Depreciation Lands Museum in Hampton celebrates 50 years

In 1973, a group of Hampton history buffs launched an effort to preserve and re-create the past at the Pine Creek Covenanter Church, built about 1837.

On May 21, the community is invited to celebrate the golden anniversary of what became the Depreciation Lands Museum, with special activities planned from 1 to 4 p.m. during the venue’s annual Friendship Day event.

“Friendship Day traditionally is our day as a community outreach,” Carol Greiner, museum association president, said. “We try to bring in extra vendors and have people doing demonstrations above and beyond what we usually do on a regular Sunday.”

This year’s event, which features free admission, has attractions including a slideshow, “The History of the Covenanters”; display of vintage posters and antique items; and presentation about the museum’s history by Hampton municipal manager Christopher Lochner.

As usual, the grounds will be filled with folks dressed in Colonial-era outfits discussing and demonstrating facets of life in the early days of the United States, from spinning and weaving to fabricating essentials and supplying goods.

Along with the church building, visitors can check out other structures on site. An authentic log house dating back to 1803 is complemented by spot-on reproductions of a one-room schoolhouse, smokehouse and blacksmith shop, plus a barn that houses a Conestoga-style wagon, mercantile area and workshop for wood and metal.

For 2022, the museum was the beneficiary of an Eagle Scout project to build a replica wigwam, a shelter framed with sticks and capped by a domed roof.

“It was not necessarily a permanent structure like a log house, but it would be used when they were out hunting,” Greiner said about 18th-century denizens of what then was the American frontier. “They would set up camps with the wigwams.”

‘We try to keep it interesting’

For 2023, she reported that the museum has about 22 new volunteers, many of whom had their first experiences as such on Opening Day, May 7.

“In any organization, that seems to be one of the downfalls, getting and keeping volunteers,” she said. “We try to keep it interesting. We teach a lot of skills to our docents, which I think is a big draw. And who doesn’t like playing dress-up and telling stories?”

Hampton resident Johanna Forschein, who is joining daughter Sydney in devoting time to the museum, does enjoy wearing clothes of a bygone era.

“That’s part of what attracted me,” she said. “I had always wanted to volunteer and step back in time, and this was the perfect opportunity to do it together.”

She spent her first day amid antique looms and spinning wheels, learning about textile-making techniques from veteran docent Babeth Raible. Meanwhile, Sydney worked in the mercantile under the tutelage of Joyce Divine, learning about the types of transactions that took place a couple of hundred years ago.

“It mostly was barter. The money was used to pay to pay the state taxes,” Sydney said, adding the observation: “Money was basically worthless.”

Prior to volunteering, she had attended Halloween events at the museum, and some of her interests correspond with her new role.

“I love history and acting, so it looked like a lot of fun,” she said. “And so far, it is.”

‘Gives you a better appreciation’

Next to the mercantile is the artisan shop, in which Ben Gercak of Shaler is spending his second season after serving as a college intern in 2022.

“It’s interesting to see how people worked with wood back in the 18th century,” the Slippery Rock University student said, “and it gives you a better appreciation for a tactile, hands-on feeling that you’re not going to get from watching a movie or reading a book.”

Although she’s new to volunteering at the Depreciation Lands Museum, Wendy Stemple interned starting in 1975 at the Somerset Historical Center, near her native Shanskville.

“I have demonstrated butter making, spinning, weaving and log house interpretation since then,” she said. “All three of my kids grew up there and have carried on the tradition.”

That includes daughter Jill, who moved with Wendy to Shaler and shares her participatory support of preserving local history.

“I learned to do butter churning and Dutch oven baking,” Jill said about her Somerset experiences, “but I’m mainly a textile artist. I learned to quilt from my grandma, so I do a lot of quilting.”

Also working with textiles at the Hampton museum in Mariane Ruffner, who lives in Hampton.

“I’ve always loved history, and I thought it was a perfect time for me, being retired, to be able to volunteer my time here,” she said. “I have been coming here for quite a while. I’ve brought Boy Scout groups and Girl Scout groups here. We’ve stayed overnight in the log cabin.”

For those who may be wondering, the Depreciation Lands Museum is named for a large chunk of north of Pittsburgh, as designated in 1784. Tracts within the area were to be sold to raise money to underwrite depreciation certificates, given to Pennsylvania’s Revolutionary War troops who had received depreciated currency for pay.

The Depreciation Lands Museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays, May through October. For more information, visit dlmuseum.org.