Arthurdale Heritage President Sarah Barnes (left) and AHI Executive Director Jeanne Goodman (right) display Governor Manchin's proclamation declaring July 'Arthurdale Heritage Month.'

Arthurdale Heritage (AHI) is celebrating its Silver Anniversary this July at its New Deal Festival. To kick off the celebration, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin issued a proclamation declaring July ‘Arthurdale Heritage Month.’

“We are delighted that Governor Manchin has honored our beautiful community by declaring July ‘Arthurdale Heritage Month,’” said AHI President Sarah Barnes. “This recognition helps us spotlight the important role our state played during the New Deal era.  Eleanor Roosevelt would be proud to know that her ‘little village’ is doing so well and telling the story of what she set out to accomplish,” Barnes said.

The New Deal Festival is Saturday, July 10^th and features artisan demonstrators, a craft market, living history actors, an antique car, truck, and tractor show, quilt show, kids activities, live entertainment, barbecued chicken dinners, and more. More information about the New Deal Festival is online at: http://www.newdealfestival.org.

Throughout its 25 years, AHI has tirelessly worked to restore and preserve the New Deal Homestead Community of Arthurdale. The organization started as a grass-roots community group in 1985, raising money through donations from local residents and businesses. Today, AHI has successfully restored and preserved five buildings comprising the New Deal Homestead Museum. AHI also has three major capital projects underway to restore five additional structures.

“Arthurdale Heritage has truly been a grassroots organization.  Those of us involved in 2010 are so grateful to the determined group who started the organization 25 years ago and the community who supported it. They worked so hard to raise every penny to restore what is now the New Deal Homestead Museum today.  The community of Arthurdale is such a wonderful place to live – due, in no small part, to the efforts of this organization.  Without AHI, the community would be another town with abandoned buildings and struggling to survive.  The people of Arthurdale are to be commended for their efforts over the years by taking such pride in their community and seizing the opportunity to tell their story,” Barnes said.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin issued this proclamation declaring July 'Arthurdale Heritage Month.'

WDTV – March 11, 2010
Arthurdale Receives Grant To Renovate Old Buildings

WBOY – March 29, 2010
Grant to Help Revitalize Former Arthurdale Schools

Please take time to provide us with your thoughts regarding the future use of the Arthurdale Schools by filling out our Arthurdale School survey form.  We appreciate your feedback!

Deborah Miller has been a volunteer and member of Arthurdale Heritage since 1991 and served two terms on the board of trustees (1992-1998).

As a board member, she had the vision to make the homecoming weekend a marketable event outside the community, and her vision was realized when it became the New Deal Festival.

It also was through her perseverance and knowledge that the board created the maintenance/salary endowment fund. In addition to contributing to the newsletter, she presently schedules volunteers for museum tours and serves as a tour guide.

Deb was named AHI Volunteer of the Year in 2009.

To find out more about this award, please visit WV History Heroes

Students at Grafton High School received an in-depth look at West Virginia’s struggles during the Great Depression. Arthurdale Heritage’s Jonas Knotts presented West Virginia’s unique depression history to Richard Zukowski’s American history class. The lecture to a class of over 20 students covered everything from the suffering of families in Scotts Run and other communities to infrastructure and conservation efforts of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The lecture also focused on the unique place of Arthurdale in the New Deal and West Virginia history.

Zukowski said that while students are introduced to the national history of the Great Depression in textbooks, it’s important for students to connect national history to local events, “focusing on West Virginia’s history helps students connect better to the surroundings in their local area.” It affects them personally because many times, they are not aware of just how many roads, buildings, and parks in their community were built during the depression through the New Deal”, said Zukowski.

“Guest lectures and presentations like this help to develop interest about the New Deal and Arthurdale among students”, said Knotts. The lecture can also help students draw connections between the 1930s and today. “By learning about New Deal programs in West Virginia, students can draw parallels between those programs and the current recession stimulus programs like the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Cash for Clunkers, and the Troubled Asset Relief Program”, said Zukowski.

AHI provides numerous educational opportunities including tailored age and topic appropriate tours of Arthurdale’s New Deal Homestead Museum, guest lecturers, and speakers. AHI is happy to provide these to schools and community organizations. For more information about AHI education opportunities, email ahi@arthurdaleheritage.org.

Related stories:

• Grafton Students learn Great Depression

This project is being presented by Arthurdale Heritage, Inc. with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the lecture series do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Busy Weekend in Arthurdale

The Arthurdale Heritage holds annual events.

Story by Macall Allen

ARTHURDALE — An auction was held at the Arthurdale Center Hall Sunday in Preston County as part of the annual community yard sale.

The auction was part of the 8th annual event which benefits schools in Arthurdale and the historic preservation operations of the New Deal community project.

The Arthurdale Heritage Craft Shop also reopened this weekend.

The Shop was closed for the winter and also to make some repairs to the shop windows.

The craft shop features the work of local artisans.

Related Link:

Busy Weekend in Arthurdale

If you get the Smithsonian magazine, then you probably already saw the “Heritage Culture” booklet that was glued into the May issue of the magazine.  I’ve scanned the cover, the page opposite the one with the Arthurdale information (on West Virginia in general), and the page with the 1/6 ad showing the Arthurdale banner (with the Greater Morgantown’s banner).  I thought everyone would enjoy seeing it.

From WBOY TV,  Friday, 16 January:
ARTHURDALE — Arthurdale was the nation’s first New Deal Homestead Community established by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression. 

Darlene Bolyard feels that President Roosevelt and President-elect Obama have a lot in common.

“The times that we’re going through now are almost exactly what FDR was going through when he was inaugurated and Arthurdale was founded,” says Ms. Bolyard.

Ms. Bolyard says she feels honored to be sharing her experience of Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration through her blog especially with those who cannot make the trip to Washington.

“I hope that President-elect Obama has looked at the history of FDR and his challenges and how he helped bring America out of hopelessness and back into prosperity and good times and he’ll learn from that and help us too as FDR did,” says Ms. Bolyard.

She is the daughter of Arnold and Sarah Bolyard and was raised in Arthurdale.   Darlene said is a product of Roosevelt’s success.

She says in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt offered our country hope, the same hope that Barack Obama offers our country today.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, it doesn’t matter who you voted for we are all in this together. Everyone in America is suffering right now just as they were in FDR’s time. So we have to get behind each other, we have to get behind President-elect Obama because we’re going to sink or swim together,” says Ms. Bolyard.

She leaves for Washington D.C. on Sunday.

She will begin blogging on Monday.

To watch the video:

http://www.boomboxradio.net/boombox/PlayerSetup/Players/WBOYPlayer.aspx?FileId=145464_wboy

Related link:    http://wboy.com

Darlene will be blogging about both events onto the this very website (including photos and possibly video)!   Her coverage will start on Monday, 20 January with a visit to the FDR memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War memorial.

A special thank you to Congressman Mollohan for providing Darlene with tickets and to his staff for their terrific help organizing her visit!

Coverage will continue on Tuesday starting at 5:30 AM as she tries to board the Metro and make her way into DC; through security and onto the Swearing In grounds!

Interest in New Deal projects and New Deal Homesteads, like Arthurdale has surged!

WBOY-TV (channel 12) visited Arthurdale on Tuesday, December 11th to  interview local residents and find out what it was like growing up in Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorite New Deal community.

Watch the WBOY-TV report:  click here!

Photos by David Huxtable