“Our Sixty-Seventh Year”

Finley House 50th Anniversary Celebration
Sunday, September 14, 2014, at the Finley House, 113 West Beechtree Lane, Wayne
In 1964, the Society received the Finley House, the oldest home in North Wayne, from a longtime supporter whose family owned it for nearly 80 years. Since then, the house has been used as the Society’s headquarters and museum. To celebrate the Golden Anniversary of our ownership of the Finley House, we’re throwing a party and everyone is invited! Events will include tours of the house, antique lawn games, a visit from the Radnor Fire Company’s antique fire engine, and an illustrated presentation on the 129 year history of the North Wayne Protective Association (to begin at 4 pm). We will have cake, water ice, and other treats! Join us to celebrate this remarkable anniversary, and to help kick off our next 50 years at the Finley House!

Richard Rashke, Author, Useful Enemies: John Demanchuk And America’s Open-Door Policy For Nazi War Criminals
Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 7:30 pm at the Winsor Room, Radnor Memorial Library
Richard Rashke is a lecturer and author of several non-fiction books, and is featured in the award-winning television series Nazi Hunters. Useful Enemies is a powerful, carefully documented book that sheds light on the infamous case of John Demanjuk. A produced screenwriter and playwright, his work has appeared on network television and off-Broadway. His books, The Killing of Karen Silkwood and Escape From Sobibor, have been made into feature films. Rashke lives in Washington, DC. Books will be available for signing and purchase. This event is cosponsored by RHS and the Library.  Refreshments will be served.

Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC) Presents: Nursing in a Civil War Hospital
Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 7:30 pm, Winsor Room, Radnor Memorial Library
This interactive lecture depicts life in field hospitals as seen through the eyes of Anna Morris Holstein, a nurse and a matron during the Civil War. Smadar Shtuhl, an expert in American history with particular research interests in American women, uses Holstein’s viewpoint to demonstrate how gender and racial assumptions were compromised to answer the demands of a major conflict. While listening to excerpts from Holstein’s diary, audiences are introduced to society’s expectations of women in mid 19th-century America and to Holstein’s personal struggles with male physicians. Audiences also learn how whites like Holstein handled their racial attitudes towards black soldiers during this turbulent time. RHS and the Library are cosponsoring this event.  Refreshments will be served.

Charles E. Dagit Jr., Author, Louis I. Kahn–Architecture: Remembering the Man and Those Who Surrounded Him
Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 7:30 pm at the Winsor Room, Radnor Memorial Library
Charles Dagit gives us a vivid, first-person account of one of the greatest chapters in architectural history, when, in the 1960’s, Louis I. Kahn was building a new kind of modern architecture around the world and teaching his distinctive design philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dagit was an undergraduate at Penn, a member of Kahn’s famous one-year master’s studio, and an architect in the office of Aldo Giurgola. The architect/author taught at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University, and was awarded the American Institute of Architects Pennsylvania Medal of Distinction. Books will be available for signing and purchase. This event is cosponsored by RHS and the Library. Refreshments will be served.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and read by Bennett Hill
Sunday, December 28, 2014, 7:00 pm, Finley House, 113 West Beech Tree Lane, Wayne
This is a traditional RHS event. Every other year, Bennett, a retired teacher and former member of the RHS Board, reads an abridged version of this classic Christmas tale by the fire in the front parlor. Refreshments, including eggnog, will be served at the interval.

James B. Garrison’s Stone Houses: Traditional Homes of R. Brognard Okie
Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 7:30 pm, Winsor Room, Radnor Memorial Library (Snow Date is February 10)
James B. Garrison, architect, and author of the recently published Stone Houses: Traditional Homes of R. Brognard Okie, will talk about Okie’s designs and his impact on American residential architecture. He is known for sensitive restorations of historic buildings in the Colonial Revival style. Built from 1904 to 1943, these dwellings exemplified our basic dream of living in a place of stability and comfort. Stone Houses showcases Okie’s houses in pastoral settings, set along hillsides and beside streams, with deep fireplaces, thick beamed ceilings, and wide plank floors. Beautiful color photographs in Stone Houses are by Geoffrey Gross. James Garrison, a Strafford resident for 20 years, co-founded the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust and has served as President and Chairman Emeritus for the Board of Trustees of The Old Eagle School, where Okie also served as trustee. He now lives in a 200 year stone house near Phoenixville. Books will be available for signing and purchase. This event is cosponsored by RHS and the Library. Refreshments will be served.
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Three Generations of Public Art in Radnor Schools / Presented by Greg Prichard, RHS Board Member, and Ernel Martinez, Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 7:30 pm, Radnor Middle School Information Center/Library (third floor, elevator available), 150 Louella Avenue, Wayne (Snow Date is Wednesday, March 4, 2015)
In 1915, the Radnor School District hired a muralist and sculptor named John Ray Sinnock to create four works of art for the then-new Rosemont Elementary School. Thirty years later, as chief sculptor of the U.S. Mint, Sinnock would sculpt both sides of the dime, still used to this day. To celebrate the centenary of Sinnock’s Rosemont School artwork, the Radnor Historical Society presents an immersive presentation about three art projects that have enriched Radnor schools over the past one hundred years. Beginning with the work of Sinnock, continuing with the memorable auditorium murals of the former Radnor Middle School, and concluding with the murals in the new Radnor Middle School Information Center/Library, the history and development of each will be explained and shown in pictures. We will be joined by Wayne resident Ernel Martinez from the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, who helped conceptualize and create the newest murals, which will surround us during the presentation.
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RHS Annual Dinner: Agnes Irwin School
Tuesday, March 24, 2015, RHS Annual Dinner, 6:00 pm at Agnes Irwin School, 275 S. Ithan Ave, Bryn Mawr
The RHS Annual Dinner will be held in the new Athletic Center of the Agnes Irwin School. There will be a one hour reception by the stone fireplace in the Lenox Lobby at 6:00 pm. Dinner will be served in the dining center at 7:00 pm. After dinner, there will be a speaker about the history of this girls’ school which was founded in 1869 in Center City Philadelphia by the great-great granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, Miss Agnes Irwin.

Three Modern Women: Katharine Hepburn, Hope Montgomery Scott, and Tracy Lord
Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 7:30 pm at the Widener Center Lecture Hall, Cabrini College
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of “The Philadelphia Story” during Women’s History Month 2015, an illustrated lecture on the classic 1940 MGM film will be presented by renowned social critic and University of the Arts professor Camille Paglia. Paglia will also talk about Philip Barry’s 1939 hit play, whose lead role of the willful, charismatic Tracy Lord was written for Katharine Hepburn and inspired by the real-life Main Line socialite and champion equestrian Hope Montgomery Scott. This event is free and open to the public, though seating is limited.
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Tour of Chanticleer Garden Houses
Friday, April 24, 2015, s, 4:00 p.m. at 786 Church Road, Wayne
There will also be a wine reception in Emily’s house at beautiful Chanticleer. All day admission is complimentary for RHS’s guests.

Kentucky Derby Party
Saturday, May 2, 2015, 4:30-6:30 pm at the Historic Wayne Hotel, 139 E. Lancaster Avenue, Wayne
Stephen W. Bajus has generously invited RHS to be the beneficiary of his Kentucky Derby Party. The cost of $50 per person includes wine, mint juleps, mimosas and hors d’oeuvres. The event will feature hat contests for men and for women.

300th Anniversary Tour of Old St. David’s Church
Saturday, June 13, 2015, 2:00 pm, at Old St. David’s Church, 763 S. Valley Forge Road, Wayne
This “field trip” is being organized by our neighbors at the Tredyffrin-Easttown Historical Society and the King of Prussia Historical Society. One of the most significant landmarks of our area, Old St. David’s Church celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2015. This event will include a visit to the historic 1715 church and its chuchyard, which contains the graves of many important local figures including General Anthony Wayne.