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I have been mesmerized by this print hanging in the Watson-Curtze mansion in the men’s lounge off the 3^rd floor ballroom.  Have you seen it? It is an artist’s rendition of the burning of the Steamship Erie in 1841. 

This Memorial Day, “The Wall That Heals,” a portable version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. will visit Erie. In recognition of the visit of “The Wall That Heals,” the Hagen History Center will recognize the 59 servicemen from Erie County that are among the over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in Southeast Asia. Each week, a few veterans will be featured on our social media. The week of Memorial Day, several servicemen will be honored.

In the early 1900s, Erie was considered THE center of the engine and boiler manufacturing industry.  I have read that Erie had more engines and boilers manufactured here than in any other city in the United States and perhaps the world! Time marched on and as technology changed, so too did these machines.  Let us look at one company which started small then eventually merged with a company we have all heard of.

This Memorial Day, “The Wall That Heals,” a portable version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. will visit Erie. In recognition of the visit of “The Wall That Heals,” the Hagen History Center will recognize the 59 servicemen from Erie County that are among the over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in Southeast Asia. Each week, a few veterans will be featured on our social media. The week of Memorial Day, several servicemen will be honored.

What are you doing for St. Patrick’s Day this year?  I will be at the office; it is a workday after all.  I am not of Irish decent, not that it matters to celebrate.  I have heard that everyone is Irish on March 17^th!  I celebrate St. Joseph’s Day on March 19^th which is an Italian or Bavarian holiday.  My Bavarian (German)  grandfather (Joseph) would take all his colleagues out for drinks after work then enjoy a huge meal at home.  I celebrate on a smaller scale yet remember my Bavarian roots while doing so.

Sarah A. Reed was born on March 16, 1838, into a prominent Erie family. She was the eighth and final child of William and Elizabeth Reed and the great-granddaughter of Seth Reed, one of the original settlers and a Revolutionary War veteran.

This Memorial Day, “The Wall That Heals,” a portable version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. will visit Erie. In recognition of the visit of “The Wall That Heals,” the Hagen History Center will recognize the 59 servicemen from Erie County that are among the over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in Southeast Asia. Each week, a few veterans will be featured on our social media. The week of Memorial Day, several servicemen will be honored.

It’s time for a “Found in the Archives!” blog post or rather more fitting would be, “The Occasional Blog!”. As we have found out, there lacks consistency to the fitting name, call it as you will. I have been traipsing along since the last post, going through a historic house preservation themed collection that has taken a wee too much of my time. After going through dozens of folders and a few hundred items, the last thing I found in the collection was a little red book called, “Individualities”, curated by Mildred Sherrer and her friends during the time frame 1917-1923. This lovely artifact was given to her Christmas of 1917, age of the writers is unknown. The book is designed “to preserving a record of those individual likes and dislikes of our friends with which we are so familiar”.

March 10^th is the 100^th anniversary of the death of a famous Erie born and raised man.  He brought happiness throughout the world and was a mentor and inspiration to generations of performers who followed him.  Who was that person?

From the 1960’s up through the 1990’s, the Erie Planetarium was operated by the Erie School District, Gannon University and the Erie County Historical Society.  At its beginning, a Planetarium committee was formed in order to get the Planetarium properly operating on a regular basis for the public and potentially thousands of kids, some local amateur astronomers and Behrend professors (called lecturers) were recruited to participate.