Celebrate Irish heritage at Joanna Furnace Breakfast Buffet
The Hay Creek Valley Historical Association celebrates their Irish heritage and the birth of the Iron master’s first child Clement Smith at the 13th annual Irish Breakfast Buffet.
The breakfast takes place at the historic Joanna Furnace Iron Works on March 21 from 7 a.m. to noon.
This celebration of Irish legacy will feature standard Irish favorites of Pancakes, French toast, country sausage, homemade corned beef hash, bacon, scrapple, creamed chipped beef, scrambled eggs, country style potatoes, baked oatmeal, fruit, coffee, juice and more. The cost for the buffet is adults $10, children (5-11) $5, children under 5 free. Reservations are not required to attend.
Not only were the Smith Iron-making family descendants of Irish immigrants to the New World, but also were many of the furnace workers who emigrated from Ireland during the potato famine. Visitors are invited to come out to celebrate our heritage at the breakfast and to welcome the Iron master’s new child “Clemmy” by wearing the traditional Irish colors of green, white and orange.
“This is a special year celebrating Clement’s birth (March 1870),” said Juliana Flora, the president of the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association. “The Smith’s first child, new beginnings and a celebration of the heritage that can be traced back to Ireland/Scotland in the 1500s. The Smith’s original name was MacDonald, but was changed when arriving in the new world to reflect their blackSMITHing heritage.”
March also kicks off the beginning of the year for the organization when the general public can come out to Joanna Furnace to hear about the history of our community. At this time the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association offers educational training classes where individuals can learn to be a tour guide or take a history class to learn about our communities’ past. This year’s classes focus on learning about civil war photography, Victorian dancing, bake oven demonstrating, metal casting and the history of theater.
“As our organization continues to preserve the 26acre historic site, we are always looking for new volunteers to join our team to assist at events and education programs,” said Mark Zerr, Executive Director. “Whether new volunteers come on board to learn to be tour guides, help at our Thursday volunteer day, or just learn about our heritage we are an all-encompassing organization that welcomes the talents and knowledge from our community.”
The Hay Creek Valley Historical Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization dedicated to the preservation and education of America’s Iron Heritage. Net Proceeds from this event support the restoration and educational projects of the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association and Joanna Furnace.
For more information about the 2020 events or educational programs at Joanna Furnace, visit the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association website at www.haycreek.org or call 610-286-0388.
The Joanna Furnace site is located three miles north of Morgantown along route 10, for entrance turn at Furnace Road.