Founders Day: Will be held on St. Albans Main Street Saturday, May 13, 2017. Sponsored by the St. Albans Founder's Day Committee and the St. Albans Historical Society. There will be over 40 vendors and food booths and entertainers throughout the day,
"Business After Hours": The St. Albans Chamber of Commerce had a "Business After Hours" on Thursday, April 13 from 5-7 pm at the St. Albans Historical Society Building. Over 50 people attended along with with refreshments and lots of interaction.The Society got to display their numerous vintage items, books and photos.
Patty Swango , Vice President of Fund-raising and Special Events with the St. Albans Historical Society, has been chosen as a WV 2016 History Hero by the WV Department of Culture and History. Patty has been instrumental in organizing the Founders Day Parade for many years and helps with the Annual Christmas Tour and Morgan's Kitchen Fall Festival. Congratulations !
Volunteers of the Year: Patty Swango was also chosen as a Volunteer of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce on April 25 along with the Coal River Group and the St. Albans Historical Soceity.
History Wednesday: For the 2nd year, St. Mark's Episcopal Church is sponsoring "History Wednesday" for 6 weeks this summer. Mark you calendars! They will have "History Alive" re-enactors, activities and refreshments. Registration is $5 each week...or $25 for all. They will be on Wednesdays from June 19 - July 22 from 10-12:30 pm.
- 6/21/2017 Theodore Roosevelt (Gene Worthington)
- 6/28/2017 Ben Franklin (Leon Alexander)
- 7/5/2017 Edith Wharton, WWI Correspondent (Karen Varanch)
- 7/12/2017 Gabriel Arthur (Doug Wood)
- 7/19/2017 Eleanor Roosevelt (Patty Cooper)
- 7/26/2017 Col. Ruby Bradley, WWII Nurse (Rebecca Park)
Calendars Available: The "2017 Vintage Calendar" is still available at theVillage Sampler and Flowers on Old Main (both on Main St.) for $5 ea.. Each month has some old St. Albans photos. Still great gifts !!
1948 Turtle Derby - The St. Albans Jr. Chamber of Commerce sponsored this event each Labort Day for several years, beginning in 1947. It was to raise money for several community projects: improve phone service in town, sponsor children's Halloween Party, install football scoreboard operation wiring, sponsor a train to Huntington for the Huntington East football game, sponsor Jr. Basketball League, send a boy to Boy's State and one to Scout Camp and built two tennis courts. A 1948 program says they had 10 turtle heats... with 19 turtle in each heat (190 turtles !!). Each turtle was sponsored by a local business and the event was held at Crawford Field.
(See the 1948 Turtle Derby Program here)
(This will download to your computer - 12 pgs.)
Historic Preservation: We recently made some donations to some historic properties in St. Albans. We gave the C&O Depot a grant of $400 to help with a new roof and a $100 grant to the American Legion for assistance they needed. Thanks to the members of the St. Albans Historical Society for keeping our historic properties functioning and beautiful !
Antique Peanut Machine: We took the 1913 Nick Khory peanut machine/roaster to the Main St. Chili Cookoff in November to let folks get a good look at it. We even sold peanut out of it and pushed it up and down the street. It is non-operable...but we had packaged nuts for all to enjoy.
Historical Society Building is now Open Year-round - We will have our building open on 4th Ave. open every 1st Saturday from 10-2 pm...year-round, Invite your friends to check us out. Thanks to Kevin Bragg for being our host !
School History Project: St. Francis Elem. History Lessons
Our group just completed teaching some local history to the combined 4th / 5th graders at St. Francis Elementary from September - December 2016. Started by Margaret Bassitt in 2011, this is our fifth year with this project. Neil Richardson is presenting the lessons once a week on Thursday. Some topics were: early native peoples, early explorers and settlers, Ft. Tackett, early churches, schools and transportation, Coal River history, old homes in town and Morgan’s Kitchen.
Ellen Mills-Pauley having class make a Morgan Kitchen cabin from construction paper - 2016 (below left). Fall 2016 combined 4-5 graders at St. Francis.(right)
