What's New?
Note: starting in December, we are holding our monthly lectures on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2:00 pm.
On April 11th, 2010, we launched the fourth of our ethnic heritage books: From the Slate (O'r Llechen): The Welsh and the Folk Art of Pennsylvania's Slate Belt by author John Reinhart.
It is available for sale at the Heritage Center and Merchants Bank.
We will have a new addition to the Welsh Display from the National Welsh Society and the Welsh Association of Wales. It is a traveling exhibit that will open at the Heritage Center on July 17 to Aug 1. A ribbon cutting will take place on July 23 at 11:00 a.m. by the Slate Belt Welsh Society.
Anyone planning to attend the Wheat Weaving program on Thursday Sept. 9 , 7:00 p.m. at the Heritage Center should email lgbray@hotmail.com or phone 610-588-3745. We need to know so that we have enough wheat for everyone in attendance.
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:
Aug.12th, Walter Emery
Tour Around Portland
*SPECIAL DATE*
Aug. 28th, Cheryl Statham
Class: Preserving Tomatoes by Canning
Sep. 9th, Cheryl Statham
Wheat Weaving
Anyone planning to attend the Wheat Weaving program on Thursday Sept. 9 , 7:00 p.m. at the Heritage Center should email lgbray@hotmail.com or phone 610-588-3745. We need to know so that we have enough wheat for everyone in attendance.
Oct. 14th, Jodi Pysher
Bangor Then and Now
Nov. 14th, Russ Stout
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Current Collections
Our collections are constantly changing. The next collections include:
Mar. 28th - Jul. 31th
Welsh Display
We will have a new addition to the Welsh Display from the National Welsh Society and the Welsh Association of Wales. It is a traveling exhibit that will open at the Heritage Center on July 17 to Aug 1. A ribbon cutting will take place on July 23 at 11:00 a.m. by the Slate Belt Welsh Society.
Aug. 9th - Nov. 20th
"That's Entertainment"
The Story of Music and Entertainment in 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.