Old Stone House closure blow to history students
Kevin Lukacs has vivid memories of working at the Old Stone House in 2014 when he was a Slippery Rock University student, majoring in history with an international studies minor.
“I started working in May 2014 at the very end of my junior year. The position was a summer position, May through October,” Lukacs said. “But I continued to work there until I graduated (in May 2015).”
Lukacs said in his weekend position at the historic building built in 1822 in Brady Township he mostly gave tours to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays. “People like to have someone to talk to,” he said.
But he took on a special project beyond his docent duties. He had been involved with the local theater scene with the Butler Little Theatre and the Hobnob Theatre Co.
He decided the Old Stone House would be a great venue for a play — there was just one problem.
“We had trouble picking a play,” he said, so he wrote his own, a farce for eight actors, “Shootout at Slippery Rock Creek,” featuring the notorious “Stone House Gang,” a shady band of counterfeiters and horse thieves who occupied the tavern.
Using Butler Little Theatre actors, Lukacs said the play ran for eight sold-out shows at the Old Stone House in 2015.
That was also the year he graduated. In 2017 he moved to Washington, D.C., to attend American University, eventually getting a master’s degree in public history.
“In public history, you do all the same history training but there is community building, nonprofit work. It’s history on the ground. It’s very competitive,” he said. “The unofficial requirement is museum experience. I would not have gotten into this graduate school if not for my position at the Old Stone House.”
Today Lukacs is curator of education at the DAR Museum in Washington, D.C. Lukacs said the institution has several galleries and period rooms to show American history between 1690 to 1930, and look at how the American people changed in that time.
“At the DAR I get a lot of responsibility and I enjoy what I do. I’m really glad I got here with a lot of help,” he said.
Which is why the closure of the Old Stone House is a disservice to future history students, Lukacs said.
In April, Slippery Rock University, which took over operation and maintenance of the historic tavern 23 years ago, announced it would not open for tours and events until further notice.
Jennifer Ford, the executive director of the Butler County Historical Society, said there had been informal discussions with SRU about the historical society taking over management of the Old Stone House.
“It’s beyond our budget,” Ford said.
“Every summer that place is closed is keeping a generation of students from entering the history. There’s not any other history job in Butler that pays,” he said. Without the experience of working at the Old Stone House, future students may not have a chance to got into a position at the museum or pursue a doctorate degree.
Lukacs said, assuming four students at 10 hours a week each, to run tours would cost, at most, $7,000 to $8,000.
“If they don’t see the value in that, that’s a shame for a public education institution,” he said.
In a statement released by SRU, SRU President William Behre said, “The Old Stone House remains a valuable community resource, and the university will be making a capital investment in the longevity of the facility this summer with the replacement its roof.”
