Muncy Historical Society receives FCFP Grants
The Muncy Historical Society has received two grants from the Waldron Memorial Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania.
According to Executive Director William Poulton, the first award of $10,000 helps the Society with its annual general operating expenses. The financial assistance offsets some of the costs to maintain and sustain the Society’s Main Street property, to pay insurance and utility costs, and to ensure the protection of each location and the “pieces of Muncy’s past” in the collections. As an all-volunteer organization, the Society does not need to budget for staff salaries. Memberships, museum store sales, research fees, and private donations make up the difference to cover the annual operating costs.
The Society’s 40 N. Main Street structure represents an adaptive reuse property, having served as a residence, then a doctor’s home/office, and subsequently a residence again, before becoming Muncy’s museum in 1936. As an adaptive use property, it sets an example for many of Muncy’s finest homes and businesses that no longer serve the community as originally intended.
The Muncy Historical Society also maintains the Sprout-Waldron Exhibition Building, the PA Packet Boat Traveling Exhibit, the Old Hill Burying Ground and the Walton Graveyard, Muncy’s Civil War Monument, and, under development, the Captain John Brady Park.
The Waldron Memorial Fund has awarded a 2025-2026 grant of $10,000 for costs associated with the Society’s America250 initiatives. “Muncy Historical Society Honors” will offer audiences of all ages the opportunity to deepen their appreciation of history, broaden their perspective on who and what matters in the American story, and remind us of this nation’s unique contributions to the world.
The Society will offer a variety of programs, exhibits, and events that will focus on public engagement with history and provide an opportunity to learn about and reflect upon the full sweep of our nation’s past, celebrating examples of liberty, courage, and sacrifice while reckoning with moments of injustice, racism, and violence.
Museum exhibits – World War I and II, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War, along with professional actors portraying Rosie the Riveter, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Ellis Holstein, Abraham Lincoln, Martha Washington, Olna Judge, Betsy Ross, and Ned Hector will be featured. A tombstone, listing the names of all those interred, has already been placed on the African Methodist Episcopal Church plot in Muncy’s public cemetery. The America250 commemoration will end with the June 2026 Quilt Show, which will celebrate “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania works to improve the quality of life in north central Pennsylvania through community leadership, the promotion of philanthropy, the strengthening of nonprofit impact and the perpetual stewardship of charitable assets. FCFP strives to create powerful communities through passionate giving. For more information, visit www.FCFPartnership.org.
