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McDonald forms historical society
By Mary Smith
MCDONALD
The village, after 95 years in existence, has a newly formed historical society.
McDonald grew up around the Carnegie Steel Co. plant at the bottom of Ohio Avenue after the plant opened in 1916.
Carnegie Steel built “mill” houses for employees to live in constructed of brick or stucco exteriors on streets on either side of Ohio Avenue from Fifth Street to the mill.
The plant later became a U.S. Steel plant but closed in the late 1970s.
The new society had its first organizational meeting in December, and will formally be called the Historical Society of McDonald. Officers, bylaws, a code of conduct, a constitution, a bank account and a post office box are all in place.
The group will be meeting at the Community Center the first Thursday of each month at 9 a.m., the third Thursday of the month around 10 a.m. and the third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Community Room at the center. This meeting is for people working during the day who cannot attend the other meetings.
Potential new members can become charter members by joining by March 25. Membership is $10.
Annual dues are $10 and must be paid in February of each year. New members would have to pay those dues by Feb. 1, 2012.
Those interested can contact president Dave Martin at 330-530-4878, or Cliff DeZee at 330-530-8073 or Denis Dean at 330-530-1717.
Other officers are John Evans, vice president; Virginia Evans, secretary; DeZee, treasurer; Joseph Ulrich, assistant treasurer; and Margaret Ague, corresponding secretary.
Committee appoint-ments include: Dean, Albert Ulrich and Ken Miner, museum and house; programming committee, Ellen Surak, chairwoman; and maintenance and grounds, Tom Domitrovich, chairman .
The group already has collected memorabilia from the village’s history but has not yet designated a place to store it.
There are plans for an open house during the annual Village Firemen’s Homecoming celebration this summer.
An open house and tour will take place at the Community Center, where pictures, maps and village memorabilia will be displayed.
Martin noted that because the village is comparatively “young” at 95 compared with other communities, it will give the historical society the opportunity to collect a lot of information now, before too much time passes, as would happen if the town were 200 to 300 years old.
“We plan a step-by-step collection and being really thorough about it,” Martin said. He said the hope is to obtain one of the “mill” houses to be used as a museum.