Recording and Teaching Local, National, and Global History with Conor Hepp

Intro: Welcome to Start Local, where we talk with business owners, leaders of nonprofits, and other members of our community focused on doing business in and around Chester County, Pennsylvania. Each episode will provide insight into the local business scene and tell you about opportunities to connect with and support businesses and nonprofits in your local area.

The Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce promotes trade, commerce, industry, and sustainable economic development while supporting a diverse and growing marketplace. The Chamber is proud to partner with the Start Local podcast to raise the profile of businesses and nonprofits throughout Chester County. Learn more about the chamber at scccc. That’s scccc.com.

Liam Dempsey: Hey. Hey. Welcome to Start Local. I’m Liam Dempsey, and I am here with Erik Gudmundson. Erik, how are you today, friend?

Erik Gudmundson: I am doing well, and I’m glad to be here. It’s a good conversation we have.

Liam Dempsey: I am glad to be here as well, and I’ve already stepped over you once. So, folks, let’s see how that goes for the rest of the conversation.

Today, we are really, really excited to welcome Conor Hepp to the show. Conor is the president of the Chester County History Center. And as I have a very keen interest in both history more generally, but certainly AmErikan history, and a strong interest on our local community, I am really excited to welcome Conor to the show. Conor, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Conor Hepp: Thank you both so much for bringing me here and having a conversation with me. I appreciate it.

Erik Gudmundson: Yeah. Welcome, Conor. I really enjoyed touring the History Center building that you have in Westchester. So I’m very interested in this conversation.

Liam Dempsey: Conor, let’s set the stage. The Chester County History Center really is our local history museum, replete with hundreds, if not thousands, of artifacts of local, for sure, but national and even global significance. Give us a brief overview of what the History Center protects, preserves, and shares for us. And I appreciate that you do have a lot. So we don’t need a laundry list of everything. So give us the Reader’s Digest of what you folks have.

Conor Hepp: We’d be here for a little while.

Liam Dempsey: I think so.

Conor Hepp: You know, I like to put it in context for people in our region. So if you’re, if you’re around the Philadelphia area, you’ve probably heard of or been to the Philadelphia Art Museum, who has, you know, it’s an internationally known massive institution, and they have about 450,000 pieces in their collection. 

The History Center has just shy of a million. So when you’re looking at our collection, we have 80,000 artifacts, over 100,000 photographs, and over 750,000 documents and manuscripts. And when you’re talking about what it oversees, certainly, it oversees a lot of Chester County history, but all of AmErikan history came through Chester County. So we have documents from George Washington during the Philadelphia campaign, Abraham Lincoln, world world-renowned artists. The collection is very impressive.

Erik Gudmundson: And the Chester County History Center has a lengthy history of its own. It was founded in 1893 as the Chester County Historical Society. So tell us a little bit about the Society’s founding.

Conor Hepp: Yeah, it was started by 10 local businessmen. Really, only one of them would be considered a historian. They had written a history of Chester County. But generally speaking, there were just people who were very interested in the history of their region, of the culture in their region, and they wanted to preserve it. And the organization took over the building in 1893 where it’s housed now.

Liam Dempsey: Let’s jump to more recent times. You joined the Chester County History Center in August of 2020. That must have been a difficult time for the History center as it was for so many of us. What attracted you to the History Center, especially at such a challenging time?

Conor Hepp: Yeah, joining an institution during a global pandemic is always the smartest move. You know, I never said I was a bright man. You know, I always loved the History Center. I came to Westchester Forest School. I got a history degree at Westchester University. And the entire time that I was in the area, I would visit the Historical Society. Great collection, lots of really good exhibits. They did great programming.

So when I my career has been in arts and culture museums, I was in Philadelphia for most of my career. But when I saw the opportunity to join the History Center, I jumped. It really is a very incredible organization. And being in the museum field, I got to see a lot of the ins and outs, the good and the bad. I’ve seen exhibitions be pulled and have to go through that. I saw the 08 downturn and the impact on nonprofits. So, looking at leading an organization during a global pandemic, I had a little bit of faith that I could help out. And lucky enough, I got a chance to.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, as we’ve heard on this show over so many episodes, the pandemic really forced businesses and nonprofits to be creative with their workflows, practices, and business models. So to say that the History center pivoted during the pandemic would not be an understatement at all. And I always say to myself that one of the greatest things the pandemic gave us was an opportunity to try new things and see what works and see what doesn’t work. But the bottom line, just as a quick way to run a lot of different experiments and really find new ways and better ways of doing things. So what benefits and changes came through the pandemic to the History center, and what’s still around today from what we learned then?

Conor Hepp: Yeah, so museums very sweetly like to say that we’re usually 10 years behind the curve. Lack of money, lack of staff, and you’re always kind of trying to play catch-up. And the pandemic forced that. It forced us to bring in new technology. It forced us to look at our programming, our exhibitions, our operations, and how we revitalize them and bring them to, at that point, 2020. 

So for our operations, the History Center had always been. Everything is in our building. Lectures, programs, and exhibitions were inside. And clearly you couldn’t do that during the pandemic. So we had to reimagine what it looks like to do programming outside of the building. So, when it came to new technologies, how do we bring programs to schools virtually? How do we do these lectures that we used to have within our building? How do we bring them to a digital audience, mind you, an audience that is usually older. You know, the History Museum’s target audience is anywhere from 35 to 65. You know, we’re not getting those traditionally; we’re not getting those young families. We have to work at that. So we had a lot of work that we had to do. 

I would say it turned out fantastic for us, our old-fashioned, stodgy way of doing operations. The revamp and the revitalization of new methods really brought in larger audiences. When you’re talking about our virtual programs, when we had programs and lectures in the building, we averaged 20 people. Now we’re doing them for an average of 175.

Erik Gudmundson: Wow, that’s a big change.

Conor Hepp: Oh, it’s massive. You know, in 2020, we started doing walking tours, and we did five of them. Now, last year we topped off at 112. So we’ve really grown the audience and expanded. And I love to tell these statistics or these numbers to people. 

The History Center now has an audience on five continents and members on three. So this local community organization, because of the pandemic and what we were forced to do to adapt, is now global.

Liam Dempsey: Can I ask a follow-up question to that? Was that a matter of your team learning new skills or was that a matter of bringing in new people? Or maybe some of both. What was the approach? Clearly, you shifted online and just wonder how that came together for you.

Conor Hepp: It’s a little bit of both. We need to bring in new people. Our director of education, Jan Green. She actually started about a month after I did. And bringing in people who have a new way of looking at things. And also given the mandate, we can’t do this like we used to do. We have to do it new. It really opened up the opportunities and imagination.

But also with technology, you know, we had to get a new website. Our website could not do the things that we needed to do. Simple things like getting access to Zoom for virtual talks. You know, we had to bring in new technology so that we could really do the programming we needed to do.

Liam Dempsey: We appreciate that funding models for nonprofits are being significantly stressed in the wake of changes at the federal level. Conor, can you tell us how the History Center is funded? What’s your breakdown?

Conor Hepp: Yeah, we are pretty, pretty much your traditional contributed revenue, earned revenue, and invested revenue for museums. Our percentage breakdown is pretty close to the average, which is about 45% for contributed, 35% for earned revenue, and about 20% for investments. We’re a little high on the investment draw at this point, but that’s primarily because we’re still rebuilding. We like to think of ourselves as a 130-year-old startup. How we are moving and how we are doing business is really kind of, we’re in year five of this institution right now.

Liam Dempsey: And for folks listening, what is that investment breakdown? What does that mean, in other words? What’s a layperson’s way to describe that?

Conor Hepp: Sure. So contributed revenue, that is, your individual givers, your foundational grants, governmental grants, corporate sponsorships, and memberships. So that’s a very important chunk that comes into the organization. 

Earned revenue is going to be your ticket sales, your shop sales, and programming. We have a very strong rental program within our building. And then investments are our endowments, our quasi-endowments, all the money that we have. That’s kind of growing, thankfully.

Erik Gudmundson: We saw on LinkedIn that the history center is excited about a new, recently opened, Smithsonian Institution exhibition that just opened at the center. It’s called the Bias Inside Us. Can you tell us about that?

Conor Hepp: Yeah. No, it’s wonderful that we have this. This is the first time we have ever had a Smithsonian exhibition in Chester County. So we got to put that on our, a feather in our cap right there. You know, exhibitions are key to museums and bringing in new audiences. We’ve usually built them internally, but we decided at this point, how do we expand and bring in other traveling exhibitions, and that’s where we were able to partner with the Smithsonian. 

This exhibition is based on the concept of biases. How do human beings develop them? We all have them. How do you recognize them, and how do you manage them? And it does some really interesting, engaging programs. 

So one of my favorites is inside the exhibition, there is an area that tells you to close your eyes and listen. And it plays Footsteps of someone walking from a distance closer to you. It’s a very simple engagement. But when you close your eyes and you imagine who that is, and then you turn and you talk to the person next to you, everybody sees something different. That noise either is relaxing, it reminds them of their parent or a teacher, or it’s stressful because they think they’re in trouble or somebody’s coming in a dark alleyway. And it really opens up the mindset of how just something as simple as Footsteps because of someone’s personal experiences can really develop a biase on the situation. So it’s really fascinating.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah, that sounds so neat. That sounds so neat. I got to get in and see that. Conor, you talked just a few moments ago about membership and the membership to the History Center. And I want to dig into that a little bit more. Personally, I’ve been trying for about six weeks to become a member. And you know how you sit down and then life happens and you get distracted and get distracted. So by the end of this week, I will absolutely be a member. But beyond the standard offerings that might entice local folks to become members, whether it’s early entrance to an exhibition or a discount at the gift store, and that kind of thing, can you speak to the role that members have in preserving our own local history?

Conor Hepp: Absolutely. So the History center is in a membership model, which is a lot of our offerings and our programs are geared towards developing members because members are the lifeblood of an institution. They’re the ones who share your message. They’re the ones who join and visit for the exhibitions. They’re the ones who will donate to you at the end of the year. So we have a look at two different types of members. There’s the Mission Driven and then there’s the Value Driven. So we try to measure out the different audiences. 

Mission Driven. They’re the ones who believe in sharing history, believe in museums, and love our collection. There is a Value Driven, which you mentioned. Those who want to get a discount on a program ticket, a discount to admissions. So we try to develop offerings for both community groups so that we can bring them in traditional discount sales for the Value Driven, and give them free tickets for walking tours.

For the Mission Driven are new opportunities, not just exhibitions and programs. Behind the scenes tour, getting them involved in what we do in the library and in the museum, and then hopefully turning them into the spokespeople for the institution. Because people only listen to us so much. But you listen to your aunt, you listen to your friend, you listen to anybody who’s close to you. And if they feel strongly about our institution, that’s where our real, true growth is coming from.

Erik Gudmundson: You mentioned earlier that you started embracing more technology, or I should say, maybe a tighter embrace on technology during the whole pandemic lockdown time, with Liam and I both working in technology, me and IT and cybersecurity, and Liam doing web design and marketing, we have to ask specifically, how is the History center embracing that technology today? Is there a specific software package you really like to manage the museum or produce those interactive exhibitions? You know, how do you use software to engage with your audience?

Conor Hepp: So, you know, you’re going to be disappointed with some of it because it’s stuff that you had 10 years ago. You know, little things like going to a VoIP phone system. Imagine that. Amazing what that can do for you. You can take your phone calls from your home and your laptop. So we did some of those small things. VoIP systems, cloud servers. We had a server in our building that was on its last leg, but now our 80,000 or 100,000 photographs that we have are now backed up cloud. So if we lose something on site, you know, we don’t lose all that work. 

We integrated a past perfect collections software, which was fantastic. We built a new website that actually works, which is also fantastic. But we’ve started to embrace programs like AI. You know, ChatGPT is very good at managing some text and being kind of an assistant in some fashion. But when we’re moving towards video content, so being able to use audio generators, whether it be through music or voiceovers, using software as simple as Canva or, I forgot what our design package is. These kind of things really help out and help us create the content that we need to get those younger audiences involved.

Liam Dempsey: I want to get away from technology for just a second. As much as I like, I didn’t feel like we could spend hours there. I want to go outside. And I noticed that the History Center was recently involved in creating a garden of native plants just outside your main building, there in Westchester. How does the garden fit into the History Center’s mission and work?

Conor Hepp: It’s really interesting you say that. So the History Center has had multiple properties over the last 130 years donated to us. And usually we have a policy of we sell them off. We don’t want to be in the property game. And one of the properties that we sold was the former home of Humphrey Marshall, your generalized Renaissance man of the 1700s. In fact, we have in our collection his microscope, which was bought by Benjamin Franklin and shipped from France to Humphrey Marshall. 

The funds from that building sale we put in a fund controlled by CCHC specifically for education, horticulture, and botany. We wanted to make sure that we honored the passions of Humphrey Marshall. So we have started to use this in methods to help our community, knowing certainly that Chester County is one that is into horticulture and botany, and land conservation. How do we feed that need of our community? So the Humphrey Marshall Fund helped with covering the costs of the garden. We’ll also, by the end of this year, we will have either donated or planted a thousand trees over the last couple of years, expanding. Humphrey Marsh was the father of AmErikan dendrology, woody plants. So he loved trees. So we wanted to make sure that we shared that. 

But we also used the fund for other purposes. We brought five Lenape elders from the Delaware tribe in Oklahoma out. They came out for a program so that we could capture oral histories. But it has a lot of usage, and we want to make sure that we get it out there for our community.

Erik Gudmundson: One of the exhibits that I really enjoyed was the pen was talking about penicillin and how penicillin was first mass-produced for human use in Westchester. So tell us a little bit more about that specifically. 

Conor Hepp: G. Raymond Retou. It’s a great story. So, G. Raymond Reteou lived in Westchester, had his garage lab block and a half away from the history center. This gentleman worked in the mushroom industry, and he had, I believe, 20 or 25 patents in the mushroom world from mushroom spawns. 

And World War II broke out, and this man decided that he wanted to do something for the war effort. So in his garage lab, he worked and did the one thing that no pharmaceutical company in the world could do: develop the method to mass-produce penicillin. And it’s such a Chester County story. 

So you had his best friend, who was a Strode, who convinced him to use the sharpless cream separator, which was essentially a centrifuge, to develop this method of mass producing penicillin, which he, in turn over and sells to Wyeth Pharmaceutical and then goes to work for Wyeth Pharmaceutical, who then starts producing mass quantities of penicillin for the nation. 

So all these Chester County names are involved in what was considered, I’m not sure if it was a second or third program on the list of the US government’s things that would have won the war. And it’s estimated that just this guy in his garage lab in Westchester possibly saved anywhere between 100 and 400,000 lives in World War II.

Liam Dempsey: That’s an impressive number. Let’s stick with interesting local history facts, please for 500. Can you please share a few more little-known but amazing or maybe even mind-blowing historical facts about Chester County?

Conor Hepp: I’ll give you the short on two of my favorites because Chester County has a rich history. Philadelphia campaign. You have Bayard Rustin, a civil rights leader, Underground Railroad. 

So here’s, here’s two good ones. The first one would be in the 1700s. So Chester County and Delaware County were all one. But the courthouse was in Chester, so far, far to the east in what’s now Delaware County. So if you’re from Chester County, you had to have to travel all the way out there to go to court.

And Chester was booming. There’s lots of money, as we know, in areas around courthouses because there’s lawyers, there’s business taverns. So the people out here in Chester county, they decide this is too much for us, we need to get our own courthouse. We need to make it very easy for everybody to go. And we’re gonna put it right here. I think originally it was supposed to be in the Downingtown area, but it didn’t quite work out. So they start building a courthouse. 

Well, the people in Delaware County hear about this. Well, what will become Delaware County hear about this? And they realize that there’s going to be a lot of money lost in Chester if this happens. You can’t do that. (And I’m from Delco, so I can say this). So they got really angry. They got some people together, they got a cannon, and they started making their way out to Westchester because they were gonna blow this courthouse up. Well, the people in the Westchester area hear that they’re coming. So they get in front of the courthouse, and only the first floor is really done. 

So now you have people of Westchester outside the courthouse, people of Chester pulling a cannon in and pointing it at each other. And they start yelling back and forth and screaming at other, each, each other. So before anybody starts shooting people in the courthouse, say, Hey, why don’t you come in here and talk with us? Let’s show you what we’re trying to do and get to understand. Imagine that dialogue. People come inside, they walk them around, they start talking, and all of a sudden they’re like, I understand. No problem. This sounds like a great idea. They turn the cannon around, they shoot it outside of town, and everybody goes to a tavern and gets drunk. 

And that’s what’s known as the Battle of Westchester, which makes sense why we have so many bars in Westchester. And then the other one I like to talk to people about is, have you ever heard of the business plot?

Liam Dempsey: No.

Conor Hepp: So Major General Smedley Butler, who was born in Westchester and he’s buried here as well, was one of the most decorated soldiers in AmErikan history. Certainly, at the time, he was the most decorated soldier, Marine Corps. He had all these nicknames like old Gimlet Eyes or the Fighting Quaker or the Fighting Hell Devil. So that kind of gives you an idea of how intimidating this man could be if he wanted to be. 

So, we’re in the 1930s, I think it’s about 1933, and there were a group of wealthy AmErikans who were infatuated with fascism. At that time it was a very attractive concept, especially for the elites who had some issues with what was FDR’s approach that they considered to be a socialist. And we’re talking names that we recognize like Duponts or members of JP Morgan and Company. 

So they sent a representative to Smedley Butler, and this representative tried to talk him into becoming a dictator for AmErika. Their plan was that a veteran army, who was very upset about this issue that happened in the 30s, it was called the Bonus Army, where they weren’t getting money from their bonuses owed to them in World War I, that smelly butler would lead this army and take over the AmErikan government and become the dictator in lieu of FDR. And they had multiple conversations. And Smedley Butler finally said to the person, I’ll do it. And the person leaves. And Major General Smelly Butler immediately calls the FBI and says, let’s have a conversation. 

And that was the end of the business plot. He went before the FBI, he went before Congress. They talked about the issue. FDR managed some things behind the scenes, and that was the end of a fascist plot of AmErika because of one of the most decorated Marine soldiers of all time.

Erik Gudmundson: That’s fascinating. I thought I knew a lot about Smedley Butler, but I did not know that fact. So, and it’s local, which is extra fascinating to me.

Conor Hepp: He’s incredible.

Erik Gudmundson: And one of the things I really enjoy about the History Center is that there is something for everyone there. Meaning it’s not just talking about of, you know, a lot of Revolutionary War reenactors or anything like that. There’s a ton of history in all different corners of the county, with all different people from the county and people who have lived here over the many, many years, and met lots of history that we have here. So it’s a fascinating place.

You mentioned, though, the Underground Railroad. And that wasn’t one of your two examples. So I’m going to selfishly ask you to go a little deeper there. Chester County obviously has a deep connection with the Underground Railroad. And over the summer, the history center offered walking tours of Westchester, highlighting that local history. Tell us about the local history of the Underground Railroad and where folks can learn more about these walking tours.

Conor Hepp: Sure. Chester County has an extraordinary history when it comes to the Underground Railroad. One of the lines of the Underground Railroad came right up through Chester County. You know, Kennet was a hotbed. Lots of areas in Westchester as well. You know, the Underground Railroad really kind of began organizing in the 1780s and then went all the way through, certainly until the Emancipation Proclamation and then the 13th amendment. 

But we like to take people around to the different sites where there was activity of the Underground Railroad. One story that we like to talk about, which you can actually see in our galleries as well, is the story of Jane Johnson and Passmore Williamson.

So Jane Johnson was enslaved woman who was brought to the Philadelphia area by her owner, her and her two sons, and was locked in the hotel room so she couldn’t escape. And she was able to get word out to William still, who was very active in in Philadelphia area and the Underground Railroad, and eventually to Passmore Williamson, and they helped her escape.

Passmore Williamson helped her and her two sons escape, but he was caught. So you have the Fugitive slave Act of 1850, which required that if somebody escaped, that the local population had to help, or you could get harsh consequences. So this is 1855, and Passmore Williamson was caught helping her escape. And he would not share information on where she was going or what was happening. So he was thrown in prison.

And in our collection, we have the book of the prison where people would go and sign to see. And it has all the letters that he received, including one from FredErikk Douglass. And it was voted the most endangered, endangered artifact in Pennsylvania. And because of that, we were able to conserve this amazing piece of history.

And there’s not that much physical information about the Underground Railroad in the sense that it was a clandestine operation. These were individuals who were working in secret in a very dangerous way. Certainly not just for them, but most certainly for the enslaved people who are trying to find freedom.

Erik Gudmundson: And so the walking Tours, where do people find out about those, so they can experience some of this history as best you can today.

Conor Hepp:  on our website we have our program for events. So they can certainly go to our website, which is mycchc, mycchc.org, or any of our social channels. We always advertise all the programs that we have coming up.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah, you do a really good job with that on social, so thank you for that. That’s a nice and easy way to follow along. Conor, we understand that the History Center in some variation or form has been around for over 130 years. It’s a long time, and we expect that just given the nature of existence that there’s bound to be some lean times for the society and the History Center. And certainly, we know that there’s some funding challenges currently at the federal level, and that certainly the pandemic made a lot of challenges for folks. Can you tell us about how everything is now? Is the History Center on solid ground, financially speaking?

Conor Hepp: Yeah, we are good now, which is a very impressive thing, I say, because it’s up to our staff. When I came in 2020, the History Center was saddled with massive debt, and we didn’t have a whole lot of revenue coming in the door. So, it was really put to the team. How do we restructure this? And within five years we’ve offloaded the debt, we’ve increased revenue across the board. We had our first cash-positive year. So the institution is really cooking at this point.

Liam Dempsey: I’m delighted to hear that.

Erik Gudmundson: Me too. Congratulations. That’s no easy feat. So well done on it. Let’s focus on you for a moment, Conor. We read that you’re a fan of punk rock and some of the genres that followed. So I heard Bad Religion, Pennywise, Rage Against the Machine, maybe some others. We’re going to ask you to wax philosophically for us for a moment. What can punk rock teach us about history?

Conor Hepp: How to put wood shellac in your hair? You know, I, I, I, I. Yeah, people might make fun of me for my music taste, but I enjoy it.

Liam Dempsey: I’m right there with you.

Conor Hepp: There you go.

Liam Dempsey: I am right there with you. I’m right there with you.

Conor Hepp: I think punk can tell you a lot of things. You know, one is you can do, you can do more with less. You know, certainly I learned from a lot of gutter punks that, you know, you can, you can find your way through life and do well on just a little bit. So, we put that into practice when we’re talking about creating content, you know, perfect is the enemy of good. You have to create something and get it out there. So when somebody on the team is saying, well, we want to make a video, and somebody’s like, well, we need a ten thousand dollar camera, you just pull out an iPhone, you’re like, this is what we’re going to go with. And we’re going to go with this until we can afford that ten-thousand-dollar camera.

I think punk rock can teach us how to grow an audience. You know, those punk bands in the ’70s and ’80s, they grew from word of mouth, they grew from magazines and clubs, and they didn’t get mainstream for maybe ever. But you can grow an audience. As long as you’re authentic to what you’re doing and you’re consistent, you can really grow an audience. 

And then, you know, I think that more than anything, punk will teach you to be authentic. It’ll make you stand up for what you believe in, you know, kind of buck the system a little bit, because I believe in this. And I think nonprofits and museums have to do that. We have missions. It’s our job to stand up for our mission. You know, we’re a history museum. Our job is to make sure that we tell history that is truth. And you know, out there, truth. 

History is ugly. History is brutal. We just talked about the underground railroad. You can’t be more brutal than enslaving human beings, chattel slavery, that is horrendous. But if we don’t teach those stories, then we are not doing our jobs. And as history museums, as museums in general, we have to stand for our mission and make sure that we are doing right by it.

Liam Dempsey: As the president of a significant local museum, we expect that your schedule keeps you very busy. Actually, just running the museum, sourcing funding, hosting events, and so many other things that no doubt fill up your calendar. Conor, when you get the chance to step away from it all, what’s one activity or hobby that brings you peace and joy?

Conor Hepp: I’m a history non-profit nerd, so I kind of get some peace and joy from work. Although it’s also a roller coaster.

Liam Dempsey: No, I’m not saying you don’t enjoy your job. I’m not saying it’s all work and no fun. But at some point, one more board meeting or one more event can make for a long day. Even if you love the board and you love the people at the event, I get it.

Conor Hepp: That is a very true statement. I’m a family man. I love spending time with my kids. They are Pure joy. But I also, I built myself a small wood workshop in my garage. So, whenever it gets too bad, I go in there and I make some bad furniture, some funky things that I’m somewhat proud about, but also may never see the light of day or ever show up on social media because it’s not that pretty.

Erik Gudmundson: Talk about a more serious note for a moment. Recently, the History Center was involved in a burial service and forum for remembering Zachariah Walker, the victim of a lynching in Coatesville in 1911. Tell us about Mr. Walker, and tell us also about the ceremony.

Conor Hepp: Yeah, Zachariah Walker, the story there is pretty horrendous. He was a steelworker in 1911, Coatesville area. The story, as it goes, was that he was out drinking one night. It was reported that he was shooting off a gun. Now, mind you, a lot of this has not been looked into too much. You’re hearing it from the populace in the area. He was confronted by Edgar Rice, who was a security officer for the steel company. And something happened that night. There are reports that there was a scuffle. Edgar Rice was shot, and he did die, and Walker fled the area. 

So people went out and they searched for Walker, and they found him supposedly hiding in a tree. He apparently shot himself. They say to get out of the situation. I’m not sure why you would run away and climb in a tree if you were then going to plan on shooting yourself. And he was taken to a hospital where he was shackled to the bed. And in the night, a crowd came in. they say anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 people. They ripped him out of the bed. They dismantled the bed to get him out, and then they took him outside and burned him alive.

He crawled out of the fire three separate times. Not to be too graphic, but when you’re talking about lynching, you’d better get that out there. And he was pushed back in while a crowd watched. So it’s a pretty horrendous story, but it’s one of those situations where you have to tell history so that we can prevent something like this from happening again. 

The program that happened, which was put together by Senator Andy Dinnaman, well known in this area, the Coatesville NAACP, a lot of religious organizations in this region, they really wanted to pay homage to Walker’s life, also to Edgar Rice’s life. You know, this wasn’t just recognizing Walker. It was also recognizing a victim. And to talk about how we can work towards something like this never happening again. And I’m very happy to say that they’re planning on doing it every year, so that this is something that people learn about and it’s a memory for the community.

Liam Dempsey: Thanks for walking us through that. That’s a brutal story and it’s an important one to hear. Thank you. 

There’s a building in Westchester that certainly I have and I expect Erik has as well walked by so many times and I don’t know anything about it. It’s called Horticultural Hall. It’s right there on the high street in Westchester, and it’s connected to the main history center building via a little walkway right above the street there. Tell us about that building. I expect it has quite a storied history.

Conor Hepp: Yeah, that was actually our original home. So up until the 90s, Horticultural Hall was where the history center lived. It was designed by Thomas U. Walter in the 1830s, 1840s. I’m sorry. He’s well known architect. He helped design the US Capitol dome expansion. So well known across the nation. I think he did something like 300 or 400 different projects.

So he built the organization and it or the building which became the Horticultural Hall, because the Chester County Horticultural Society was housed there. It eventually became an opera house and then became the home of the Chester County Historical Society. It has a beautiful green front with Chester County Serpentine stone. This was back when we built with serpentine before we realized that it’s a very soft stone and it melts. So it has very rich history. I have been told that FredErikk Douglass, in 186,3 came to the history center, Horticultural Hall to raise soldiers for the color troops regiments during the Civil War. It is also known that it is the site of the first Women’s Rights convention in Pennsylvania, which was second in the nation, just after Seneca Falls by about two or three years.

Erik Gudmundson: Wow. I’ve learned so much on this podcast, and we’re not even done yet, but we do unfortunately need to start wrapping it up. Let me ask you a question that we ask of many of our guests, and it often could be one of the hard questions. But tell us about a local business or nonprofit that more folks should know about.

Conor Hepp: There’s tons of businesses and nonprofits everybody should know about. I would say the Colonial Theater. You’ve had Jennifer on here. That’s a fantastic organization. The Chester County Art Association is amazing. Historic Yellow Springs. But there’s also human services nonprofits, the Crime Victim Center, North Star, and Home of the Sparrow. There are all these organizations throughout our region that just do amazing work and really help bolster the life here in Chester County.

Liam Dempsey: You’re right. We have had a few of those folks on this show. We’ve had the Colonial Theater. We’ve had the Crime Victim Center of Chester County on. So we’ll be sure to link to those episodes, those conversations over on our show notes at startlocal.co.

So you shared that the organization’s on sound financial footing, which is wonderful. It makes me wonder is the History center hiring? Are you looking for volunteers? Where can folks learn more and get involved?

Conor Hepp: We’re always looking for volunteers. With just shy of a million artifacts in our collection, there’s a lot of work to be done. So if you’re interested in library work or work in the collection, work with education, we’re always taking volunteers. And those would be listed on our website, which again would be mycchc.org.

Staff wise, we’re hiring for seasonal employees right now because of our walking tours this October, this month alone, we’re probably going to do 50 to 60 walking tours because of our chilling Dark History Walking tour is very popular. And over the next couple years, we’re going to really look to expand our collection staff. We would like to bring on a photo archivist if we could, maybe an another curatorial staff member, and that’s in the next year or two.

Erik Gudmundson: One final question today for you, Conor. How can the community support the Chester County History Center?

Conor Hepp: So, so there’s three things that I like to talk about when it comes to supporting the History Center. It’s Bolster, Belong, and Boost. So to bolster us, we need donations. We take obviously financial donations, but we also are still growing our collection. So photographs, artifacts, anything that you think tells a story of Chester County, reach out to us. We love to hear about it. 

When it comes to belonging, we want to make sure that everybody in our community becomes a member. Members are the lifeblood of institutions like that us and they really help us grow.

And then the last one is boost is we need people to share our content. If you don’t have the financial wherewithal to donate, if you are busy and you can’t become a member, but you have a Facebook page, you have an Instagram page, you have LinkedIn. All those channels help us find new audiences, and just by sharing or following it makes a massive difference to a small nonprofit institution.

Erik Gudmundson: Wow. Thank you very much for sharing that. Good answer. Conor Hepp, president of the Chester County History Center. Where can listeners connect with you to learn more about you and the Chester County History Center?

Conor Hepp: Well, I’m always at the History center, so you can always go stop by and say Hi. I use LinkedIn more than anything else, so if you want to connect, please reach out. You want to chat? I’m always up for conversation. I love talking shop. And we’re always open to partnerships, whether nonprofit or profit. Whatever it is, CCHD is always, always out there to partner.

Liam Dempsey: Conor, thanks so much for your time today. This conversation has been even more than I hoped it could be. Really, thank you. Really thank you for your time and for sharing the stories you have.

Conor Hepp: No, thank you both. This was wonderful. I really appreciate it.

Erik Gudmundson: Thank you very much, Conor. And thank you also to my co-host, Liam Dempsey. I’m Erik Goodmundson. 

The Start Local podcast is published every two weeks. We invite you to subscribe to Start Local using your favorite podcast app or ask your smart speaker to play the Start Local podcast. You can visit the Start Local website at startlocal.co for show notes, including links mentioned on this show and summaries of past episodes. 

We hope you join us for the next episode. Thank you for listening.