Historical society being revitalized in Charleroi

Bill Hecklick is leading the effort to preserve the borough’s colorful past.

For Bill Hecklick, the effort to breathe new life into the Charleroi Area Historical Society started long before he joined its board.

It began in third grade, during Charleroi’s centennial, when he and his classmates were each assigned a building in town and asked to research what had once occupied it.

“That was 36 years ago, and that’s when I fell in love with the history of Charleroi,” Hecklick said.

Decades later, that childhood interest has brought Hecklick back to the borough and into a new role with the Charleroi Area Historical Society.

After opening an office for his business in town a few years ago, Hecklick began looking for another way to become involved in the community. He reached out to the historical society and was welcomed onto its board this year.

Now, as head of its programs committee, he is helping the organization build a renewed public presence, with an emphasis on reaching new generations and ensuring the society carries on into the future.

The first major step in that effort will come Oct. 3 and 4, when the society hosts a historic walking tour through downtown Charleroi.

Hecklick said the idea grew from his own research into the community.

“The deeper I dove into the history of town, the more I realized how much cool stuff was out there and stories to tell in town,” he said. “I thought it would be a really fun way to get people out walking around on hopefully a beautiful weekend afternoon and have some fun together learning about town.”

History in the streets

The Oct. 3 tour will begin at 1 p.m., and the Oct. 4 tour will start at 2 p.m.

Both will begin at the Charleroi Library, where Hecklick will give a brief presentation about areas of the borough that won’t be covered on foot.

From there, participants will walk three blocks of Fallowfield Avenue and three blocks of McKean Avenue, stopping at approximately eight locations along the way. Hecklick said he is still finalizing one or two of the stops.

The entire program, including the presentation, walking tour and refreshments, is expected to last about 90 minutes to two hours, depending on questions from participants.

Hecklick said every corner along the route is accessible.

Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 17 and younger. A $25 family package covers up to two adults and four children.

Refreshments will be sponsored by Christina’s Cakes and Tomorrowland Tax, Hecklick’s business.

And while the tour will focus squarely on Charleroi, Hecklick hopes its audience extends beyond those who currently call the borough home.

“Anyone who has ties or interest in Charleroi, we would love to welcome them with open arms,” he said.

For Hecklick, the tour is only the beginning.

His goal for the programs committee is to offer monthly events, generally from March through November, and to broaden the scope of the history the society presents.

“My entire goal is to try to bring history to a different demographic and different generations,” Hecklick said. “I don’t want to just talk about the 1910s and much longer-ago history. I want to bring more of recent history into play to reach a different demographic.”

That could mean programs on traditional local history alongside subjects that may not immediately come to mind when people think of a historical society.

Hecklick is considering presentations on Charleroi baseball history, Hills Department Store and even the Nintendo-versus-Sega video game console rivalry of the 1990s.

Programs will generally include video or slideshow presentations and speakers. Hecklick expects to give many of the initial presentations himself, but the society also plans to invite guest speakers.

The variety, he said, is intended to give people of different ages and interests a reason to participate.

Beyond the walking tour

The society’s mission also gives its board room to think beyond artifacts and old photographs.

Hecklick said its charter encompasses historic education, historic preservation, tourism and the arts.

“A lot of people don’t know that,” he said. “We have a little wider net we can cast.”

That broader mission could also help as the society looks for funding opportunities and partnerships to accomplish one of its biggest longterm goals: once again having a permanent space where its collection can be displayed.

The historical society once had a physical location. Its collection is now safely and securely stored, Hecklick said, but he wants the public to be able to see it again.

Plans for a permanent display space are already being developed, though Hecklick said he isn’t ready to disclose details.

Getting there won’t happen overnight.

“It’s going to take some time. It’s going to take some money, but we’re going to get there,” he said.

The effort comes as Charleroi continues to navigate the economic and demographic changes that have reshaped many of the Mon Valley’s industrial communities. For Hecklick, preserving history and encouraging economic development aren’t competing goals.

“I am all about historic preservation,” he said. “I am also very pro economic development. We just need to find a way to work together and preserve history while moving forward economically as well.”

He believes successful revitalization can acknowledge what a community once was without trying to recreate it.

“Bringing back the past is not going to happen,” Hecklick said. “But having a nod to the past while you look forward to the future, that’s where I see towns that revitalize do well. They honor their history and they move forward.”

People who care

Hecklick’s investment in Charleroi is personal.

Growing up, he watched his mother, the late Barbara D. Polaski, become involved in seemingly every corner of community life, from the PTA and Boy Scouts to football, baseball, the Red Cross and Charleroi recreation board.

“My mom was the queen of charity in Charleroi,” Hecklick said.

After she died, he knew he wanted to continue that example in his own way.

“I knew it was very important for me to try to carry on her legacy and bring some positivity to town,” he said.

Hecklick no longer lives in Charleroi. He lives in Robinson, but makes the roughly hourlong drive each way to operate his business, Tomorrowland Tax, in the borough.

His roots there run deep. The building that now houses Speers Street Grill was his childhood home, he said. After his family was displaced by flooding, they moved to Shady Avenue, where he spent much of the rest of his childhood.

He still returns to the hill each Fourth of July to watch Charleroi’s fireworks from the spot he considers the best view in town.

And when he looks around Charleroi today, Hecklick acknowledges the empty storefronts and deteriorating buildings. But those aren’t the only things he sees.

He pointed to the opening of Dollar Tree on Thursday and the crowd it attracted as a small example of what renewed activity can mean to a community.

“I know it’s just Dollar Tree, right? There’s a million of them,” Hecklick said. “But going there yesterday and walking around a store with people from town shopping in it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in town in many years. It was just like taking me back to 1989 again.”

He also sees people investing in buildings and developing new ideas for them, signs that the borough can preserve pieces of its character while continuing to change.

That balance between remembering what was and recognizing what is happening now is also central to what Hecklick wants the historical society to become.

“It’s so obvious that our town has such rich, deep history,” he said. “But there’s so many people in more recent years and right now that are making history. So we don’t just want to focus on the past. We really want to focus on people that are making history now too.”

For Hecklick, that includes telling a fuller story about a community he believes is too often defined by its challenges.

“If you stop in at the stores, the restaurants, the businesses in town, you’re going to see a lot of the same faces that you saw 30 years ago, but you also are going to see a lot of brand new faces,” he said. “You’re going to see a lot of people that care about the community. You’re going to see a lot of people that want to see positivity. You’re going to meet people that want to see success and make steps toward that.”

He knows the empty buildings and other visible reminders of the Mon Valley’s industrial decline are part of Charleroi’s story. He just doesn’t believe they are the whole story.

“If you just stop in and say hello, these are some of the most wonderful people you ever meet in your life,” Hecklick said.

Tickets can be purchased online at the Charleroi Area Historical Society’s website, charleroihistory.org. For more information about the society or the historic walking tour, contact Hecklick at 412-979-0247 or info@charleroihistory.org.