“Creating Your Legacy,” At The Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum

Creating Your Legacy

Saturday ◊ September 20, 2014
10:30 AM – Noon
Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum
432 W. Walnut Street
Allentown, Pa. 18101

How will you be remembered?

History comes alive on Saturday, September 20, 2014, with “Creating your Legacy,” at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum from 10:30 a.m. to Noon. Arts Alive! is a three event series of behind the scenes cultural tours for members and their friends eager to engage their mind and spirit by rubbing shoulders with the creative process. Tickets $10 for members; $15 for nonmembers. Limited availability!

Learn how to uncover your heritage, enshrine your life and create your ultimate legacy!

The Lehigh County Heritage Museum touts itself as a “facility that houses one of the finest historical research libraries in the state of Pennsylvania,” with 6 galleries encompassing 13,000 square feet. The Heritage Museum is one of the Lehigh Valley’s greatest treasure troves; the entire 30,000 square foot facility houses a collection with “more than 35,000 historical artifacts, 80,000 vintage photographs, and nearly 3-million documents.” The Heritage Museum is also home to the caretakers of Lehigh Valley’s history—seven employees are responsible for maintaining the collection’s integrity.

Creating your Legacy, on September 20th, will be led by one of the Heritage Museum’s proud caretakers, Chief Curator Jill Youngken. She was awarded the “History Prize” for outstanding scholarship during her undergraduate education at Moravian College, before completing her Master’s Degree at Rutgers University. Certified in Archival Studies, she has presided over the Lehigh County Historical Society’s unique antiques for 17 years. Youngken began her career at the Historical Society as an educator before becoming the director of the Heritage Museum’s library and archives; her responsibilities now include overseeing the museum’s 3-million historical documents.

Chief Curator Jill Youngken will offer attendees a glimpse into the lives of notable Lehigh Valley natives through rare personal relics. She will show attendees how to uncover their family legacy—and leave one for future generations!

Click Here to
Buy Tickets!
$10 for members / $15 for nonmembers

Renninger’s Antique Market In Adamstown To Be Featured On PBS

Today, July 16th, at 9:00pm, Renninger’s Antique Market in Adamstown will be featured on the  new PBS show “Market Warriors”.  You can view this program locally on channels 12 and 33.    Tonight is the show’s premiere and they are staring off in Adamstown, PA!

Click here to be taken to the “Market Warrior” PBS site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/market-warriors/

Quakertown Takes The “Rebranding” Plunge

The next town in my series of redevelopment success stories in Quakertown, PA.  Pottstown area residents are all familiar with Quakertown.  We even share Route 663. 

Quakertown has benefited over the years, to some degree, by their proximity to the big cities in the Lehigh Valley.  They are part of suburbia on heavily traveled Route 309.  What many people think of when they get a visual of Quakertown is the “Big Box” sprawl on 309.  However, there is more to Quakertown.

Quakertown Borough is 2.0 square miles and contained 8,931 residents according to the 2000 census.  A 2009 estimate put the population of the borough at 8,672.  The estimated median income for Quakertown in 2008 was $53,340.  The 2008 estimated per capita income was $27,000.  The City-data crime index for Quakertown in 2009 was 258.0, which is considered low.

This all sounds rather idyllic.  Why not roll with it?  However, the status quo was not good enough for Quakertown officials who felt they needed to get people excited about their downtown and what it has to offer.  Honestly, I never thought there was much more to Quakertown than Route 309, if the truth be told.  So now I am excited too!

Quakertown has come up with the all important “tag line” which is “Explore The Possibilities”.  Kind of peeks your interest further, doesn’t it!  I enjoy exploring!  Now I feel the urge to drive up to Quakertown and venture into their downtown to “explore” the possibilities!  Local officials want to make Quakertown a destination.  To that end, they hired Delta Development Group of Mechanicsburg, PA to help lead them to the promised land of redevelopment.  In addition, Quakertown has hired Marketing Solutions of Quakertown to help them identify and market their borough.

The $64,000 question:  What kind of destination does Quakertown want to be?  The winning answer is recreation, culture, shopping and dining.  To that end a logo was carefully crafted incorporating these elements.  Because Quakertown is strategically located on the edge of the Lehigh and Delaware valleys, they are marketing themselves in both areas.

Quakertown was once a manufacturing and commercial center.  With the decline of industry, Quakertown is now a bedroom community and regional shopping destination.  Quakertown has decided to work with the assets they have and improve upon them.  Instead of crying over what once was, they are embracing what is.

Click here to check out the Quakertown development organization’s website – Quakertown Alive! http://www.quakertownalive.com/

Hat tip to readers Katy and Andrew for bringing this story to my attention!

Demographic data from Wikipedia and City-data.com