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Society receives $25K grant to maintain local history
Renovations now under way at old Travelers Hotel
By Felicia A. Petro
Allied News Staff Writer
Local history just keeps moving ahead.
The Grove City Area Historical Society received a $25,000 grant two weeks ago through the Pennsylvania Museum Commission that will help finish renovations in the College Avenue building, allowing it to expand displays of local history.
“This is an old, old building that needs constant maintenance,” said Mary “Skip” Sample, president. “We’re thrilled.”
Much of the work on the old Travelers Hotel has been completed on the first floor within the past couple of years.
Now it’s time to finish the second floor. The $25,000 will be used to complete the old rooms of the hotel that will be used for displays and storage.
After the borough purchased the building for the society in January 2000, the roof “sprung a leak,” Sample said. The roof couldn’t be fixed until the spring, and the plaster in all the rooms upstairs received extensive water damage.
After nearly 10 years of working on other projects, the upstairs work has received its due attention. As soon as the recent grant money was in hand, the society brought in a contractor to repair the upstairs ceilings and walls.
Having submitted bids for the project was part of the grant-application process. “We were ready to go with the construction,” Sample said. “We were a shovel-ready project.”
The contractor finished his work last week. The society members will now be painting, tearing up carpet and decorating the rooms.
This past winter, the society already funded work to repair three rooms that will commemorate Grove City College; business and industry; and area churches.
Sherwin Williams in Pine Township donated employees and materials to paint the three rooms during the Grove City Day of Caring in April.
There are 13 rooms upstairs that will be decorated in various themes or used for storage, she noted. The society took out plumbing, but installed a heating and cooling system to keep the temperature upstairs consistent, she added.
Among other themes upstairs will be agriculture, sports, and men’s and women’s vintage clothing. The Harshaw room will remember a prominent family in town who began the Penn Grove Hotel and donated land for Grove City Memorial Park, Sample said.
The only completed room is a replica of a 1930s-era room at Travelers. A bedroom set from that era was donated to the society.
Other throwbacks from the Travelers era will be two small baths redone to look like ones from the old hotel, Sample noted.
The society has come a long way in nearly 10 years, taking the old hotel and making it into a viable location for people to come and learn of the area’s history.
Although it’s spent thousands on renovations, maintenance of the building costs $10,000 annually, with only half of that received from its 300 members, Sample said.
The extra $5,000 has to be found in other ways, like a $2,000 annual donation from Pine Township, she stated.
Otherwise, “We’ve existed on grants, selling books and projects,” Sample said.
Its roof’s 10-year warranty is nearly up, and the society knows it’ll have to look into an upgrade in the near future.
“It’s a constant struggle to keep ahead of expenses,” Sample said.
But they keep ticking on, recently getting a $1,500 grant from the Grove City Foundation, which will repair a wall in a basement damaged from water leakage.
The society is also applying for a $20,000 grant through state Rep. Dick Stevenson’s office.
The $25,000 grant application was done through state Sen. Bob Robbins office. Long-time member and former president, Dr. Tom Armour, wrote the grant in the fall.
Purchase a copy of this story, with additional photos, at Allied News, 201A Erie St., Grove City. Publish date June 27, 2009.
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