger
Italians of the Slate Belt Contact: 610-588-7329
May, 10,2012
TBD
June 14, 2012
Dennis Scholl
Tales of the Towpath Contact: 610-923-3548 Et. 225 or dennis@delawareandlehigh.org
Current Collections
Our collections are constantly changing. The next collections include:
September 24th, 2011 to March 2012
Summer Fun: Rides and Recreation
April 2012 to September 2012
Italian's of the Slate Belt
See Photo Gallery of Past Exhibits
The Slate Room exhibits many types of slate products from the last 150 years; some of them were made for this building, which was constructed during the golden age of slate manufacturing. Slate has been used as a roofing material in Europe for a thousand years. In the mid-nineteenth century, it became popular in America. There are individual shingles on display from both the Slate Belt and international quarries. Visitors can look out the window of the Heritage Center and see especially good examples of roofing slate on the former Eisenhart’s drugstore building located on the corner of First and Market streets. The curved, graduated shingles on the cupola, built around 1890, are from William Blake’s Quarry near Roseto.
Visitors can see excellent examples of decorative, marbleized slate in the fireplace mantles in adjacent rooms made for this building around 1907, most likely by the Keenan structural slate mills in Bangor. A slate mantle can be found in the Welsh Room which formerly was the fire company meeting room. In 1908, mantles such as this were given as prizes during a local Four County Firemen’s Parade. The alarm room and restroom near the Slate Room have examples of structural slate that are also original to the building. “Structural slate” consisted of polished but undecorated slabs of slate used for variety of functional objects. The floor of the Slate Room is made of contemporary slate tiles that were donated to the Heritage Center by Dally’s Quarry in Pen Argyl.