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Folks young and old enjoy Victorian tour, toy train displays

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Visitors to the Taber Museum admire the model train layout of Max Ameigh, at the Will Huffman Toy Train Expo on Saturday. Williamsport’s Victorian Christmas events continued Saturday with tours of homes, churches and museums. The Will Huffman Toy Train Expo was featured at Park Place as well as the Thomas T. Taber and Peter Herdic Transportation museums.

It was a beautiful fall day as groups of people made their way throughout the city to not only visit homes, churches and historical sites as part of the 21st annual Victorian Christmas, but also to get a peek at the history of the area during one of its most prosperous eras.

At some of the stops on the tour, people of all ages waited in long lines to be able to take a step back in time to see the remnants of a grander era.

Although there were a few children in the groups walking along Fourth Street, where many of the sites were located with their wooden toy soldier designations, the Will Huffman Toy Train Expo at Park Place, 800 West Fourth St., was teeming with youngsters.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were on hand at the train expo for those children who wanted to visit with the jolly old toymaker, while many children were watching, wide-eyed, as the trains circled on platforms intricately decorated with miniature scenery.

One nine-year-old, Eliana Bonner, had worked with her grandfather, Kenneth DiRocco, setting up a Thomas the Tank Engine display.

Eliana said that every year she and her brother Julien, 6, come to the train show to help their grandfather set up his displays.

“He gave me one, but it doesn’t look like this,” she shared, adding that the one at her home is on display during the Christmas holiday.

DiRocco said that he had been sharing his train displays at the train expo for about 10 years, but his interest in the hobby began when he was a little boy.

“I’ve had trains since I was a little kid. I bought these trains for my kids and then they grew up and then I got them for my grand kids,” he said. “I got the next generation going,” he added.

“It’s a good family thing,” he said referring to the expo. “A lot of little kids come in here, parents and grandparents. It’s really a nice family thing.”

DiRocco noted that over the two days that the train expo is open, typically about 2,000 people will visit the displays.

One site new to the Victorian Christmas tour this year was the Saving Grace Shelter located on the corner of Grace and Campbell streets.

Housed in the former Grace United Methodist Church, the building was originally dedicated in 1880 as Price’s Chapel, according to historical accounts. Built on land donated by Peter and Encie Herdic, the brick Gothic-style church, is now a homeless shelter operated by the American Rescue Workers. Dr. John Piper, a local historian and former Lycoming College dean, served as tour guide at the shelter.

For Christine and Dale Parke, it was their first visit to Saving Grace, although not their first Victorian tour.

“We’ve done it for years,” Christine Parke said. “I love history.” She added that she thought the shelter was amazing.

“I love the old homes where the original moldings and things like that are still in place,” Dale Parke said, mentioning particularly the Rowley House Museum at the corner of Walnut and Fourth streets, also a site on the tour.

“The thing there was that it was fortunate it was the home for the nuns for so long, for they never did a lot of upgrades. No one got in there to do any modernization,” he added.

At Rowley House, Sue Lyon, the docent or tour guide, shared the history of the building with a group which had just arrived at the site. Standing in one of the front parlors at the house, Lyon highlighted the chandelier and fireplace in the space.

Sally Pyles, who with a friend was part of the group, commented on the architecture.

“I’m amazed. I’ve never seen anything like I’ve seen today. It’s just beautiful. And to think that it’s lasted this long without someone destroying it. Especially the stained glass windows in the churches,” Pyles said.

Pyles noted that she had just visited Saint Joseph the Worker Church which is located across from the Rowley House.

“That (the church) is the most amazing thing we have ever seen. It looks like a castle,” she added.

The Will Huffman Toy Train Expo continues today from noon until 4 p.m. at Park Place.

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