Mount Zion Church Day 29

The long shadows of a spring sunset tonight give a glorious appearance to the closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 28

There isn't any running water at the nearly forgotten Mount Zion Church or its cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa., requiring mourners to bring their own to plant and refresh flowers on graves.

The property along Cracker Jack Road doesn't even have a trash can, leaving the wind or human hand to toss to the side artificial graveyard decorations.

Visitors, including those who were not invited here, have also left behind beer cans and bottles, car tires and a lot of other trash in the weeds and bushes that hug the property.

And just a few hundred feet away a newer illegal garbage dump holds a mattress among other ugly things that spoil the landscape.

This is how we live in rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mount Zion Church Day 27

As Wednesday will bring an end to this 30-day photography project I think I'll miss these daily visits to the historic, closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Today, I packed a short step ladder in my car in order to peek in that back window there, a photo of which was posted here yesterday. 

Mount Zion Church Day 26

This closeup of a window serves as another example of the neglect historic Mount Zion Church faces in Nottingham Township, Pa., as April draws closer to May when this 30-day photography project is completed.

Mount Zion Church Day 25

The most handsome tree at Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 24

There are unusual finds in the cemetery behind Mount Zion Church and you can find some of them by scrolling through the archives of this 30-day photography project.

Here's another one: This random unmarked boulder apparently sits atop a grave in the Nottingham Township, Pa., cemetery on Cracker Jack Road.

Mount Zion Church Day 23

The grave of Janet Gricar Zelensky at historic Mount Zion Church Cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa., suggests she had a fondness for a black cat before her death in 1995 at age 42.

Mount Zion Church Day 22

A view of the side entrance to Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa. That is one spooky tree. 

Mount Zion Church Day 21

A graveyard daffodil processed with Flickr's new newsprint filter at Mount Zion Church Cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 16

It's your turn to write the caption for this photo of a grave in Mount Zion Church cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 13

An older woman showed up today with two others as I was ready to leave Mount Zion Church.

She looked at me when we passed each other, smiled and said, "Isn't it beautiful here?"

"Yes, but it's a bit neglected," I replied.

She introduced herself as Betty Baxter as she walked with a cane to a family grave. I told her my name and mentioned something about this photography essay.

It's the first day this month that I have seen more than the occasional woman with an unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth and walking her dog in this cemetery along Cracker Jack Road in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mrs. Baxter went on to say the caretakers of this historic property once took good care of the small brick church that, today, needs restoration work.

"How long has it been closed?" I asked her.

"Oh about 20 years," she said. "It would be nice if they could get someone in there."

My sentiments, exactly.

Mount Zion Church Day 11

In a show of disrespect for the dead, people decided this week to do some "parking" in the cemetery behind the old Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

And, they left behind the evidence of that as litter in the form of a used condom, empty pack of Camel Menthol cigarettes and a plastic bag containing more than two dozen empty laughing gas cartridges.

Mount Zion Church Day 9

The Weygandt family has an old name in the Monongahela, Pa., area as some of its members were among the earliest settlers of Washington County, Pa., following the American Revolution.

But unfortunately for Cornelius Weygandt Sr., he only lived to be 25 years old and was buried under an elaborate white marble tombstone behind the now-closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township.

Above his name on the relatively-intact tombstone was carved a beautiful rose to mark his 1869 death, noting he survived for 5 months and 22 days beyond his last birthday.

Below his name was set in stone the inscription, "In a full age like as a sholk of corn cometh in his season."

The phrase is loosely taken from Job v. 26 in the Bible as a reference to a holy man who reaches his death at a full age as does a ripe ear of corn.

It's among a number of antique inscriptions and symbols on graves here, including one on the heavily-weathered tombstone, at rear, right, which displays a hand, palm forward, fingers and thumb directed to Heaven.

Mount Zion Church Day 8

The fallen tombstones appear to be more a victim of time rather than of vandalism at the closed and historic Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

The building along Cracker Jack Road, however, is a victim of neglect.

Mount Zion Church Day 7

Here rest the remains of Sarah and Joseph Agostoni and Frederick Pfau at an old tombstone being swallowed up by two large pine trees in the cemetery behind the closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 2

To the back of left side of Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa., a two-door outhouse survives not far from the first grave in the cemetery.

Signs above the doors label which door the men and ladies were to use when nature once called at the closed church built in the mid-1800s along Cracker Jack Road.

Tomorrow, as this 30-day photo series at the church continues, I hope to wiggle open one of the doors to show those following this project what the inside looks like.

Odd mourning art frames this house museum

By Scott Beveridge

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – This story would probably be better told at Halloween because it involves an old portrait of a dead girl with creepy eyes.

Some claim those eyes follow them while they visit the children's room where the retouched photograph hangs at an historic mansion in State College, Pa.

"It's a death portrait," says Mary Osborn, a docent at Centre Furnace Mansion dating to 1792, when a nearby factory was constructed to forge pig iron ingots.

"If a child died before anyone had a photograph taken, they would have one done while the child was in the casket," Osborn explains. "It was a fashion at the time."

Such artists would retouch the photograph to make it appear as if the child's eyes were open.

Oddly, mourning art was a big fad in the late 1800s when Queen Victoria ruled Britain and spent three full years wearing black following the death of her husband, Prince Albert. The fashion of it having been more important how one wore their grief than the death itself spread wildly, especially among women.

No one knows the identity of the Centre Furnace child, whose morbid portrait is among an impressive collection of Victorian antiques in this mansion. The house museum owned by the Centre County Historical Society also is home to a colorful framed grouping of tiny flowers intricately handcrafted in wax and adorned with several locks of a young girl's blond hair.

Wax flowers with blond ringlets created by Laura Yearick Martin and adorned with the hair of her niece, Estella Artimitia Shaffer, after the girl received her first haircut. (Scott Beveridge photo)

There is wonderful piece of not-so-grim folksy miniature art under glass featuring bunny rabbits nibbling on carrots around a Christmas tree in the kid's room, as well.

"There are at least two holidays in there," Osborn said.

The early history is sketchy at best as to who built and lived in this house. It began as a one-story log structure and was remodeled into a four-story Georgian mansion with Victorian adornments as its owners made a fortune in the iron industry.

The museum is frozen in time to represent the era when the house was occupied by Moses Thompson, shown at left, who donated nearby property in 1855 to form the Farmers High School, which evolved into Pennsylvania State University. The school charter actually was signed during a formal dinner in this house.

The last occupant was Penn State physics professor Davie Bowles Garver, who died in 1975 and left the house to the historical society, which spent millions dollars to restore the place. The work included peeling off cheap paneling from the interior walls and replanting the grounds with a kitchen garden.

Its obvious upon walking through the doors of 1001 E. College Ave. this historical society works hard and lovingly to preserve its treasures, which fortunately include a large number of items that once belonged to the Thompson family.

Society members provide free tours highlighted with great stories, creating a fantastic tourist destination in this mountainous region of central Pennsylvania.

Centre Furnace Mansion, the birthplace of Pennsylvania State University and a gem of a house museum in State College, Pa. (Scott Beveridge photo)

The straight-laced guitar man

Harold Weaver, a gentleman and musician who taught scores of kids to play guitar in Monongahela, Pa., is shown, seated, second from left, in this photo taken in the 1920s.

By Scott Beveridge

MONONGAHELA, Pa. – Harold Weaver was barely noticed in his hometown of Monongahela for decades, even though he taught more than 18,000 kids how to strum a guitar.

He accomplished that by quietly walking his students through their lessons in the basement of an old apartment building in the southwestern Pennsylvania city’s downtown, almost until the day he died in September 1997.

Occasionally, people would see him nod a smile while he climbed the stairwell from his studio to the sidewalk on Main Street, and dropped out of sight.

“I just wanted to play,’ Weaver stated in an article that appeared in 1996 in the Observer-Reporter newspaper in Washington, Pa. He told its reporter he never smoked or drank alcohol before or after he got his first gig at age 18.

That job didn’t last long because his mother, Susan, sent the police after him to keep him away from musicians who partied too heavily. He immediately obeyed her, borrowed 20 cents and to caught the next streetcar home.

It’s possible Weaver’s tucked-away business and gentlemanly demeanor could explain why this city along the Monongahela River waited until the year before he died at age 92 to recognize him with its lifetime achievement award.

He hasn't been forgotten, though. A photograph of an all-black band in the 1920s with Weaver holding a banjo is part of a slide show that will be featured next month to celebrate another milestone in the historic town. The presentation will highlight Monongahela's best collection of photographs through the ages, including some that date to the Civil War era.

That gathering will mark the 40th birthday of the Noble J. Dick Aquatorium, an unusual park along the banks of the Monongahela River. A number of related events are planned before the arena with seats painted to appear like the American flag undergoes $1.3 million in renovations.

The slide show will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, in a National City Bank branch at 318 W. Main St. Admission will be $5, with proceeds benefiting the Monongahela Area Chamber of Commerce. Reservations are not required.

This road stops making sense

NEW PARIS, Pa. – For some old-fashioned fun, turn off your GPS tracker in Bedford, Pa., and stop in this quaint town to ask for directions to Gravity Hill, where the law of physics takes another road.

It’s imperative to visit the Bedford County Visitors Bureau on business Route 30, where the staff is “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind of obedient, cheerful, thrifty, clean and irreverent,” the guide to this kooky hill indicates.

“I think I’m pretty clean today,” the young woman at the desk says after I ask whether she showered this morning.

“What do you think of the hill?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s a quirky place that we took on,” she replies. “It worked. Tour buses go there, so has Science Magazine.”

She then opens a hot pink and black brochure to its page with directions to this destination, instructs me to stay on Route 30 west and make a right at the only red light in Schellsburg.

“Are there signs?” I ask.

“Oh, no. That’s why it’s important to follow these very detailed directions,” she says.

US Route 30 in Pennsylvania dates to 1913 and is near or sometimes part of Lincoln Highway, the first paved coast-to-coast highway in America. In the Bedford area, however, the road is dwarfed by the nearby Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened in 1940 as the nation’s first rural highway.

I'm en route to New Paris that has a population of 214 people unless someone died since the 2000 census.

The 8-mile trip on Route 30 takes in cow pastures, a goat farm and several beautiful old stone farmhouses. Another four miles along Route 96 north leads to a narrow and winding couple of miles on Bethel Hollow Road and a right turn to the famed Gravity Hill Road, where turning around in a driveway is strictly prohibited.

Save for a lonely tractor pulling a hay wagon, no one else is on this road today. I pull out the official guide, where it instructs me to “look for the GH spray painted on the road. Go past the first GH about 1/10 mile and stop at the second GH.”

It goes on.

“First, you need to stay calm … put your car in neutral (after checking in your mirror for oncoming traffic, of course) and take your foot off the brake.”

Now, everything about this road tells me that I am traveling downhill. After following said directions, my well-oiled Ford pickup begins to drift backwards at a good clip. This is freaking me out. Yep, the truck seems like it’s being pulled uphill by a giant magnet.

I also know in my mind that physicists have already been here with scientific measuring tools that confirm that this hill is among many such optical illusions across the globe. The horizon line and tilt of the trees and slopes all come together to trick the eye into believing the law of gravity has been suspended.

Regardless, this gem offers one of those precious thrills in life that does not come with the steep price of a day pass to a theme park.

Nightmare on North Central

Vandals have caused rather severe damage to this old house that is the only still-standing relic of the oldest college in the United States west of the Alleghenies. It's a larger tragedy that this house was allowed to fall to this state of disrepair in the first place.

Here is a story about the vandalism that appeared today in the Observer-Reporter:

CANONSBURG, Pa. – The vandalism to the last surviving Jefferson College building couldn’t have been found at a worst time.
Extensive damages were found Friday inside the historic Roberts House in Canonsburg, Pa., on the same day a nonprofit obtained its federal tax-exempt status to raise money for its restoration.
“It just makes you sick to the stomach,” said Canonsburg Mayor Anthony Colaizzo, who also is a board member of the group that wants to turn the house into an arts center.
The log, stone and brick house, with portions dating to the 1790s, was used for decades as a home for presidents, vice presidents and the faculty at the college before it merged to become Washington & Jefferson College. Founded in 1787, Jefferson College was the first school for higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains. John Roberts then operated a post office and general store in the house, beginning in 1808.
To the dismay of the Washington County Cultural Trust, vandals reduced a priceless cherry bentwood stair railing to pieces. An antique mirror was shattered, too, as were many windowpanes.
“It was a senseless act of vandalism,” Colaizzo said. “You’d have to be sick to do it. I am just lost for words.”
This isn’t the first time vandals have struck Canonsburg in recent months. In mid-June, someone scrawled the word “nemesis” in black spray paint on houses and vehicles in the East End of the borough – about 30 tags in all.
Canonsburg police continue to investigate the incidents, which detectives said caused between $15,000 to $20,000 in damages.
Police and firefighters also were called Saturday to St. Patrick Church on Pike Street after a recycling bin was set on fire.
The trust had reached an agreement for the house to be purchased by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation for a year. The foundation is expected to sell the house with a sagging roof at 225 N. Central Ave. back to the trust.
The Landmarks Foundation dispatched a crew to the house to resecure it Monday.
For information, call 724-514-6106. Donations for the restoration project can be mailed to the trust at P.O. Box 45, Canonsburg, PA 15317.