Category: History

Rails and River Towns Ride sign-up today! Last day to get free T-shirt!

Photo and info courtesy of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.

Support the Schuylkill River Heritage Area with a round-trip bike ride on September 22nd along the Schuylkill River Trail from Pottstown to Birdsboro featuring optional walking tours and a presentation on railroad history.

When: September 22, 2012 (Rain Date Sunday September 23)   

 

Time:   7:30-8:30 a.m. check-in

       8:30 a.m. Presentation on PA Railroad history

       9:00 a.m. rides begin  

 

Where: Check-in at 140 College Drive, Pottstown, PA 19464

 

Cost: $25 adults (age 16 & up); $20 members; $15 children ages 11-15; 10 & under free. If registering after 9/5/12 cost increases to: $30 adults; $25 members; and $20 children 11-15.

 

Amenities: Refreshments provided. Free T-shirts to all who register by Sept. 5.  Ride support and complimentary bike safety checks provided by TriCounty Bicycles, of Pottstown.   

 

More information: Call 484-945-0200 or visit www.schuylkillriver.org to learn more.   

 

Helmets are required. Due to the width of the trail, no bicycle trailers will be permitted during the event.   

Three Ride Options to Choose From!  

  • 18-mile, round-trip ride from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area headquarters in Pottstown to Birdsboro, with a 45-minute guided walking tour of historic Birdsboro.
  • 20-mile Pottstown to Birdsboro ride with a loop trail in Union Township and no walking tour
  • 9-mile round-trip ride with guided tour of Historic Morlatton Village’s four 18th century buildings.

This is the first ride in the Schuylkill River Trail Bike Tour Series, a new multi-year series that supports the Schuylkill River Heritage Area. Each event will feature a unique combination of biking and history.

Special thanks to our sponsors:

TriCounty Bicycles, Universal Machine Company,  Montgomery County Community College, B&G Glass, Gallen Insurance, Boscov’s Department Store, CarePlex, Main Line Financial, Traffic Planning & Design, 422 Commercial Realty, Tim’s Ugly Mug, Vintage Connections, William Knight, Historic Preservation Trust of Berks Co., Barwis Construction, LLC.

 
Schuylkill River Heritage Area
140 College Drive
Pottstown, Pennsylvania 19464

Mark calendar now for 30th Annual South End Reunion

The 30th Annual South End Reunion will take place September 9, 2012 at Ringing Rocks Park Pavilion from 2-6 pm, rain or shine.

This year’s buffet will be provided by “Floss’s Kitchen,” directly from Holy Trinity Club in the South End (of Pottstown.) The buffet will be served beginning at 3:30 pm, and I bet it will include traditional Slovak fare like pierogies smothered in butter and onions… yum! The cost is $10 per person and includes the catered meal and drinks. There will also be a 50-50 raffle.

If you’d like to volunteer, there are lots of opportunities. You could bring a dessert, help serve the meal or clean up later.

To order your tickets, send your name, address, phone number, and number attending with a check for the appropriate amount to:

Stanley Yuros
1155 South Street
Pottstown, PA 19464

Please reply by Friday, Aug. 31st!

Schuylkill River Heritage Area plans bike & history tours

The Schuylkill River Heritage Area is offering a Rails and River Towns Ride on the Schuylkill River Trail on Saturday, September 22nd. Mark your calendars and register online or get your registration form in now if you want to take part.

Support the Schuylkill River Heritage Area with a round-trip bike ride along the Schuylkill River Trail from Pottstown to Birdsboro that includes a presentation about the railroad upon whose right-of-way the trail is built, with optional visits to three villages along the route.

This is the first ride in the Schuylkill River Trail Bike Tour Series, a new multi-year series being organized by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area. Each event will feature a unique combination of biking and history. This year cyclists will learn about the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. For more info. from the Heritage Area website, click here.

There are three ride options, so there’s something for every rider:

• 18-mile, round-trip ride from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area headquarters in Pottstown to Birdsboro, where participants will take a 45-minute guided walking tour of historic Birdsboro.
• 20-mile Pottstown to Birdsboro ride, with a loop trail in Union Township and no walking tour.
• 9-mile round-trip ride with guided tour of Historic Morlatton Village’s four 18th century buildings.

DETAILS

140 College Drive

DATE: September 22, 2012;check-in begins at 7:30am.Welcome and Pennsylvania Railroad presentation begin at 8:30, rides start at 9:00. Rain date Sunday September 23.

CHECK-IN LOCATION: 140 College Drive, Pottstown, PA 19464

COST: $25 per person (ages 16 and up), $20 members, $15 children 11-15, children 10 & under free. Refreshments included! Register by Sept. 5 to get free T-shirt!

Grand opening of Mercury’s Media Lab and PDIDA Visitors’ Center tomorrow at 11 am! HUGE Sidewalk Sale this Saturday!

The Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority (PDIDA) office at 17 N. Hanover Street will be opening its re-furbished Visitors’ Center tomorrow. The Center will include information on local events, businesses, and organizations, and the framed photos on its walls will give visitors a visual taste of Pottstown’s history.

Just across the street, The Mercury will unveil its newly-tricked out Community Media Lab, where members of the community can use computers, do research in Mercury archives on microfilm,  and grab a cup of coffee. Workshops on blogging and other aspects of linking the public with technology and communication tools are being planned.

PDIDA and The Mercury will celebrate with a “ribbon-joining” ceremony that begins at 11 am tomorrow and runs for about a half-hour. The first block of N. Hanover Street will be closed from 10:30 am – 1 pm.  Refreshments will be available in both locations. The ribbon-joining, as opposed to a ribbon-cutting, is meant to symbolize the spirit of cooperation between The Mercury and PDIDA in helping residents and visitors alike learn more about the history of Pottstown, take pride, and participate more in civic life.

Speaking of civic life… it’s everyone’s duty to BUY LOCAL! whenever they can! The recent, incredible BUY LOCAL! challenge in the Pottstown public schools, which netted over $55,000 in one month for downtown merchants, shows that there’s plenty of wonderful stuff to be had in downtown Pottstown. Why not come out and do it again this Saturday, July 21 from 11 am-4 pm when there is a GIGANTIC Sidewalk Sale taking place? PDIDA is still getting calls from vendors wanting a table at the event. There will be a face painter, juggler, clown/balloon artist, raffles and loads of FREE FUN, so come on down!

Pottstown Parade set for tomorrow at 10 am; ride your bike in it!

 Pottstown’s 4th of July Homecoming Celebration is described here. The Festivities Schedule is here. There’s plenty to do all day and night downtown and at Memorial Park, capped off by the region’s biggest fireworks. Pottstown’s Independence Day parade is a true home town tradition, and the experience of being in the parade, seeing friends and families three-deep along the parade route, is an incredible experience. Thank you to Tom Carroll for info on how you can be in the parade!!

You are invited!

Bring your bicycle, skate board, roller skates or scooter to the Dana Parking lot, Keim St and Center Ave. on July 4th by 9:45a.m. and support Bike Pottstown. Roll in the parade and be part of the fun! If you need a bicycle for the event, stop at TriCounty Bicycles, 256 High St and see John for a nifty, yellow Bike Pottstown beach cruiser.

The event is FREE and fun will be had by all – guaranteed!

One more note…

To do your part and help cover the cost of the fireworks, which are enjoyed by thousands from around the region, please consider making a donation to:

Make your check payable to Independence Day, Ltd., and send to:

MaryAnn Peters

Pottstown School District

230 Beech St.

Pottstown, PA 19464

 

LointerHOME offers modern Victorian office space in downtown Pottstown

If you’ve been admiring LointerHOME’s residential renovations in Pottstown over the past year, wait until you see what they’re offering in the way of office space. Not only have they restored the charm of the Victorian era  to 424 King Street, but they have tricked it out with features that any new or expanding business expects in a state-of-the-art office building.

Features like:

  • 12 private offices, including 2 executive offices
  • All new systems including
    • Brand new 4 zone gas-fed hydronic heating system and boiler
    • 200 amp electrical service
    • pre-wired for DSL
    • pre-wired with cat 5e in each space
  • New roof
  • 2 full conference rooms
  • 3 floors
  • Full reception with separate waiting area
  • Kitchenette
  • 2 elegant bathrooms
  • 1500 gallon fountain on street side
  • 8 parking spaces in rear of structure
  • partial central air
  • Available fully furnished

Even better, LointerHOME is offering this space for just $158,000 or for lease at $1,500/month. They are also able to negotiate a lease-purchase arrangement if that is what works for you and your business.

“This would be a perfect home for an active, everyday business,” said Amanda DeSeta, principal at LointerHOME. “I hope we can find the company that will have people coming and going all the time.”

424 King Street is in the traditional town neighborhood (TTN) zone of Pottstown. It is one block north of High Street, between Franklin and Washington Streets. It sits right next door to another LointerHOME residential renovation, now occupied.

You can see more photos at the LointerHOME website and get more details by contacting info@lointerhome.com. And, perhaps best of all, you can experience this space for yourself at the next Positively Pottstown Happy Hour – a Red-White-and-Blue Independence Day Bash – to be held at 424 King Street on Friday, July 6th from 5-7 pm. RSVP to positivelypottstown@gmail.com.

 

 

Pottstown’s Memorial Day Parade starts at 10 am

The Pottstown Memorial Day parade begins at 10 a.m. today at Goodwill Fire Company at 714 E. High Street. It is being organized by VFW Post 780. All veterans are encouraged to walk in the parade, which will continue down to the Vietnam veterans monument in Memorial Park at the end of King Street. There will be a ceremony there that includes a short speech from Severin Fayerman, a survivor of the Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen concentration camps and eventual co-founder of Baldwin Hardware in Reading, PA. Mr. Fayerman has recorded his story as part of StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit oral history project. His story will be archived in the Library of Congress along with other stories from around the country.

Goodwill is also serving breakfast today, so grab your lawn chair, head out early, get a bite and then watch the parade begin!

Eastern Slavic music to be presented at St. John’s in Pottstown

 A free concert of sacred hymns and other liturgical music of the Eastern Slavic tradition will be presented by the Westminster Slavic Choir at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 15, in St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, 301 Cherry Street, Pottstown, Pa. 

            The Westminster Slavic Choir features students of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J.  The vocalists all are either vocal performance or music education majors at Westminster, a division of Westminster College of the Arts, a residential college of music located in Princeton, N.J.  Westminster is a four-year music college and graduate school that prepares men and women for careers as professional performers and as music leaders in schools, universities, churches, and professional and community music organizations. As Westminster Choir College students, the talented young men and women of the Slavic Choir join their peers in performing with the world’s leading orchestras in venues ranging from the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York.

The chamber choir is directed by senior vocal performance major Andrew Skitko III, a native of Pottstown, Pa.  Drew also serves as the cantor and music director at The Assumption of The Virgin Mary Byzantine Catholic Church of Trenton, N.J., where the Westminster Slavic Choir performs about once a month.

The concert will include works by composers Bortniansky, Vedel, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Hurko, as well as traditional chant.  Selections will be performed in English as well as Old Slavonic.

Parking is located in the rear of the church.  The church is handicapped-accessible via the ramp located from the parking lot. A free-will offering will be taken.  The concert is expected to last about one hour.

For further information, please contact Andrew Skitko III, choral director at 610-220-3479 or via e-mail at  skitkoa@rider.edu

Creative MontCo wants your input!

Are the arts important in your life and the life of your family? Do you spend time and money to learn how to paint or play an instrument or knit a sweater? Do you enjoy going to galleries, performances, or outdoor festivals? Would you like to see a few cafes with open mics in your downtown? Does the perfect nut roll or shoo-fly pie make you want to write poetry? Does a surprising piece of whimsical art in a public place bring a smile to your face?

Car Art!

These are just some of the ways that arts and culture touch our lives, and Montgomery County would like to hear from you about what specific places and activities are important to you in your town and throughout the region. Check out the survey here.Last fall Montgomery County launched a large-scale planning process called Creative MontCo. Their website bills Creative Montco as “a bold partnership of community members and organizations developing a comprehensive cultural and creative economy plan for communities throughout the county. Creative MontCo is dedicated to making Montgomery County a more vibrant place to live, work and play.”

The beautiful thing about the arts – besides just being, well, beautiful – is that arts and culture can be an economic engine for a local economy. All over the country, there are towns, small cities and even neighborhoods within larger cities, that have discovered their identities as centers of art, culture, and history and they have generated jobs and stabilized their tax base by understanding, expanding, and promoting their assets.

The Creative MontCo Steering Committee is being led by Montgomery County Community College president Dr. Karen Stout. The County has hired some really knowledgeable planners – The Cultural Planning Group – who understand how arts and culture can be good for residents and visitors alike and can stimulate economic growth.  They have have been surveying and meeting with artists, organizations, and groups ever since to find out what residents like, what they want more of, and what they envision for their towns in the way of arts, and culture, which I take to include historic and heritage resources as well as the natural environment (i.e., parks). 

To me, the term “culture” gets at the history of a place and how that is reflected today in the people that live there, the work they do, the traditions that live on, and the natural and built environments that are tied to all of that. For me, “the arts” includes any creative endeavor, including, say, beautiful cupcakes or the really old mosaic tiles in many of the entryways of the stores in downtown Pottstown.

So… what arts and cultural activities and events are important to you? Please take a few moments NOW to respond to their survey here.  And feel free to spend some time at Creative MontCo’s website, reading what others have to say and sharing your vision for the creative future of your county. 

 

 

Non-stop entertainment abounds at Sunnybrook

Did you know that there’s something going on at the historic Sunnybrook Ballroom every weekend? And that the weekend actually begins on Thursday night?? Check out the events below, then make your plans to be there!

Every Thursday night

Karaoke at Chummys
With Denny McConnell
Chummy’s Lounge at the Sunnybrook Restaurant
9pm to Midnight

Have a blast singing your favorite tunes. Be a rock star at Chummy’s. Drink Specials and plenty of fun!

Sunday Brunch

Every Sunday at 10:30 am. Mark your calendar and make your reservations now!

Call 484-624-5187

http://www.facebook.com/events/359903357355607/

Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners

February 11th, 7:30-11pm

http://www.facebook.com/events/304798532904184/

Friday Night Dance Party with Denny McConnell

February 24th, 8-11 pm

http://www.facebook.com/events/330701543636775/

Bridal Expo

The Bridal Expo returns to Sunnybrook on February 26th, 1 pm to 4 pm. Check the website for more info and vendor details.

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