Rostraver Historical Society restoring historic building, gaining members
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
The interior of the original 1895 section of Fells UME Church is one of the areas Rostraver Historical Society is looking to restore.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Damage inside the original church where the two buildings connect is on the list of repairs Rostraver Historical Society would like to do at Fells UME Church in Fellsburg, Rostraver Township.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Stu Boyd tells the history of Fells UME Church in the Fellsburg section of Rostraver Township. The building is home to Rostraver Historical Society. The society is in the process of repairing and restoring the property and building, including the two posts on either side of the entrance walkway.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Each room at Rostraver Historical Society has a theme or time period in history.
Observer-Reporter file photo
This file photo shows Fells United Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Fellsburg area of Rostraver Township. The church is home to Rostraver Area Historical Society.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
The foyer is just one of the rooms that was renovated and restored inside Fells UME Church, which is home to Rostraver Historical Society.
Attendance at the monthly meetings of Rostraver Township Historical Society was scant. Down to an average of eight attendees each meeting, the society almost went defunct in 2016.
Founded in 1994 “to promote and preserve Rostraver Township history as well as history in general,” the society had reached its nadir the evening Stu Boyd attended two years ago.
“The president, who was 90 years old at the time, announced that he was resigning and another attendee, Frank Indoff, volunteered to become the new president,” he said. “To prevent the organization from collapsing, I volunteered to become the new vice president.”
The meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month in the sanctuary of the 1835 Fells United Methodist Episcopal Church. While Boyd describes the structure as “old and basically sound,” there were problems like mold, falling plaster, a leaky roof and cracked asbestos floor tiles.
Realizing that something had to be done, a corps of five members with occasional help from others began a two-year cleanup and repair project, during which the team discovered a dead possum under a commode.
In areas and rooms once deemed almost unfit for human habitation, there are now new museum exhibits in rooms devoted to mining, Native Americans, the railroad, the Civil War, patriotism and the military. In the planning stage is an attempt to create a sports museum with a local emphasis.
With financial help from the township commissioners, the building got a new $19,000 copper roof in June.
“We also tackled smaller projects that took two years of hard work, “Boyd said. “However, we’re now at the point where everything remaining has to be done professionally.”
As the members worked on restoring the old building and creating the museum rooms, the community began to take notice and respond positively. Contributions trickled in along with the donation of historic artifacts.
As they worked on the church, members also added interesting programming to the monthly meetings. For the Oct. 9 meeting, for example, the group is featuring local businessman Jim Stump, who will present a program on the presidents who visited the township and stayed at the home of George Sweeney. He’ll also bring along photos and artifacts related to the visit
“After posting our organization on Facebook, we got a lot of publicity and new members joined,” Boyd said. “Our goal now is to get two new members each month.”
Total membership (the annual fee is $15) has grown to around 90 members with an average of 35 to 40 now attending the meetings. Although most of the members are township residents, there is also a sizable amount of former residents who’ve moved away but want to retain a connection to the area.
Recently, members launched a new project to contact every church in the township for information on their congregation. The submitted information will eventually be displayed in the church sanctuary, which Boyd said will not become a museum but will reflect only God and country.
Another new project to raise $6,500 to repair the soffit and facia under the roof of the old church, most of which is original, is in the planning stage and set to begin in 2019. Future projects involve removing the floor tiles in the sanctuary and repairing decayed plaster. Members are also gearing up for a letter-writing campaign that will invite all the businesses in the township to contribute to the restoration efforts.
“We have two sources of income besides the annual dues – grants and contributions from individuals and businesses,” Boyd said.
A previous log white oak church that dates back to 1792 once stood adjacent to the current Fells UME Church, which was built in 1835 over the graves of the original settler, Benjamin Fell, his wife, Rebecca, and their two children.
When the congregation outgrew the church, they built a new one in 1967 about a half-mile away and sold the building to the township. The latter used it to house the police department, sewage authority and library. In 1997, the municipality built a new building and vacated the old one, and the old church became the home of the historical society.
The Rostraver Township Historical Society is at 800 Fellsburg Road in Rostraver Township. For more information, phone 724-872-6161.