WEST PITTSTON — The West Pittston Historical Society is about preservation and awareness of the past and, on June 23, the society practiced what it preaches by holding West Pittston History Day at the West Pittston Library.
Conceived from an idea from Dupont Borough, the historical society laid out artifacts and photos from West Pittston’s 162-year history on a Sunday afternoon.
The Garden Village is much more diverse today than in years gone by and the historical society’s goal is to inform and educate newcomers to the borough of its rich past.
“Tom Obrzut (Jr.) came to me about two years ago when he was active with West Pittston Tomorrow at that point and suggested we start putting something together maybe he could work with the historical society to make this happen,” said Mary Portelli, president of the West Pittston Historical Society. “We got the historical society reinvigorated and Tom came on board and he’s been working really hard to get this (History Day) put in place.”
While helping out a friend recycle at the West Wyoming recycling center, Obrzut, now a board member of the West Pittston Historical Society, noticed items being thrown out that perhaps should have been saved for preservation.
“When I was looking in the dumpsters, I just saw a lot of family history thrown away,” Obrzut said. “I’d see a name; I’d Google it. They had just died recently and their kids just dumped everything – photos, bank statements, books and I just felt we needed to preserve our area’s history. That’s how today came about.”
The actual title of the event also came from Obrzut after seeing Dupont and Pittston hold similar events.
“I actually stole the title off of Bob Price because Dupont had a history day and Pittston had a history day, so there was no rhyme or reason for the name,” Obrzut laughed.
Price, a Dupont resident who has been involved in digital archiving in the past, was asked to attend West Pittston History Day to scan photos or historical documents to be digitized for keepsake.
“It’s definitely time; I think we’re looking to do positive things for the borough and we have a lot of new people coming into the borough,” Portelli said. “It’s nice to share our history and to help them understand there’s been a past here before we all came along and to see where we came from.”
All items on display are owned by the borough’s historical society and stored safely in an undisclosed location.
Portelli said the collection is far larger than publicly known. She would like to house the collection for the public to see, but that won’t happen soon. Finding an appropriate facility is the main issue, but Portelli has faith the collection will have a permanent home.
“We have collected over the years and we have some people that have been very generous to us and given us items,” Portelli said. “We have people that buy things with us in mind and would then donate to us. So we feel we are blessed with some generous folks.”
The society has a large collection of Charles Edgar Patience’s anthracite coal art and, according to Portelli, some of the pieces are rather large in stature.
This was West Pittston Historical Society’s first attempt at holding such an event.
“I didn’t have high expectations on attendance for today’s event,” Obrzut said. “I wasn’t looking for a big turnout, but it’s the first one and people will start talking about it. Hopefully, the next one we do there’ll be more people.”
Obrzut hopes the historical society can have two events per year.