Mission

The mission of the Sewickley Valley Historical Society is to promote interest in and to record, collect, preserve, and document the history of the Sewickley Valley.

Accomplishments

We answer hundreds of queries about local history for visitors from all over the United States and encourage hands-on historical research.

We catalog and maintain a computer database on a growing archival collection of books, postcards, diaries, letters, photographs, scrapbooks, maps, artifacts and other memorabilia.

We sponsor the work of our official archivist, Dorothy M. Moore, who has amassed a valuable genealogical collection.

Our Oral History Committee has taped conversations with more than 35 local citizens.

We publish a periodical newsletter, Signals.

We offer a lecture series on local, regional and national history and have sponsored seminars on genealogy, the renovation of old houses, railroad history and historic preservation.

Individual society members have been instrumental in saving local historic houses. We foster research on important Sewickley Valley architecture and present awards to encourage preservation of historic properties.

In 1976, our membership formed the nucleus for the Sewickley Valley Bicentennial Committee. The Society became the repository for the assets of the Committee, including nearly 300 historic photos. Many of these photos are now available for purchase through our website, www.sewickleyhistory.org.

We have lent financial support to the restoration and maintenance of the Old Sewickley Post Office as a cultural center.

In 1990, we sponsored a major exhibition on Longfellow, Alden & Harlow and financially supported a book on the architectural firm by the late Margaret Henderson Floyd of Tufts University.

We provided seed money for the 1990 publication Sewickley Sesquicentennial: One Hundred Fiftieth Anniversary of the Naming of the Town 'Sewickleyville' and the kickoff leaflet for the Friends of the Sewickley Train Station.

In 1993, the Society published a new edition of the Molyneaux map, the original of which was commissioned by Sewickley Heights Borough in 1933. It is available for sale through our website.

We prepared the script for the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentationís slide presentation on old Sewickley gardens.

In 1995, research material was furnished to Altarus Records, which recorded pianist Donna Amato performing the works of Ethelbert and Arthur Nevin. From Edgeworth Hills, the first major recording of the music of these two local composers, can be purchased through our website.

We were instrumental in saving two finials from the 1911 Sewickley Bridge, one of which was permanently installed in Park Place in 1998.

We saved railings from the Sewickley Elementary School and installed them at the Sewickley Public Library. During the Library expansion in 2000, they were incorporated into a new garden terrace.

In 2000, we became the repository for the records and assets of Edgeworth Preservation.

We celebrated the new millennium by co-sponsoring, with Sweetwater Center for the Arts, a major exhibition of works by local artists, past and present, entitled 'A Brush with History.'

We have prepared, at the request of the Old Sewickley Post Office Corporation, four sets of Lost Sewickley notecards. They can be purchased through our website.

In 2005, we contributed to the new statue of 'Fame,' the Soldiers' Monument in Sewickley Cemetery.

In the spring of 2006, we reprinted Lights & Shadows of Sewickley Life; or, Memories of Sweet Valley, by Agnes L. Ellis, with a new introduction by SVHS archivist Dorothy M. Moore. The 1893 book is available for sale through our website.

A postcard history of Sewickley, prepared by the Historical Society staff, is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2006.

'Celebrate Sewickley!,' an exhibition of art and artists of the Sewickley Valley, was held in 2006 in conjunction with Sweetwater Center for the Arts and the Old Sewickley Post Office Corporation. We hope that this will become an annual event, providing funds for the maintenance of our mutual home, the Sewickley Valley Cultural Center.