Norvelt residents try to preserve community history's link to Roosevelts

Virginia Boytim Vahaly has a vivid memory of a special day in 1935.

It was the day her family moved to the Westmoreland Homesteads in Mt. Pleasant Township, a growing community later named Norvelt.

She was 7 when the Vahaly family left a three-room house with outdoor plumbing in United, a village a few miles down the road, and moved into a five-room house with running water, indoor plumbing and electricity.

“Daddy didn't have work, and he got a job here,” she said.

It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the town that was named for Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, made construction of its 254 homes possible as part of the New Deal. During the Great Depression, Norvelt provided housing, work and a community to unemployed workers and their families.

That's why Vahaly, 87, a member of the Norvelt Historical Society, and others are so intent on keeping the history of their village alive.

They took a step in that direction with the opening of the Norvelt Room in the former Hurst High School building, where memorabilia from the life and times of Norvelt will be displayed.

Society members are seeking donations and items on loan to build a living tribute to their town, which began as the Westmoreland Homesteads 80 years ago. The historical society formed in 2009 when the village celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Members hope the Norvelt room, which is open from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, will give visitors a glimpse of what life was like in those early days and tell the remarkable story of the town's evolution.

“We just want to keep the history of Norvelt going,” said Ann Riggen, society president.

Norvelt was the fourth of 99 planned subsistence homestead communities subsidized by the federal government as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act for dislocated miners and industrial workers. More than 1,850 people applied for 250 lots.

By the summer of 1934, the American Field Service Committee had established a work camp and started to build the subsistence project.

To make them self-sustaining, the government gave each of the original 254 families a 3.4-acre plot of land with a grape arbor and chicken coop. They shared a cooperative garden, a schoolhouse and other common buildings, including two barns for livestock, hogs and chickens.

Residents who were accepted into the homesteaders program were expected to contribute to the construction of the village, including their own homes.

The homes in the community were divided into six sections, A-F.

“We were in F section,” Riggen, 70, of Mt. Pleasant said.

“The rent was $13.50 a month,” Vahaly said.

“Everyone knew everyone. ... We walked (2 miles) to school in Hecla. If we had 3 cents, we took the streetcar. Everyone was poor. We didn't know any different,” she said.

Vahaly graduated from Hurst High School, now the Norvelt Business Plaza.

“The story we heard was that Eleanor Roosevelt was very interested in building modern homes,” said Virginia Speer, 69, society treasurer.

The community offered women sewing and canning classes and had a nursery school for the children, she said.

“It was really ahead of its time. I would think you would have to credit Eleanor Roosevelt — she visited in 1937 — for some of that,” she said.

Speer said her father, Frank Andrews, who died in 1999, was the last charter member of the village fire department.

She recalled a fire siren blasting specific signals indicating where in the village the fire truck or ambulance service was needed.

The Westmoreland Homestead volunteer fire department uniform worn by Dewey Honse, an original homesteader who died in 1977, is on loan from his daughter, Darlene Zalick.

The society received several signs original to a dairy bar in a former community store that advertise a “double rich malted” for 15 cents and banana splits for 20 cents.

“Someone dropped them off. We'd like to know who it was,” Riggen said.

Earl Saville, who grew up in a Homestead residence, donated a set of house shutters, an egg basket, a bottle capper and a scythe.

Miniature replicas showing several designs of the homes, many of which still stand, were donated by Don and Sylvia Elsbury.

Christine Strama, granddaughter of homesteaders Joseph and Mary Maline, donated a pressure cooker and canning handbook. Lois Schlingman Weyandt, who grew up in the town, has loaned several feed sack dish towels, tea towels and an apron.

A booster seat, stool and front door from Herb Black's barbershop were donated.

A copy of the newsletter, The Homesteader, dated June 29, 1937, advertises Fourth of July co-op specials including 3 pounds of bulk macaroni for 25 cents and two boxes of salt for 9 cents.

As the collection grows, it will be displayed on a rotating basis.

“When we are dead and gone, this history is going to be gone, unless we do something about it,” Speer said.

For information on donating or lending items, call 724-547-5415 or 724-423-5729.

Mary Pickels is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-836-5401 or mpickels@tribweb.com.