Next week marks the official opening of a collection of things from the past that some have already had the privilege of seeing. These visitors to the Isett Museum on Stone Creek Ridge have told others of their experience, using an exclamation of “just amazing.” And now it is “going public.”
J. Melvin “Mel” Isett uses the word “amazing” a lot as he gives the tour through the two buildings. He said he is fascinated by earlier man’s ingenuity to make things without a pattern or something to copy.
“People had to come up with things from scratch,” he said as he points to a corn sheller, potato plow, primitive washing machine or a metal spoon with a little propeller for whipping things. From these early inventions, others evolved because there was “something to go by” to make something better than before. He said the early machines are a “tribute to man’s ingenuity” and he particularly enjoys learning about each object’s purpose.
“Today’s things are antiques quickly,” Isett said. “Our hope is to preserve the things that were part of every day living for future generations.”
Isett, a spry and active 83, said he “came up through the Depression” so he knows how hard people had to work for what they possessed and how important many of the objects in his museum were to them. Using the familiar phrase, “the good old days,” Isett recalled working at Fouse’s Dairy before he went to school in the morning and then coming home to work at Beaver’s Grocery store until 9 o’clock at night.
“I grew up around hard work,” he said. Many of the things he knew as a youngster he has either obtained or at least a copy of it, such as the family’s first crystal radio.
“We didn’t throw anything out; I guess you could call us pack rats,” Isett said.
He and his late wife, Beulah (Louder) Isett, collected things while they were business owners. They displayed a lot of it at the Huntingdon TV Cable Co. office along East Penn Street until the business was sold to Adelphia in 1999. In 1990, the Isetts bought the former Ernest Steel farm on Stone Creek Ridge, about three miles from Huntingdon, and stored a lot of their collections there as well as at their home in Huntingdon.
Daughters Eileen (Isett) Moore and Judy Isett are also collectors. Their dad points to a wedding dress, glassware or china and declares, “That’s the girls’ thing; I don’t know much about that!” He has an extensive gun collection and especially enjoys objects with a hometown connection — like the Fouse’s Dairy display from his childhood home of Marklesburg. It is set up in the former barn, the older of the two museum buildings.
After the farm was purchased by the Isetts, the old barn was washed down and disinfected with a pressure washer. The metal cattle stanchions remain along the walls, but the floor is new. The boards on the second floor where hay was stored were cleaned and treated to retain their original beauty.
Then, the barn became display area No. 1. Collections are nicely grouped — tools, glassware, kitchen, laundry, schoolroom, toys, firearms. It takes a good hour to walk around and look at both floors.
“Some people have been here five times,” Isett said.
The larger building was started three years ago. It is a single story with shelves around the perimeter of the room for extra display space. There is a clown corner that is the collection of David Louder, former Shrine clown and Beulah’s brother. There is a model train display, and the gleaming original bell from the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad is a sight to see.
There are dolls, games, clocks, typewriters, telephones (a wooden wall phone from the Stone Valley Telephone, 1944 when the Isetts opened their grocery store and gas station at the intersection of Warm and Cold Springs roads), light bulbs (big and small), TV sets and phonographs (record players, stereos and more).
And, from the former TV cable company business, all of the outdated, early cable industry equipment is on display. One piece — a revolving message wheel — was an original, invented by Isett and staff.
The museum is operated as a nonprofit foundation with private funding and public donations. It is open to the public without admission cost, but donations are accepted. Donations of items in someone’s memory for others to see are gladly accepted, also. An antique shop is being prepared to sell the “overflow” of the collection. Isett said they sometimes buy whole estates, take out what they want, give away some pieces and sell the rest to cover expenses.
The 182-acre farm (mowing about 60 acres), gardens and museum are maintained by a staff of five full-time employees and two part-time, as well as Judy and Mel Isett. New pieces are researched, cataloged into the computer, cleaned, repaired if necessary and displayed.
“I’m here every day, from early morning until night,” Isett said.
He loves keeping busy, he said. “I have had an amazing lifetime.”
Starting Tuesday, July 5, there will be tours twice a day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The museum is open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 643-9600 for special arrangements, group tours or parties.
