Museum - Old Line Museum in Delta, Pennsylvania

The museum will be open the next two Sunday afternoons from 1:30-4. The train garden will be running and cookies will be available. Tea cakes and other items will be for sale. Stop by to say hello and enjoy viewing some of our unique history. ... We do not charge admission, but donations are appreciated.

Thanks to Mark Jardel for his donation of a Blain Store ledger. The store was located on Dooley Road, just before Delta Gas. At one time it was Myers’Store. We will have the ledger on display today for any visitor to examine! In more recent years, it burnt down, and became Cliff Sebring’s junk car lot. The property is now owned by Delta Gas. The only thing that I remember surviving the fire was a large safe or cash register. It fell thru the floor. ... I’m sure this was an very active property back in the Ma & Pa days. It was situated next to the tracks and across the road from Cardiff Station. Thanks to Tristan Mundis, we have a copy of an older map that lists some properties in the borough.

Thanks for all that visited last night and thanks to everyone that donated to Giving Tuesday. The museum is open today from 1:30-4 and tomorrow from 10am -noon. We will have a few tea cakes and chocolate chip cookies for sale today. Come see Bill’s train garden and grab some goodies. The Welsh Cottage at Coulsontown is open from noon until 4 both days. ... Our beautiful tree has taken a tumble due to the wind. I hope it can be fixed. It is beautiful.

The town’s Christmas tree is gorgeous! Please stop to see it. Also Santa will be at the barber shop tonight! Thanks to all that make our town festive.

The 2020 Christmas Fair is this weekend. The tree lighting is Friday night( tomorrow). The museum will be open from 6:30-8pm. It will also be open on Saturday from 1:30-4 pm. Bill Buckingham will have his trains running around his Plasticville display. The museum recently received a donated Christmas Collection. Thanks to Helen for this donation. Volunteers ask that all visitors wear masks and socially distance. We are limited to less than 10 visitors at any time. Hand sani...tizer is also available. If anyone is ill, please visit another time. Sorry about this!! There will be items for sale, including the River and the Ridge, half scale slate splitting mallets, craft items and two post office bank combination boxes. Donnie will have one of the Welsh Cottages open on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. He has been busy doing repair/ renovation work on two of them.

This photo was used as a basis of one of our prior festival displays. It was contributed by Martha Williams Parthree. While difficult to see, it was a Williams Bros.( now Delta Pizza), window display. A hundred plus a couple of years ago, there was a story about real fairies. It was from 2 cousin’s fanciful photos and stories. The fad made it to Delta. The display is of many fairies in the window. I believe each little box contained a free Fairie for a youthful visitor. Sadly, I wish someone was still with us that remembered this. Some of those days of innocence would be wonderful to bring back for our children near Delta and elsewhere. If only they had to wonder if fairies were real instead of some of today’s fears!

Two volunteers from the museum are planning to assist on a cemetery repair/restoration project this coming week. It is being conducted by trained cemetery conservators under the auspices of Cemetery Conservators of United Standards. They only use the safest, most approved practices for restoration. Work will be done at a 1800’s era cemetery.

The museum is now closed for the season. It is open by appointment. Thanks for the support we received over this crazy year. Upcoming events are being planned but our biggest fundraiser, the Delta & Cardiff Heritage Festival is cancelled this fall. We couldn’t figure out how to have a big event outside. Only 25 people are allowed inside and we often had that many just in the kitchen/ dining area. Outside would have worked but we have no control over the weather. We are extremely saddened to have had to cancel this event.

This is the last regular Sunday opening for the museum. We will be here from 1:30-4. A special display for the day is a recent donation of kitchen gadgets. While on a showcase currently, they will find their home in our Hoosier kitchen cabinet. Thanks to Helen for this generous donation. The museum will be open for appointment and for small groups. A yard sale is being planned and we will post any openings, or Christmas events, yet to be determined. ... Craft items will be listed for sale on the site as they become available. The museum also has the local history book, the River and the Ridge for sale as well as our cottage cookbook, Slate clock pins, Susquehannock coloring books, etc. For info: [email protected]

Thanks to Helen For her recent donation of craft supplies. Also for the collection of antique kitchen gadgets for our hoosier cabinet display.

"Cardiff, Maryland" 1943 - A. Aubrey Bodine. Main Street of Cardiff, Maryland. The sign in the foreground marks the Mason Dixon line. Cardiff is located in a very slate-rich region, which created the town's early industries. Cardiff was formerly the mining center of Harford County. The mines and quarries have all but shut down now, and the town has become a farming hub.... According to geologist Jeri Jones: One cannot talk about the Delta area without including the Cardiff Marble Company, just south of Delta in Cardiff, Maryland. The site was famous for its own mineral resource, "Green Marble" or what geologists term a serpentinite. The greenish rock is a metamorphic rock consisting wholly of serpentine minerals commonly derived from the alteration of peridotite. In turn, peridotite is a coarse-grained igneous rock formed very deep inside the earth. The operation was originally a quarry being used for road construction, but in 1913, a blast exposed a piece of the serpentinite. The quarry sent the rock to Baltimore for polishing, after which it was determined that a new resource has been discovered. After changing their equipment to concentrate on the beautiful rock, rapid expansion of the quarry started. At the completion of the operation in the early 1970's, the shaft extended to a depth of over 300 feet with numerous tunnels at various levels. Huge blocks of the serpentinite were lifted out by horst and cable, similar to the slate operations, and removed to the saws in nearby buildings. The rock was used for decorative stone, lamp bases, table tops, fireplaces, and desk ornaments. The rock was used as decorative stone in the Empire State Building in New York City, the Department of Highways Building in Harrisburg, along with the bottom of the walls in City Hall in York, PA and in numerous federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Formerly home of Slate Ridge Elementary School, shut down in the early 1980s, the building is now used for apartments. The town, a part of the Whiteford-Cardiff Historic District, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The town and historic district are notable for their strong Welsh ethnic heritage, which is reflected in the name of the town as well as the local architecture, and the Welsh language choir of some renown based nearby.

In case you missed an earlier post, I have decided to postpone this years festival to a later date. I had planned to move it all outside and even had a very generous offer of a tent but I think many that would volunteer, vend or visit are not comfortable doing an event. I feel bad for all of our groups that use that day for fundraising or doing demos, etc. I’m just afraid that it would have a weak attendance and wouldn’t be successful. It’s a hardship for us as it’s a fund ...raiser with the silent auction. We will be back and I have a couple of fund raising/ fun things that I’m planning that we could do at the museum or on the internet. As always, thanks for the support.

Thanks to those that helped and supported the drive-in movie night. We also want to thank our guests that came out to enjoy the Goonies.

Today is the day!! Come and watch Delta’s Drive-in Movie, the Goonies! It’s at the Peach Bottom Rec Center grounds and the screen will be at the front of the stage. We ask that there is no socializing with other groups in order to guarantee everyone’s safety, including our seniors. There will be some organizers available to help. ... Seniors and others may stay in their cars or find an area on the grounds that isn’t close to another group. Children must be with parents at all times. Cars of seniors may back up to the stage side of the pavilion and on the sides to the right and left of the stage. CONES and stakes will mark off the no car areas which will be for visitors with lawn chairs. Feel free to bring refreshments but you must also take your trash home. Special thanks to Peach Bottom Township Supervisors, Armstrong and Norm La Ferte for the support of this community event. Well and thanks above for no rain!!

It’s here! Don’t forget Armstrong movie night at the Peach Bottom Rec Center

Remember the Goonies Movie is to be shown on Friday evening. We hope to see you at dusk. Guessing it will be around 7ish or so Friday evening. I think there will be clouds. We will pick up the movie tomorrow. I think the weather will cooperate. Bring your own snacks and stay with your group. We ask that all are tidy and take any trash home. All youth must be accompanied with a parent and they must stay with that person. .................................................................................... Thanks to Hogan for helping with photos today. Some will be note cards. The festival will be postponed until spring or next October. We hope to have some craft tables at the museum this fall. More info will follow!

Saying Thanks so much to Hogan, my volunteer seems to trivial!! I’ve struggled for a few years to find a printer that has an old print program on it. Hogan worked and researched. He’s tried many times before. Today he googled and found I am not alone. Windows 10 changed things. He persevered to understand exactly what printer job I needed. ... Not only was he successful, but he printed out two versions for the old gal and also posted them to help others. I am blessed to have his help!!

DON'T FORGET, MARK YOUR CALENDAR TODAY We invite everyone to join us September 11th for a FREE COMMUNITY SHOWING of "The Goonies" at the Peach Bottom Rec Center at dusk! We will be SOCIAL DISTANCING and have precautions and instructions set in place, and we can't wait to see you all there!... Children MUST stay with parents!! You are welcome to bring your own refreshments. Because of COVID, it was suggested that we not do refreshments. BUT we ask that you take all of your trash with you. We don’t have anyone to empty and waste cans. At this time we are unsure of a rain date. We had hoped for the 18th. Cross your fingers as we can’t use the gym if it rains. Please join us for the movie. We will post the approximate start time a day or so prior to the 11th. If you want to stay in your car, please try to arrive a little early. We will allow some cars near the pavilion. Others may be able to see from the parking lot. The volume is good for that too!