Are you curious about local businesses and buildings that once existed in West Jefferson Hills but are no more? To satisfy that inquisitiveness, in July the WJHHS will offer society and community members another “Then and Now” program presented by local historian Keith Pancoast. Last year Mr. Pancoast focused on West Jefferson Hills buildings, structures, and sites that were replaced with something else. In his new program, “Then and Now: Things That Aren’t There Anymore and Nothing Else Is,” Mr. Pancoast will first update some of the places he talked about last year. Then he will display photographs of and discuss the history of places that once existed in West Jefferson Hills, and nothing was ever built to replace it. Attendees are sure to be astounded by the many iconic area structures that have completely disappeare 

          In August, take a trip back in time with speaker Steven Tkach as he shares the architectural treasures of Henry Clay Frick. One of the famous eighteenth century Pittsburgh millionaires, Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and patron of the arts. While many associate him with his relationship with Andrew Carnegie and his role in the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, he left a legacy that continues to exist today, his buildings. The crown jewel of his real estate empire was the Frick Building which was completed in the early 1900’s. In his program, Mr. Tkach will not only discuss the construction and history of the Frick Building, but he will also examine and detail Frick’s personal homes of Clayton, Eagle Rock, and the Henry Clay Frick House in New York which houses the Frick Collection.

         In September, buckle up for an evening filled with nostalgia as award-winning journalists Marylynne Pitz and Laura Malt Schneiderman reveal the indelible mark that the Kaufmann family’s department store and philanthropy have left on the city of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. As co-authors of the book, Kaufmann’s: The Family That Built Pittsburgh’s Famed Department Store, they will trace the lives of the Kaufmann brothers who rose from hardscrabble salesmen to Gilded Age multimillionaires. The Kaufmann program is sure to spark countless fond memories of meeting under the Kaufmann’s clock, eating at the TikTok, or just shopping at the famed department store

         In time for Halloween, Todd DePastino presents the chilling case of “The Salem Witch Trials.” It began on a cold January day in 1692 with two young girls telling fortunes in the kitchen of Rev. Samuel Parris. The girls began barking, twisting, writhing in pain, as if in the grip of an evil force. “These Children were bitten and pinched by invisible agents,” concluded a doctor. A clear case of witchcraft. By the time it was all over, 19 had been hanged, five had died in prison, and 200 others had been accused. Come hear the gruesome details and consider whether this was, in fact, a case “mass hysteria” or something more sinister.