Kutztown Area Historical Society

The Kutztown Area Historical Society mourns the passing of Erna Furst Snyder. It is an understatement to say that the society wouldn't exist without Erna's hard work and dedication in our early years. Among many achievements was her getting the 1892 Public School Building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Her remarkable life is detailed in her obituary; a link, of which, is in the comments of this post. Even if she hadn't won the Mrs. America title, she would still be a queen to all of us at the historical society. She was a truly great lady, and will be missed.

Merry Christmas!

A worthy project!

The latest donation to the society archives is this collection from Harry Bieber. The memorabilia was collected by his father, Ellsworth Bieber. Great stuff!

A fantastic project!! Thanks to all who worked to make this a reality!

Spring at the 1892 Public School Building.

Senator Judy Schwank is a great friend of the Kutztown Area Historical Society.

Here's the latest addition to our photo archives: The Kutztown Fair in 1906. If you have some old photos of historical value to the Kutztown area, please let us know so we can make a digital copy and include it in our archives.

The society remembers our great friend, Paul Kunkel.

The society's latest addition: bi-lingual signage (English and PA Dutch) at the 1892 Public School Building. The signs are a joint project with Elwetrittche-Verein 1982 E.V. Landau, Germany; Deutsch-Pennsylvanischer Arbeitskreis (DPAK), Germany. Thanks to Patrick Donmoyer, Mary Laub, Sandy Leiby, Brendan Strasser, Karen Delong, Jeff Schmoyer, and Dennis DeTurk for your work on this project. Also thanks to Kevin Fegely for the wonderful signs. During your next walk, stop by the society to read the signs.

Nothing said, "Christmas" in the 70s better than McCrory's.

Here's the link to the PBS/BBC documentary about Keith Haring. The Kutztown Area Historical Society was one of the resources for this production. Learn about Kutztown's most famous native. Watch it soon because PBS will remove it in the beginning of January 2021. Enjoy!

PBS is running a BBC documentary about Kutztown native Keith Haring as part of its American Masters series. The documentary is streaming on the PBS website starting December 4 at 9 pm. In the meantime, here are some interesting facts about Keith.