Bushy Run Battlefield Museum to reopen April 30

The Bushy Run Battlefield Museum in Penn Township will be able to reopen on April 30, the first time since the Wolf administration shut down state-owned facilities a year ago in its efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The museum at the site of the August 1763 battle that saw British and colonial soldiers defeat a force of Native Americans east of present-day Harrison City, will open on a limited basis on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., said Bonnie Ramus, president of the Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society Inc.

“Everything is tentative, but it could change, depending on what happens with covid,” said Ramus, who heads the local nonprofit organization that operates the site.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on Wednesday gave Bushy Run, Old Economy Village in Ambridge, the Somerset Historical Society and 19 other state-owned museums permission to reopen on a limited basis. No events will be allowed initially. The decision to reopen the museums will be revisited in about two months, said Howard Pollman, a historical commission spokesman.

“We just want to get our legs under us,” Pollman said of the uncertainty of when the state might decide to permit a full reopening.

The state-owned Fort Pitt Museum at Point State Park in Pittsburgh has been open since Jan. 9, said Brady M. Smith, a spokesman for the Sen. John Heinz History Center, which operates the museum. It is operating in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidance on masks and social distancing.

The agency’s announcement comes about a week after Gov. Tom Wolf said that restrictions on the number of people who can be at restaurants and facilities such as gyms and movie theaters will increase on April 4 to 75% capacity.

The state’s restrictions against large gatherings will not permit what had been an annual reenactment at Bushy Run in early August of the 1763 battle between British and colonial forces against Native Americans, as well as a car cruise on the grounds, Ramus said. Both events were canceled last year when the museum was closed.

Even if the state were to lift all restrictions in two months, Ramus it would too late to hold the two-day reenactment.

“We start making those plans in January. Those (re-enactors) are booked for other events” in the summer, Ramus said.

Bushy Run will have five weeks to clean the museum and exhibits as well as disinfect the property, even though no one has been in the facility for a year, Ramus said. Sanitizing stations will have to be installed.

Visitors and staff will be required to wear face masks and maintain proper social distancing.

Ramus and other heritage society board members hope to reopen with a new museum facilitator in place. The board has identified eight candidates for the position, which has been vacant since former director Michael Tusay left in December to become executive director of the Latrobe Art Center.

Tusay has offered to help train his successor, Ramus said.

“Michael has been so wonderful,” Ramus said.