Renzie Ramble will showcase McKeesport’s history
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
It’s time to take a ramble through Renzie.
The McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center is partnering with the McKeesport Little Theater to raise funds while featuring Renziehausen Park and bits about the area’s history.
The “George Washington Slept Here … and other fascinating stories Renzie Ramble Walking Tour” is slated for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Costumed actors from MLT will be stationed at landmarks and significant places around Renzie Park and will perform fictionalized vignettes based on real historical events and monikers related to the history of McKeesport and the Mon-Yough Valley.
Those taking the approximate 1-mile stroll Saturday will be led by a tour guide to seven stops around Renzie. The journey will start at the one-room schoolhouse at the Heritage Center on Arboretum Drive and ends at the McKeesport Lions Club Band Shelter.
Patrons will also visit the Garden Club of McKeesport Arboretum and Rose Garden, the Sulphur Springs section of the park and McKeesport Fire Department Station No 2.
History & Heritage Center board member Andi Cartwright said she didn’t want to tip her hand too much and give away spoilers, but here are a few teasers:
• A founding father traveled through the Mon Valley.
• A woman from the late 1800s is famous for owning a McKeesport tavern and telling customers to “Speak easy, boys. Speak easy.”
• The bandshell is red, white and blue in color and sits across from Renzie Park’s flagpole. There you’ll hear about a prominent 20th century politician remembered with fondness by those he dazzled in two Mon Valley towns on a tour of mill towns in the early 1960s.
• Who is Renziehausen? Why does the park bear the name?
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