Carnegie of Homestead’s 125th anniversary celebration will soon reach its halfway point, and its board will mark that with a Spring Tea Saturday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Guests need to register online for the event, which will include tea sandwiches, fruit salad, banana bread, scones, a variety of desserts, a 50/50 raffle and more at the historic structure in Munhall. Alyson Fisher, board president, said space is limited but the $25 tickets are still available.
The tea is Fisher’s idea, as she enjoys traveling to many teas and tea rooms in the area with her mother. And it’s just kismet that it is happening on Mother’s Day weekend. “We [the board] just thought it would be a good time of year,” she said. “We wanted to do things four times a year. This is our spring activity. And Mom helping on this event — what a great Mother’s Day gift.”
Fisher is really pleased that some of the servers at the event will include Steel Valley High School students from the Expect Respect Club, who will earn community service credit for helping.
The board held an Open House in January to kick off the celebration, and the Friends of the Library offered its second Comedy Night at the Music Hall in April as a fundraiser for the Carnegie of Homestead as well as just a night of great laughs.
The January Open House attracted a great crowd of elected officials, historians and residents. “People came in and told us things like, ‘I learned to swim in this building.’ They came to see the library,” she said. “The crowd was an older crowd. People were really very interested in the community and the history of the [library within the] community.”
It featured the unveiling of “Carnegie Steel-Homestead Works 1926” by Pittsburgh artist Johno Prascak. The originals are painted on eight canvases, 36 by 48 inches each for a combined 32 feet in length, using enamel and sand as a medium. The paintings depict the steel mill in its entirety as it once stood on the historic site in Homestead along the Monongahela River, according to the Carnegie of Homestead website. Prascak took five years to research the mill and then 18 months to finish his work, which pays homage to the Pittsburgh’s steelmaking past.
The open house also included a talk and short film by Hazelwood historian JaQuay Crater, and screening of a 2022 documentary, “City of Steel,” depicting the rise and decline of the steel industry and including interviews with 40 former steelworkers, by Bruce Spiegel, a 25-year producer and editor for CBS News’ “48 Hours,” who grew up in the Greenfield section of Pittsburgh and now lives in Atlanta.
The website states that Prascak’s hope is that this art will generate conversations with people who will share their stories of Pittsburgh’s past to be recorded for future generations. Part of the ongoing celebration includes recording oral histories from current and past Steel Valley residents of the library, its athletic club and music hall as well.
Two other board-sponsored events coming up are Books, Brews and Bands, featuring live music, food trucks and a sample of fall beer from breweries, on Sept. 9 and a larger celebration event on Nov. 3, which is close to the official opening of the building funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie as part of his eventual namesake 2,500 libraries around the world, of Nov. 5, 1898.
The November event, Fisher said, will feature cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with six to eight different book themes, such as “The Great Gatsby,” letting patrons travel around the library at different stations.
“I think our goal throughout the year is to reach different populations,” Fisher said. “We do a ton of kids programming. We have the concert hall. The athletic club has a larger elderly population that uses the facility.
“This is a magnificent building. We want people to see it as a community hub and resource center. We just want people to move freely and comfortably in our space.”
The Carnegie of Homestead’s modern mission is to provide programs and facilities that enhance learning, wellness and quality of life within and outside the Steel Valley, according to its website. It serves more than 17,000 residents of Munhall, Homestead, West Homestead, Whitaker, and residents in the nearby communities of West Mifflin, Lincoln Place, Hays, Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, Duquesne and more, serving as a community activities center for residents and groups in the Mon Valley.
Fundraising has to be part of the celebration, too, she noted as the board has undertaken some major renovation projects for the building to accommodate the many events and activities take place there, including a Steel Valley Hall of Fame that occurs every four years.
The second phase of renovation on the Music Hall — including new lighting, a sprinkler system, HVAC and main curtain updates, soundproofing and new seats — will cost $2.4 million to finish, Fisher said. The Music Hall is back to its full schedule of 50 shows, booked through Drusky Entertainment, as it did before the pandemic. The capital campaign on the structure that currently seats 1,047 guests aims to address critical infrastructure and accessibility problems, according to the website.
Fisher, who will end her four years as president and 11 years on the board in January, was so looking forward to getting those new seats installed before she finished her term. She has been an elementary guidance counselor in the Steel Valley School District for 21 years and lives with her family in Munhall.
“We do have the money for the seats, but the work that needs to be done in there [first] might ruin them,” she said. “We’re hoping to get started by the fall to get more work done. [And we’re] trying to be responsible with the donations we get.”
Ticket sales are continuing for the Carnegie of Homestead Saturday, May 13, Spring Tea from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. To purchase, use this link that leads to its website.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.