A River Runs Through It

The Schuylkill River Heritage Center in Phoenixville

Have you ever wondered if you can name all the towns are located along the Schuylkill River? 

Or what tributaries flow into the Schuylkill River?    

In the Schuylkill River Heritage Center in Phoenixville, these answers are literally built into the floor.  

Tomorrow, students will be challenged to see who can identify them the quickest.

The Schuylkill River Heritage Center in the Phoenixville Foundry building at 2 North Main Street is sponsoring a children’s workshop Saturday morning, May 12, from 10 to 12 p.m.. 

Children ages 6-12 will be able to participate in a wide variety of contests and activities.

 

There will be contests, in different age groups, to see who can build the tallest structure using only mini marshmallows and toothpicks.   

The Phoenix Steel Foundry on hard times

“Now and Then” photos, will challenge children to match photos of old postcards with current photos of the same locations in Phoenixville.   

There will also be a coloring contest. 

 Cards for both the tributaries and the towns will help students match the correct names, and learn about where they live. 

The final contest will be a scavenger hunt of the foundry site.  Clues will guide participants around both the inside and the grounds of the Visitor’s Center.

Demonstrations will be conducted on how to cast a wooden mold into an iron shape.  

Plaster of paris will be substituted for the molten iron/steel used when the steel company operated.  

A miniature drag or Nowell will be used with an original gear or mold and lots of sand will be packed by participants. 

The Phoenix column, invented at Phoenix Steel, revolutionized the steel
industry and revolutionized the urbanization of America

Sketches of how the actual iron pouring takes place will be shown and connections made to the creation of the sand mold.   

Hopefully the plaster will dry enough so that by the end of the event the sand will be removed and an exact duplicate will come out of the sand. 

Many Junior Docents will be on hand with SRHC board members to assist participants with these events. Fun and learning will be mixed with a variety of prizes and rewards will be distributed.

For more information, call 610-935-2181.