Latest / WashCo Insider / Tracie Liberatore
Transcript
- speaker-0: If you've ever stepped foot in downtown Washington and felt the weight of history in the best way possible, you've experienced the impact of today's guest. Tracy Liberator is the Executive Director of the Bradford House Historical Association, and her work has helped to shape a historic site into a true destination. Connecting the story of the Whiskey Rebellion to education and community pride right here in Washington County. Tracy Liberator, when we come back. Tracy, you took a bit of a ⁓ circuitous route to leading and directing a museum. Tell us a little bit about your background and kinda how you weaved your way into where you are today. speaker-1: Yeah, I never thought that I would be saying I've been a historic site for fifteen years. ⁓ so growing up, ⁓ both my parents were worked in finances. My dad was at the Federal Reserve for thirty-eight years. And as I sat around the kitchen table, the dinner table, my dad always said, Don't go into finance, don't go into finance. So I went to school and went into finance. I graduated ⁓ with a finance degree and management degree. ⁓ and I worked in corporate America. I worked for a bank for eighteen years. ⁓ I loved what I did because I was a project manager. I everything as a project from start to finish, ⁓ every day was different. ⁓ until the banks get taken over. So, you know, probably about twenty years ago now, ⁓ my bank was bought and I lost my job. And it was kind of like I was offered tons of jobs. I mean, I had a degree, I had a master's, I had eighteen years experience, but they were all in downtown Pittsburgh. My kids were little and the thought of going to downtown was not what I wanted to do. Yeah, my husband worked in Ohio, which even made it even harder. I'm like, well, I can't be in Pittsburgh and him be in Ohio. So so I decided we made some life changes, cut back on things and decided I would just stay home with the kids. speaker-0: I'm with you on that one. speaker-1: Didn't last long. a good friend of mine approached me and said, You know how my mom does that history thing is how she put it. She was like, I'm like, ⁓ yeah, she she works with a museum I'd never been, knew nothing about it, just knew that her mom was involved in history. She said, They need some help. And I'm like, Well, what kind of help? And she goes, They need, they had a part time person and she said, They need someone to write reports, a monthly report. And I'm like, Okay. Well, I'll hear what they have to say. You know, how hard could it be? So I went and the the story of me getting the job is so funny because I sat down at a conference table with other people and the board president and he hands me a piece of paper, single space, top to bottom. This is what we need you to do. Okay. And I'm like, okay, a monthly report, and you want me to work four hours a week. And and I laughed and I'm like, I'm so sorry. And I'm like, Well, here's my resume. Well then he said, Why are you here? Like, you are so overqualified. Why would you want to do this? And I said, Well, because right now family comes first. I have three young children who I don't want to leave. Absolutely. So I took I took a shot, knew nothing about history. In fact, when I first started at the Bradford House, I got a lot of slack from people saying, you know, why are you doing this? You don't know history. But there are so many great people in the community on my board that know the history. I didn't need to know it. All these years later, I know it. I could recite tours in my sleep if I had to. But yeah, never thought a history museum. speaker-0: And you know, I know this because I know you and I know others in the museum space. There are a lot of unique challenges that come along with being executive director of a museum. It's it's not all history. I mean you're juggling ⁓ a lot of balls, you've got a lot of different hats that you wear. talk a little bit about the different facets of being an executive director for a museum, you know, from volunteers and donors and speaker-1: So absolutely. So I'm the only full time employee and I've been that way since I was part time for a very short time because once it became aware what I could do ⁓ and what I could bring to the table, I just kept growing. I went from like five hours to twenty hours to forty hours to eighty hours and then they're like, You need to become salaries. So but it's funny because I tell everyone, first of all, thank God for the volunteers and thank God for our committees that do some of this stuff, but On any given day I could be ⁓ designing the website because I'm the only person who knows how to do that. ⁓ the website, the monthly e-newsletters, the payroll, bookkeeping, I process all the invoices, HR, the staff. So now throughout the years, so when I started there was nobody else, but now I have nine part-time seasonal docents. On a given day, I should have three at the Two working at the museum and one working at the visitor center. I have nine to be able to fill those three spots. speaker-0: ⁓ sure. And they're so knowledgeable. I mean they're so impressive. speaker-1: Well, that and they're so unique. So you think about it, who who is the right person to work ten to four? Who's willing to work ten to four? Most importantly, who's willing to do it without benefits? No paid time off, nothing. ⁓ it's perfect for the retired person. It's perfect for somebody with their child in school, but it's very hard to find someone and the people who do it love it. I mean, you can tell in the tours they give, the way they talk, they also wear ⁓ eighteenth century attire, which not everybody wants to dress, but those that want to dress do. on a side note, I have never ever put a piece of wardrobe on because I said if I did, they'd want me to wear it the rest of the time. Now on an and also when I started my kids were young and I have such great blackmail pictures of my kids. ⁓ I have Louie who is my youngest, he was in the ⁓ the children's room and one of our past ⁓ board members was reading to him and he's in the breeches, you know, and the chemise and everything that he needs to be in. ⁓ my daughter, we have recorded in the master bedroom writing at the desk. And then my son playing my other son playing games. So I did get them to dress. They didn't have a choice. But I'll tell you what, graduation time is so much fun to pull those pictures pictures out. But yes, ⁓ that was my long way of saying It's it's not easy because you're you're basically everything. And ⁓ I tell everyone the most important thing I do is write grants. We are you know, that's how our major major funding is. We actually in some ways rely on grants too much. You know, it's too much of our income. ⁓ but we are blessed to have a grant from AQT. ⁓ foundation that allows for free general admission. So if you're in the city and you want to stop for a tour, you can. Now that free admission doesn't cover field trips and stuff like that because back to my everyday I just need two people on a field trip day I need ten. Sure. So ⁓ but yeah, it it's a lot and it's it's not easy. My my husband tells me he he's never seen someone that can be on their laptop from the start of the day to the end of the day. speaker-0: It's something. Yeah, no, I've I've seen it firsthand and it's it's a lot. Now ⁓ but before we go much further, I think one of the things that is so interesting about the docents is they have such a uniquely American story to tell at the Bradford House Museum and at the Whiskey Rebellion Education Visitor Center. Give us give us a high level overview of who David Bradford was and and how he's impacted America ⁓ from the rebellion time. speaker-1: So everything starts with David Bradford because the house, which is a National Historic Landmark, was built in 1788 for David. ⁓ and that is the house that we represent that we give tours of. But the other part of his story, because it was the only stone ho house on Main Street. So and it still stands exactly like it did in 1788. It did go through renovations in 1965 to in order 'Cause over time you figure it was built in seventeen eighty eight, but it didn't become a museum 'til nineteen sixty-five. So there was there was coffins sold from there. There were Christmas trees, it was a general store, so it went through a transformation, but with the help of the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission, we made it into as it was when David was there. But the reason we tell the story beyond the fact that it's a house built in seventeen eighty eight. is because it was built for David. And David was a lawyer in the eighteenth century and he was a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion. So you have the Whiskey Rebellion, which was had so many firsts with it. So it was the first excise tax. It was the first use of federal troops. It was the first presidential pardon, which gets people all the time when we say that one. But so you so you have the house which you you can dis ⁓ you can talk about the architecture, the the grounds, the everything that the house had to offer. But and then on the side note, you can talk about the big picture, which is the government. And the government it was such a big thing, the Whisker Rebellion. And so many people don't realize that yes, there were twenty two sites in the Whiskey Rebellion, but David lived here and you know, troops came to Washington County, troops, it's told that ⁓ our door, which is original, was knocked on by a tax collector. ⁓ you know, it We don't know which tax collector 'cause we weren't there. No one took pictures. You know, it's it's it's from the past, but we know our original door that ch people knock on today was knocked on by a tax collector. So could it have been Alexander Hamilton? Could've. speaker-0: You know, wanna and I know you have this on a sign in the Whiskey Rebellion Education Visitor Center, but one of my favorite quotes that he said was, It's dastardly to talk of property when liberty is in question. speaker-1: Yeah, so ⁓ so David, as I said, he represented the farmers. So the farmers were the ones that w were being taxed on the whiskey and the whiskey was a bartering. So if if you had if you had if you had product, like say you had sugar, I would give you a whiskey for the sugar. And whenever as far as transportation, a lot of the transportation came about because of the whiskey rebellion. ⁓ so we had the We had the house when I started, we were a standalone ⁓ Bradford House Museum. And then the story, you know, we you would walk in the doors and we would say, Okay, have a seat on the steps and let us have 15 minutes of your time to tell you about the Whiskey Rebellion. Well then in 2019 we started working on the Whiskey Rebellion Education Visitor Center, which you mentioned, which is directly across the street. It's like 19 steps from the Bradford House and it is a totally different experience than the house. The house is beautiful the way it was in the 18th century. The Whiskey Rebellion Education Visitor Center is a ⁓ panels and pictures and and exhibits. There's we have an 18th century steel display, we have a cage bar, we have you know transportation vouchers, there's all kinds of stuff. So at the house you get a guided tour with people in their 18th century attire. And when you come to the visitor center, ⁓ you just walk through. There's someone there always to answer questions. But it was a great separation because each story is big enough on their own. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, talk a little bit about the the grounds a little bit more. So I know you have a few other buildings. I won't go into all of it because it's it is so beautiful, ⁓ especially the garden. speaker-1: Yes. Yes. So ⁓ one of the things I'm excited about is we we have a wedding scheduled in September. We we don't get a lot of weddings, but we usually get at least one a year. So so you've this beautiful stone house on on Main Street. And to the left of the house is an alley, and as you go down the alley, the whole entire wall of the adjacent building has ⁓ one hundred ⁓ yards of ⁓ mural. Absolutely beautiful painted door. by a local artist, Diane Adams, during COVID. And it is the storyline of the rebellion. So you go down the alley, you follow along with the storyline. And the cool thing is you mentioned my great docents like Dave Buttinger. He's on the wall depicted in a cutout. It's perfect. It looks just like Dave. So you have the story and then as you come down the alley behind the house is our gardens. They are absolutely stunning. They're a story in themselves. They're part of our tours So when you do a tour of the house, it's upstairs and downstairs. The back of the house is an addition since David lived there. But and then you have these gardens and they're beautiful. and just ⁓ a couple years ago, we got our first ever outdoor exhibit thanks to ⁓ Washington County ⁓ tourism and chamber. We have a exhibit that shows you the items within the garden because part of the story is so, so you'll see items like ⁓ you know, the everyday herbs, but then you'll see flowers too. Well they use those. The reason they're there, the reason our gardening is what it is, is because they use those from everything for toilet paper to medicinal to and the the way this exhibit shows, it's a panel and you turn the panel and and there will be a picture on one side and you flip over and what they used it for. So if we're not there and you're in town and you're walking through town and you come to see our gardens, because so many people do, I mean prom pictures, homecoming pictures, Photoshop. shoots, everything. But and then also in the garden is our outdoor kitchen cabin, which is so they never had a kitchen inside the house because the kitchens burned down. In fact the story is that the the outdoor kitchen cabin burned down three times. So we actually did an ⁓ did the research and found out where to put the ⁓ cabin, though it's facing the wrong direction, but we had to do it because of the grounds. But ⁓ we have a kitchen hearth in there, which one of our docent, Kate Cunning, loves to do cooking demonstrations. So a couple of years ago, she started the last Saturday of every month is a cooking demonstration completely free. She's making something, she always makes it fun. Like she's usually celebrating like George Washington or Ben Franklin or something to do with David Bradford. Usually. So ten to four on a Saturday. speaker-0: What time of day is that you're You mentioned earlier that through a grant from EQT you're able to offer free admission. Yes. ⁓ so can visitors drop in? Do they schedule speaker-1: Yes, absolutely. So our our hours are ⁓ Wednesday through Saturday from ten AM to four PM. Both locations have the the visitor center and the Bradford House the the same hours and we are open from April first, excuse me, to the last day of November. That being said, my docents will tell you we are open year round by appointment. So we do get ⁓ you know, people calling all the time going, ⁓ I see you're only open on Wednesday. Can I come on a Monday or Tuesday? Course you can. speaker-0: Well what I think is nice about downtown Washington is that for someone who's coming in from out of town, spend a day or two and you can hit four museums right in downtown. speaker-1: Absolutely. speaker-0: Start up at Duncan and Miller Glass Museum, then the Bradford House Museum, Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center, and right around the corner from you, I don't know, maybe two hundred steps, you have the Lemoyne House. And we had Clay on here earlier and we correct and learned a little bit more about Francis Lemoyne. But ⁓ you can plan a nice little weekend and cover a lot of history ⁓ in just a couple of days. speaker-1: Exactly. And we always tell you know, when people visit us, we always tell them about what there is and go another three miles down Main Street and you run into the Charlie Museum. And right up the street, it's a historic hotel, it's the George Washington Hotel. And, you know, all the restaurants you have pretzels plus across from us. We're always telling people to go there and grab a pretzel and or Chico's. And there's just so many great places. you're absolutely right. It is more than a day trip. speaker-0: We'll talk a little bit about some of the other events and programming that you have throughout the course of the year. speaker-1: So it's crazy. I was looking at my twenty twenty-five numbers before I came and we had over twelve thousand visitors in twenty twenty five. We had over fifty-six programs, which just blows my mind because we have you know, we have this great education committee. I had ⁓ briefly mentioned committees. So the way that we're structured ⁓ the Bradford House Historical Association is we have committees. So I have a campus committee who works on the grounds. I have an education committee who works on the programming. I have a garden committee. It's big enough on its own, right? A marketing, just these great committees. So ⁓ people people are dedicated to these committees, not just board members. I have a lot of community members on these committees. ⁓ and the education, you know, our mission is to educate. Educate on eighteenth century living, David Bradford, preserve the house. So that's what we do. So everything that we do is to educate. So the these programs I'm talking about, we have an annual history symposium in the spring. We have homeschoolers day. We have things throughout the year. One of the things that we have found is the need, a big need from the homeschoolers community. We had a homeschoolers day two years ago and we're still getting calls from these groups saying, what else can you do? Because our education committee, they do they follow the standards, state standards. So these groups know that if they're coming, it qualifies for their programming. So we are offering different ⁓ we started ⁓ book workshops where the kids have to read a book before they come and then our educators work on Well, it is and it and it's you know, it's it we do have field trips. We have a ton of K through twelve field trips and group tours and all that fun stuff, but the homeschoolers community is just something really new for us and and we're the the educators who are really enjoying working with them. speaker-0: Great benefit to that. You know, it's it's the end of ⁓ or the middle of June now. In just a few weeks you have I don't even think we can say arguably, it is the biggest event of the year for you. ⁓ no doubt. What's coming up and what do we have to look forward to? speaker-1: We have the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, the second weekend in July every single year, started in 2010 as part of the Washington ⁓ Bicentennial, and it has grown ⁓ bigger and bigger every year. ⁓ when we were talking about all the things that I do. So I am in charge of the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, but back to committees. I have eight committees under me because there's eight different main parts of the festival. and The the uniqueness of the festival, I tell everyone, it's like no other festival you would ever go to. It's all history. We have history display groups. ⁓ something new this year is, you know, I started thinking, 'cause we're celebrating America two fifty and everything is about America two fifty. I started thinking, what about our veterans? What about our they are history groups in themselves. So this year I have reached out to our local veteran groups and asked them to join us. We have a history display area in the Washington ⁓ employee parking lot, the Washington Financial Bank employee parking lot, sorry. And we have our history groups in there. Well, this year we're also going to have veteran groups. We also do a history march. A few years ago we did away with our community march because it truly having ⁓ politicians and commercial groups isn't history. So we just have our history groups who march. And you know the first year we did it was two years ago and everyone was like, well, how are you just going to have history people and we had over a hundred people again dressed up in attire representing their part. I mean we had Oliver Miller Homestead, Woodville Plantation. ⁓ we had our our folks, they they love to march also. But I've also invited these veteran groups, these military groups to be in the march this year. So we have the the history groups, the march, ⁓ and then we excuse me, we have the Little Rebels area which is set up behind the Bradford House. And that is part of our children's area. ⁓ you can also do walkthrough. We do not do guided tours. There are way, way too many people. So we do we do tours of our our sites. and we added this year the American Spirit Hall, which is on Maiden Street. And the reason ⁓ that ⁓ for this is they have the Liberty Bell, they have the Washington County Bell, and people are coming to us all the time and wanting to see this bell, and so we're gonna promote it. ⁓ big time for people you want to see the bell, today's the day to see it. ⁓ speaker-0: And for those not familiar with what the bell is, for ⁓ to celebrate America 250 in Pennsylvania, every ⁓ every county in the state was tasked with finding a local artist to develop a bell and they could use any medium they felt most comfortable with to paint or to use tiling, ⁓ any number of different tactics, ⁓ but to paint a bell that best represented your county. And so we worked with Jim Solkowski. We just had ⁓ his wife Sherry on the show and what a talent ⁓ the man is. He's an artistic genius. speaker-1: Beyond speaker-0: And so between Jim and Mike Malone from Malone Advertising and Printscape, together they pulled all of the pieces together and what they created I think is very ⁓ representative of Washington County. And so to your point, that's gonna be a good stop ⁓ when folks are in town for the Whiskey Rebellion Festival. speaker-1: It is and we're and we're the the space that the bell is in is large enough that I'm actually putting demonstrators in there and some ⁓ historic reenactments. So it's kind of another expansion on the whole history theme. ⁓ the other thing ⁓ that draws more people than you can imagine is our historic street theater. So so we have Terry Perry who is running this for us. She's been doing it for years and does an outstanding job. So what speaker-0: That's my favorite part. speaker-1: the historic street theater does is they take six scenes. They basically show you if you do not know what the Whiskey Rebellion is, they act out in front of you on Main Street and it is unbelievable. And and everyone asks in every single year, will it end with a tar and feathering? And it does every single year. So ⁓ so I say about eight areas and as you can see I think I just spat it out five and it's all history. But then of course you have whiskey. We have a Blue Eagle Tavern, which will have whiskey and beer. We have food vendors. We also have Mercantow. ⁓ we try to make the Mercantal be local or be homemade. We put a blacksmith in there last year, again, trying to stay with the history theme. ⁓ so our daytime activities are from noon. We start at noon, and they go till six. So you can see the history groups till six, you can see the street theater till six, you can see the little rebels area. All these areas are our daytime activity. We do have music throughout the day, ⁓ but our biggest draw for our music is ⁓ in the evening because from six until ten when we end, so full day from noon until ten. ⁓ and you know, I'm just talking about Saturday. I never even mentioned Friday, but I won't finish talking about Saturday first because ⁓ the I want to talk about our bands. So we start off with a children's Fife and drum set. They come every year. They're exceptional, 15 kids. Who doesn't want to see kids? ⁓ and then we go into Dan Baker. He is a local ⁓ guitarist, loved, so he'll be one of our daytime acts. ⁓ Appalachian Soul is a new one, which I've never had. ⁓ but a shout out to Sherry Solkowski. She's the one who recommended that I get them. So we'll see, we'll see. We have another individual, Michael McIntyre. Then we start into our evening shows. Snapping bug is so much fun. They came in 2019. ⁓ I have it's funny, the the bands they all want to come back, but we really try to rotate people. ⁓ Rooster Blackspur out of Nashville is a lady who is I when she sent me her music, I was like, we have to. A, I like to feature a woman every once in a while. and then ⁓ our headliner, which came speaker-0: Big announcement today, right? speaker-1: It it is. ⁓ our headliner who was there two years ago and we saw crowds like we've never seen. Our crowds were over seven thousand for this one event. ⁓ we are bringing back the clerks. speaker-0: Yeah. Collectively I just heard Pittsburgh cheer. speaker-1: Yes. So the Clarks, ⁓ if you haven't heard of f of them, shame on you. They kicked off the pit this year, the show with one of their songs, and they're they have been loved locally for a long time. So so Saturday is going to be so big. But if I could just for a minute, I forgot about Friday. 'Cause Saturday's so exciting. Absolutely. So Friday, July tenth, the night before the festival are is our kickoff. We have an opening ceremony. Every year the Washington Symphony Orchestra comes and plays, but my but my favorite event is the whiskey walk. And I don't even drink whiskey. I will be completely honest, but we have a whiskey and spirits walk where we take fifteen vendors and we put them throughout Washington on on our footprint of Main Street. So there will be vendors in Prestles Plus, there will be vendors up by Ivy Green, in Very, very walkable. Everything's walkable. The streets closed. So it's a ticket event. It's our only ticket event at the whole entire festival. The rest is free. So you buy a ticket, you get a wristband, and you walk around and you sample. And if you love what you sample, you purchase the bottles. It is no cost to the businesses, it is no cost to the vendors. It literally is just getting people in and around ⁓ the festival. speaker-0: I know it's been a big hit and this is maybe what year, three years or four year speaker-1: Yeah, so it actually started in two thousand and nineteen and w and but it's wild. So we cap it three hundred last year we had two hundred and seventy eight. Wow. Like we it really and ⁓ we have three I always again try to get new because people wanna know what's new. ⁓ three new vendors this year. One is doing the cherry bounce, which is a very popular drink of the eighteenth century. one is three sisters rhyme. There are other drinkers besides whiskey. And then another one is a it's called ⁓ what's it called? It's called Sun sorry, I knew I'd forget Wild Sunshine Factory. It is made from sunflowers. And and these people are traveling like three these vendors are traveling hours. Like one of them's coming five hours just to participate and get their name out there. All by awareness. speaker-0: ⁓ interesting. Well while we're talking about whiskey, ⁓ if you wanna help support the Bradford House Museum, tell us a little bit about Rebellion Reserve and how people can support you. speaker-1: Yes. So this time last year, amazingly enough, it's been a year, I got to go on a field trip, my first ever Bradford House field trip to Kentucky. And ⁓ I myself and I took a took some sponsors and ⁓ board members with me, and we created a rebellion reserve. So the way it works is you go to Maker's Mark and they set out all these different flavors. You figure out which one there were eight of us, we agreed to, and then They take the flavor staves and put it in the barrels of whiskey and they flavor the whiskey. It sits for so many months and then they create a bottle. So we named ours, of course, Rebellion Reserve. and we have have brought it back. We still have bottles. ⁓ we featured it at last year as Whiskey Rebellion Dinner. And ⁓ for a donation, a donation of $100, you will get a bottle of this Rebellion Reserve. And it is a maker's mark. Private select product. speaker-0: It's good way to help support. Yes. Tracy, I can't thank you enough for coming on today. I know I'm looking forward to the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, the Clarks, the Street Theater, the Food. Yes. All of it. So thanks. speaker-1: Thank you. speaker-0: Tonight at 7.05, the Washington Wild Things wrap up a three-game homestand against the Mississippi Mud Monsters. Tomorrow and Saturday night, take a drive down to the Mingo Creek County Park Observatory to view the moon, planets, and deep space objects for the Amateur Astronomers Association Pittsburgh's Star Party. Also on Saturday, Step back in time at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter and Historic Village for their annual At Lattle competition. Watch some of the world's best competitors from the World At Laddle Association compete with these prehistoric spear throwers or give it a try for yourself. If you haven't, it's super fun. If live music is what you're looking for this weekend, check out Rocking on the Monberfest on Saturday evening at the Monongahela Aquatorium. Duchesne kicks off the show at 4 p.m., followed by Walkin' Rosie at 5.45 with headliner and grandson of Johnny Cash, Thomas Gabriel, at 7.30. Until then, if we don't see you, we'll see you at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.