Volume 2 Issue 11 - Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center

NOVEMBER
P.O. Box 517, Weirton, WV 26062
Meeting at Cathy’s
Volume 2, Issue 11
November 23, 2010
Upcoming Events:
November 27, 2010
Weirton 2010 Christmas
Parade - Starts at 11:30
February 24, 2011
WV History Day
State Capital
April 2 , 2011
Festival of Nations
Millsop Community Center
Museum Officers:
NOVEMBER
Elected 7-7-10
President
Dennis R. Jones
Vice President
Pamela Makricosta
Vice President
Despina Melonas
Treasurer
Paul B. Zuros
Secretary
Kim Salter
Museum
3393 Main Street
Weirton, WV 26062
NOVEMBER
Museum Hours:
Monday thru Friday
9:00 am thru 4:00 pm
(other times available)
Editor: Dennis Jones
Dennis143@comcast.net
Museum Phone:
(304) 479-7266 (cell phone)
Website:
www.weirtonmuseum.com
Photo by Dennis Jones
Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce President, Brenda Mull, is shown addressing our museum members at WAMCC’s monthly
meeting, held on Nov. 11 at Cathy’s Homemade Pies and Sandwiches 3073 Main St, Weirton. Over 25 museum members came and
enjoyed a nice cozy evening. Attendees included Juginder and Dolly Luthra, Despina Melonas, Argiro Latousakis, Rich Young, Ed
Giacchino, Mary & Dave Zwierzchowski, Richard & Ruth Ellen Reinard, Bob & Leah Shirer, John Teresh, George Sotraidis, Paul B.
Zuros, John & Elma Pandelios, Jason Rine, Angie Angelos, Pamela Makricosta, Kim Salter, Connie Thompson, Jim Fenske, Yvonne
Tuchalski, Brenda Mull, and WAMCC President, Dennis Jones. Additional photos of meeting are on next page.
Museum to be in Parade
Christmas Dreams
Brenda Mull, President of Weirton Area
Chamber of Commerce (a member of
WAMCC), attended our monthly meeting in
November and delivered happy news about
the Chamber’s annual Christmas Parade,
which will take place on Saturday, November 27 starting at 11:30 am. Brenda explained that WAMCC will be represented in
the parade with a large float and also,
WAMCC President, Dennis Jones, was selected as this year’s Christmas Parade Grand
Marshall. Dennis Jones expressed his appreciation and conveyed how surprised he
was when Brenda delivered the news to him
a few weeks ago. Dennis wanted to give the
whole museum a presence in the parade and
decided to have a float for all members.
Dennis announced that in accordance with
this year’s parade theme “Christmas
Dreams,” the museum’s float will be remodeled to represent our long awaited dream - a
new larger museum to adequately display our
vast collections of local history. The large
brick museum building on back of the float
will be wrapped in green ribbon as “A Gift
to Our Community.” The sides of the float
will feature newspaper vending machines,
donated by the Weirton Daily Times, and the
newspaper headlines will convey the news
that a “NEW MUSEUM OPENS” in Weirton.
The front of the float will show a living
room scene, where members are sitting on a
sofa reading the good news in the Weirton
Daily Times and children will be on the floor
Christmas Dreams (cont.)
“Everything seems to be falling into place for our dream come true during this
magical holiday season.” - Dennis Jones, WAMCC President
looking at presents under the Christmas
Tree. Along side the float, Weirton Steel
Corp. luggage tags (see photos at right)
will be distributed to the crowd, with the
message: “Weirton Area Museum and
Cultural Center, a Gift to Our Community. The Past is Our Present to You.”
One additional item, which may be
added to the float is the large Simon’s
Furniture Chair. Another topic on this
meeting’s agenda was our progress on
finding a larger building and Dennis explained that we are very close to being
able to purchase the old Home Furniture
Company building at 3149 Main Street.
He remarked “Everything seems to be
falling into place for our dream come
true during this magical holiday season.”
Pictured above: Weirton Steel Corp. luggage ID tags with a special Christmas message inserted. These tags
will be distributed to the crowd along the parade route on November 27.
Photo by Dennis Jones
Photo by Dennis Jones
Cathy Adams (right) and her waitress, Melissa (left), were
kept very busy serving our hungry museum members.
Seated at the “Hero’s Table” (a remnant from the movie “Super 8”) at Cathy’s are (left to right) Angie Angelos,
Yvonne Tuchalski, Connie Thompson, Jim Fenske, Pamela Makricosta, and Kim Salter.
Photo by Dennis Jones
Photo by Dennis Jones
We all were happy to see Dick Reinard, WAMCC’s
first treasurer, and his wife Ruth Ellen come to our
meeting at Cathy’s. We understand that Dick ordered
one of the famous French Burgers a day or two in
advance, just in case supplies were limited.
Elma and John Pandelios also had a delightful time at
our meeting. As more people came and space became
scarce, they shared their table and conversation with
Jason Rine, one of WAMCC’s young scholars.
Everyone had a wonderful time at Cathy’s enjoying the food, conversation,
and, of course, the detailed business meeting. We will soon be back.
Page 2
Volume 2, Issue 11
Photo by Dennis Jones
Bob and Leah Shirer are shown with Cathy Adams, Manager. Just to the right of Cathy is a picture of Tommy
Gormley, Assistant Director, a native of Scotland, whose
pleasant Glaswegian accent was heard often during the
shooting of “Super 8” in Weirton. Cathy has placed autographed pictures of all the “Super 8” film crew throughout
her restaurant, where they had frequented in September
and October of 2010.
Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center Newsletter
WAMCC Represented at “Connecting to Collections” Summit
Photographer Unknown
Left to Right: Rik Rekowski (Director Mary H. Weir Public Library), Mary Margaret
Layne (Director of Huntington Museum of Art), Frances O’Brien (Dean of Libraries,
WVU), Lee Price (Director of Development, Conservation Center for Art and
Historic Artifacts), and Dennis Jones (President Weirton Area Museum & Cultural
Center). Lee Price is helping with the grant by tabulating and analyzing results.
On October 27, WAMCC’s President, Dennis Jones, attended
the “Connecting to Collections” summit at the State Capital
Archives building in Charleston. The Weirton Area Museum
was 1 of 124 statewide institutions to respond to a survey earlier this year assessing the condition of collections within our
state of WV. The survey was funded by a IMLS grant to each
of the 50 states recognizing the need to properly care for and
preserve items that make up our cultural heritage. Randall
Reid Smith, WV Commissioner of the Division of Culture and
History, spoke at the beginning of the program congratulating
the lead WV agencies in this survey (Huntington Museum of
Art and WV Libraries). It is hoped that a good plan of action
will be developed across the state with support from additional
grants. Lee Price provided preliminary results from the survey,
which was sent out to 230 statewide institutions with 54 % of
them responding. Of the respondents, 29% were museums
and 32% were libraries. Rik Rekowski was present to represent the Mary H. Weir Public Library.
“Top of WV Showcase”, “Taste of the Valley” and Christmas Tree Contest
Photo by Dennis Jones
On October 26, the Top of WV’s “After Business Showcase” and Weirton Chamber’s
“Taste of the Valley” combined their events at the Serbian American Culture Center.
Shown above: A lucky winner is shown receiving the Weirton Area History Game,
offered as a door prize by WAMCC. Each of the participating organizations were
required to offer a door prize. Commissioner Mike Swartzmiller is shown holding the
raffle bowl, while Commissioner Dan Greathouse, Director of Top of WV CVB, announces the winners. Top of WV CVB Technical Assistants Bonnie Burskey and Deb
Daugherty are shown assisting with the prize presentations.
Shown below: Leah and Bob Shirer were in charge of WAMCC’s table display,
which offered all the museum’s publications.
Photo by Dennis Jones
On November 20, Leah Shirer set up and decorated WAMCC’s entry into the 3rd
Annual Thomas E. Millsop Center Christmas Tree contest. WAMCC was the winner
of the first contest held in 2008 with a theme of “Christmas in Holliday’s Cove” 100
years ago in 1908. CHANGE, Inc., was the winner last year. All visitors to the Community Center may vote on their favorite tree by contributing $1.00 to the Community
Center’s Legacy Trust Fund.
Photo by Dennis Jones
Page 3
Volume 2, Issue 11
Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center Newsletter
Recent Museum Contributions
Photo by Dennis Jones
Photo above shows WAMCC’s Anthony Bongiovanni receiving a ceramic coin bank from Danny
Warrick of Weirton. The bank features a beautiful American Bald Eagle and inscription that reads:
“The Peoples Bank - Weirton, West Virginia - Better Banking Service - Since 1923”
We thank the editor of Goldenseal Magazine, John Lilly, for sending us the photo at right, which
shows Weir High School Band drum majors (left to right): Paul Kuhns, Tyrone Price, and David
Kuhns at the 1960 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. This photo and several
others will be featured in and article written by Tom Tarowski in the upcoming issue of WV Goldenseal Magazine due out in December. Several of the photos in the article were contributed by
WAMCC from their Weirton Steel archives and we will have this issue available to the public.
Photographer Unknown
Weirton’s Bob Trice
From Dunbar to the Homestead Grays to the Philadelphia Athletics
Photographer Unknown
Photographer Unknown
Andre’ Trice, recently contributed
these photos of his father, Bob Trice,
who became the first AfricanAmerican to play for the Philadelphia
Athletics professional baseball team.
Bob was a 1945 graduate of Weirton
Dunbar High School before joining
the U.S. Navy and serving in World
War II. After the war, he became a
pitcher for the Homestead Grays of
the Negro National League (1949-.
Above information researched by
Dennis Jones.
Page 4
Photographer Unknown
1951), rooming with Luke Easter.
Also in 1949, he helped the Homestead Grays defeat the New York
Black Yankees in a game played at
Cove Field in Weirton. After being
bounced around in the minor leagues,
he was called up to the Philadelphia
Athletics in September of 1953, becoming their first African-American
player and posting a pitching record of
2 wins and 1 loss. His best career
Volume 2, Issue 11
Photographer Unknown
day in major league baseball was on
April 24, 1954, when he pitched 1-0
complete game shutout against the
New York Yankees. Bob played his
final major league game in 1954, when
the Athletics moved to Kansas City.
He was only 28 years old when he left
the majors and later returned to work
with Weirton Steel Company, where
his father, Ben Trice, was employed.
Bob passed away in 1988.
Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center Newsletter