Jazz Concert Celebrates 'The Men in Green'

Restoring Hopewell Furnace was one of the CCC's first projects

Blogger's Note: This information provided by the folks over at Hopewell Furnace.

The National Park Service will commemorate the 79th  birthday of the Civilian Conservation Corps  with a Jazz Concert performed by the Exeter Community Band at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 1. 

The event is free and open to the public. 

This concert is part of the nationally renowned Berks Jazz Fest that runs from March 23 through April 1, 2012.   

 

For additional information about the Jazz Fest, visit www.berksjazzfest.com.

The Hopewell program will feature the music of the 1930s and 1940s.   

Songs such as "Star Dust," "Blue Moon," and "But Not For Me" will be played by the band.   

These are tunes that might have been heard on the radio by the some 400 members of the Civilian Conservation Corps companies that built French Creek State Park and restored Hopewell Furnace.

The concert will also feature Jazz Songs composed by Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.

Exeter Community Band

The Exeter Community Band is an all volunteer local non-professional concert band that has performed at local school and business openings, retail establishments, senior citizen homes, Exeter High School May Day, and the River Fest.  

 

Created in March of 1933, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, known as FDR’s green army, put thousands of unemployed men to work.   

In 1935, the federal government purchased 5,500 acres around Hopewell Furnace for use in its CCC program. 

When the CCC workers realized the age of the buildings at
Hopewell Furnace, they argued successfully for their
preservation and restoration.

Under the direction of the National Park Service, the CCC camps at the federal French Creek National Recreation Demonstration Area accomplished the first preservation and protection work at what is now Hopewell Furnace

Fortunately, the men in this CCC Camp were World War I vets, mature men capable of making independent decisions. When they uncovered the furnace ruins and other buildings of historic importance, they objected to the destruction. This sparked an investigation of the site and it was concluded that Hopewell should be restored and its historic significance preserved.

Thus, Shean-Hammond said, Hopewell became "the first historical site in the nation to be saved by the work of the CCC."

In 1938, the National Park Service designated 214 acres within FCNRDA as Hopewell Village National Historic Site.

 

The foundations of American industry are featured at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, a historic iron-making plantation.   

The park is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday including Memorial Day,

Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day. 

It is closed other federal holidays. On Mondays and Tuesdays, while the visitor center and historic buildings are closed, the grounds and restrooms remain open.

Hopewell Furnace is located five miles south of Birdsboro, PA off Route 345.  

 For more information stop by the park’s visitor center, call 610-582-8773, visit:

--  the park’s web site at:  www.nps.gov/hofu, 

-- FACEBOOK site www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=122902807736059    

-- or contact by e-mail at:  hofu_superintendant@nps.gov.