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Girard native Terri Harley and her husband Maurice had left town for a couple of years in the late 1980s so he could attend college.
When they returned, some of the aging buildings she'd grown up with were gone.
“The old depot had been torn down,” Harley recalled Monday. “The next thing I knew, the old hotel on the square had been torn down. I thought, 'Why isn't anybody stopping this?'”
From that simple question rose an organization that's survived for two decades. Friends of Historic Girard is celebrating its 20th year of operation, working to keep the past alive.
In 1987, Harley and a group of about 35 history buffs formed the organization. Within a year, the group had successfully applied for and received its not-for-profit status.
Its first project was the gazebo that still stands on the courthouse square downtown. It was built for the 100th birthday celebration of Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, the publisher whose Little Blue Books were read around the world, putting Girard on the map.
“That kind of kicked us off,” Harley said. “We took pride even in how Girard was founded. We started looking at things that had been neglected.”
One of the next things the early group noticed was a lack of historic plaques on buildings in the downtown areas. So, Friends of Historic Girard bought bronze plaques, detailing some of the history of the buildings and, with the permission of the owners, put them up.
Some of the other projects the group has been involved in over the past 20 years include:
• Purchasing a headstone for the oldest grave in the Girard Cemetery;
• Maintaining Girard Historical Tour Maps;
• Secured National Register of Historic Places listings for the J.A. Wayland Home, the Emanuel Haldeman-Julius Home and the Raymond Community Home.
One philosophy of the organization is to be sure current generations maintain a sense of where they come from. Mark McFarland, Girard High School history teacher and historian for the Friends group, said that sense of place is important.
“If our children don't know anything about their family history, if they don't know anything about their community history, we believe it will fade and disappear,” McFarland said. Children “will have a stronger sense of their community and the responsibilities that go with that if they have an understanding of where the community has been and what's taken place.”
Girard native Terri Harley and her husband Maurice had left town for a couple of years in the late 1980s so he could attend college.
When they returned, some of the aging buildings she'd grown up with were gone.
“The old depot had been torn down,” Harley recalled Monday. “The next thing I knew, the old hotel on the square had been torn down. I thought, 'Why isn't anybody stopping this?'”
From that simple question rose an organization that's survived for two decades. Friends of Historic Girard is celebrating its 20th year of operation, working to keep the past alive.
In 1987, Harley and a group of about 35 history buffs formed the organization. Within a year, the group had successfully applied for and received its not-for-profit status.
Its first project was the gazebo that still stands on the courthouse square downtown. It was built for the 100th birthday celebration of Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, the publisher whose Little Blue Books were read around the world, putting Girard on the map.
“That kind of kicked us off,” Harley said. “We took pride even in how Girard was founded. We started looking at things that had been neglected.”
One of the next things the early group noticed was a lack of historic plaques on buildings in the downtown areas. So, Friends of Historic Girard bought bronze plaques, detailing some of the history of the buildings and, with the permission of the owners, put them up.
Some of the other projects the group has been involved in over the past 20 years include:
• Purchasing a headstone for the oldest grave in the Girard Cemetery;
• Maintaining Girard Historical Tour Maps;
• Secured National Register of Historic Places listings for the J.A. Wayland Home, the Emanuel Haldeman-Julius Home and the Raymond Community Home.
One philosophy of the organization is to be sure current generations maintain a sense of where they come from. Mark McFarland, Girard High School history teacher and historian for the Friends group, said that sense of place is important.
“If our children don't know anything about their family history, if they don't know anything about their community history, we believe it will fade and disappear,” McFarland said. Children “will have a stronger sense of their community and the responsibilities that go with that if they have an understanding of where the community has been and what's taken place.”
Looking to the future, the Friends of Historic Girard is currently working on listing five more properties in town on the National Register. But the biggest project currently in the works is trying to obtain an historic survey of the downtown area, with possible Historic District status as the goal.
But it all boils down to fostering a sense of community.
“What (the group) has done is all aimed at preserving and bringing local history back to the forefront,” McFarland said. “We've become so busy with our everyday lives, it's easy to get caught up and forget why we’re here, the sense of community we have.
“There's a lot of tradition in Girard on all levels. Everything that's been done (by the Friends group) in the past and everything I know that's planned for the future is targeted at keeping this a thriving community that everybody can be proud of.”
