PITTSTON — Organizing a one-day celebration of Pittston’s 200-plus years may sound like a historically tall task. It’s a good thing then that Greater Pittston Historical Society is behind the first-ever Pittston History Day.
The historical society will display photographs and artifacts that help tell the Pittston story from noon to 5 p.m. April 22 at Pittston City Fire Headquarters, 20 Kennedy St. Historical Society Vice President Julio Caprari said the event will include everything from revolutionary America to the era of rampant rail expansion and, of course, King Coal.
Pittston History Day aims to tell a story, but Caprari hopes the community comes ready to tell its side of things, too.
“We want to encourage the public to bring what they might have,” Caprari said. “They might have an artifact from Pittston Hospital or from the garment union, and these are things we can collect and preserve for future generations. If these artifacts mean something to people, they don’t have to donate them but if they bring them to History Day, we can scan them and digitally preserve them for future generations.”
Along with items from its collection, the historical society plans to have some of its preservation technology on-hand to both process public items and demonstrate ways local history aficionados are preserving Pittston’s story.
Organizations with similar missions will join the historical society that day, including the Frances Dorrance chapter of Pennsylvania Archaeological Society, which Caprari said has unearthed artifacts from the Conrail site in Duryea that date back 10,000 years.
Pittston History Day will also feature Wandering Widows, an organization that dresses in mid-19th century garb to discuss funeral practices of the period. If patrons aren’t much for the macabre, they can browse artifacts while younger attendees take part in a children’s mural presented by artist Jan Lokuta.
Lokuta has chosen five Pittston churches — First Baptist, First Presbyterian, United Methodist, St. John’s the Evangelist and St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic — to feature in the mural, which will be sketched on carpet underlayment by Lokuta and painted by young people at Pittston History Day.
The mural’s subject was chosen by Lokuta because of the role he believes places of worship play in the history of Pittston.
“These churches and others are emblematic of Pittston,” Lokuta said. “Churches and their congregations tell the entire history of Pittston, the founding of Pittston in the 1700s and the history of the various ethnic groups that moved into Pittston in the 1800s and the early 20th century.”
As for the history of Pittston History Day, Caprari said he hopes the event becomes an annual affair alongside community mainstays like Paint Pittston Pink and Trick or Treat Main Street.
“This is a reason to come together and celebrate the history of Pittston,” Caprari said. “We want families to come. We want children to come. There’s just so much here, so we hope people can learn something by coming to visit us that day.”
