There's an article in today's New York Times that describes the fate of many historic house museums across the United States (you can read the article, "Homes sell, and history goes private" at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/us/31preserve.html?ex=1325221200&en=d1a820285e884ee7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss).  For many, admissions and support are down, and the need for costly repairs is rising.  Many of these homes are being offered for sale to private owners, and may never open to the public again.

History of the Penns Valley Area Historical Museum Association 1968 -- A group of Penns Valley residents founded the Aaronsburg Library and Historical Museum Association. They sought to preserve and promote the area's agricultural heritage and to commemorate the ideals portrayed in the Aaronsburg Story. October 23, 1949 -- The Aaronsburg Story was an event that took place in Aaronsburg. It was attended by over 30,000 people and included a re-enactment of the founding of aaronsburg by Aaron Levy, an Orthodox Jew and prominent Northumberland County land promoter. Levy, who generously gave land for the building of two Protestant churches, including the Salem Lutheran Church, also gave a beautiful pewter communion set as a gift to the congregations. Levy's ecumenical spirit was celebrated in The Aaronsburg Story. This nationally recognized event was attended by locak, state and national dignitaries. Thousands witnessed historical reenactments and workshops promoting social justice. It was the first mass expression by the American middle class in favor of racial and religious tolerance. 1968 to 1985 -- The association, through volunteer efforts, raised funds to convert an abandoned church at 114 Plub St. in Aaronsburg into a library, museum and community center. Later the library joined the Centre County Library system. by 1986 -- The two entities evolved into two separate organizations: the Aaronsburg Area Library Association and The Aaronsburg Historical Museum Association. In 1987 the AHMA purchased the sixteen-acre Aaronsburg Story site located adjacent to the Salem Lutheran Church. 1999 -- The community united once again to recognize the 50th Anniversary of The Aaronsburg Story. 1999 to 2003 -- An expanding collection and a desire to increase outreach to the public led the museum, over this five-year period, to study relocating the museum. 2003 -- The board of directors, after conducting a feasibility study and acting on the wishes of area residents, purchased the 184 year-old house at 244 W. Aaron Square from Douglas and Dee Vonada. The association initiated a $326,000 capital campaign to make improvements to the property. The campaign included opportunities for donors to name parts of the museum. Generously, Guy and Ruth Rudy of Centre Hall donated $100,000.00 for the privilege of naming the museum's main building. By agreement, the Rudy-Corman building will feature a permanent display of former Pennsylvania State Representative Ruth Rudy's papers. The collection details her 12 years as this area's elected representative.

History of the Penns Valley Area Historical Museum Property by Bruce Teeple Many owners of an old house wish to discover something about the previous owners of their property. As an example, the house recently purchased by the museum association is nearly two hundred years old. Some questions naturally come to mind; Who lived there? What did they do for a living? What kind of world did they live in? What decisions did they have to make? Was the owner also the primary resident or did renters live there? How old are the current outbuildings? This article contains the results of my preliminary investigation. Lot number 410 was just one of over six hundred long, marrow, quarter-acre lots in Aaron Levy's 1786 town plan. Levy, hoping to establish Aaronsburg as a future county seat (not a state capital), used a marketing technique still common today; he reserved several lots for public buildings such as schools and churches. (The reader should note two other interesting details. Levy initially sold lots in town through a statewide lottery. This was a common practice used to promote settlement in the eighteenth century. The other fact is that the grid pattern of streets and alleys laid out by Levy is a town plan typical of the time.) This sixty-foot by two hundred-foot undeveloped parcel was obtained by Simon Gratz (Levy's eventual heir) from Aaron Levy in 1802. Twelve years later, Gratz sold the lot to John Hess for $100.00. Water company records, tax records and deed transfers indicate that Hess, a hatter, erected the eastern half, a Georgian-style log structure, on the site in 1817. A wood-frame addition came several years later. By 1820 the census shows one male over twenty-six years of age living in the Hess household, as well as one male between sixteen and twenty-six, another between ten and sixteen, and two males under the age of ten. Some of these males may have been apprentices or workers in Hess's business. By 1860, Frederick Rager (also spelled Reager and Taeger), a carpenter, and his wife were living in the house. When Rager's widow, Margaret, died thirty years later, the estate sale listed, among the other items, a broom machine. This may indicate that either Rager worked at this trade in his spare time or in his old age. (It may also have been long unused equipment inherited from a relative, such as a father-in-law.) Rager's friend, W.B. Mingle, administered the estate and had the "two story dwelling house, stable and other outguildings" sold to Henry and Carrie Detwiler for $600 in 1893. Two days later, the Detwilers transferred the property to Harriet and Emanuel Wetzel, a daughter and son-in-law of a John Hess (the original owner?). The Wetzels then sold the house for $680 to W.A.J. and Catura Korman, "residents of Wolf's Store," in 1895. The Kormans, seven years later, sold the property to Thomas C. and Sally Weaver for $525. The Weavers owned the place until February 1919, when they sold it to J.A. Grenoble for $800. Grenoble sold the place to David Sparr Wert in March of 1923 for $1670. Title then transferred to Wert's grandson, Douglas Vonada, upon Wert's death sixty-four years later. The cursory examination of the outbuildings reveals several interesting details. While the barn contains the original logs, there are posts and other structural elements indicating that additions were cobbled from other buildings. This was a common practice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century because large-scale, commercial logging was stripping away many of the old-growth trees around here. New construction techniques, such as balloon framing, were developed to adjust to this reality. The shed housing the agricultural exhibit yields a date of June 1933 in the concrete floor. This building itself, however, is a classic post-and-beam structure with board-and batten siding, and most likely dates from the 1890s as well. We hope to discover and present more answers to our questions about this place, its history and its owners and information comes to light. We welcome any information our readers may have about the property or the families listed in this article.

Location(s) PA Military MuseumBoalsburg, PASee map: Google MapsA SHORT HISTORY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA MILITARY MUSEUM