I Love This Place: Masontown Matters

As Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station without its towering emissions stacks comes into view, I blink and for an instant my mind pencils them back in. The two massive hyperbolic cooling towers still outline the sky but FirstEnergy has plans to begin demolition in August then ready the 236-acre site for future “energy intensive and water intensive industries.” 

Change is on its way to this little corner of Greene and Fayette counties. Just over the bridge that takes State Rt. 21 up the hill to the bluff is where the historic town that grew around Mason’s Fort sits waiting. Waiting for what? I’m about to find out. 

I take the first right turn past the Masontown Bridge to get a better view of the Monongahela River. There, beside the high reaches of the bridge and through an old stone railroad tunnel is a hidden world of old houses on streets that dead end into the hill, a broad boat launch, old railroad tracks and a great view of clean, sparkling water. The Mighty Mon is back in action and the fish know it. The old dirt road I’m on eventually crosses the railroad track and climbs the hill to Masontown.

Today, I turn around and go back to take the second right that goes past Dolfis Restaurant, legendary for its good eats. There’s history to be admired in the old signage for the Italian Club and the fading letters on buildings of businesses that are long gone, as the road leads to the heart of town. 

I’m here to meet people I’ve chatted with online and spoken to by phone about the work they’re doing to make Masontown and its historic main street a regional destination point. I’ve joined Masontown Matters on Facebook and talked to group president Warren Hughes and retired mayor and council member Kay Rendina, still a force to be reckoned with at age 92. Kay was the first woman elected to these positions and while mayor in 1994 founded Fort Mason Historical Society. The society disbanded in 2022 but the money from the sale of its building was put to good use, divided between German Masontown Library, Masontown Matters and Helping Hands Thrift Shop. Kay will be out of town when I come to spend the day and attend the group’s monthly meeting on April 13, but she says she will leave some local history books with Warren for me to read. 

In Masontown’s 1998 Bicentennial volume, lovingly assembled by late German-Masontown librarian Gail Cunningham, I will find 22-year-old Kay Prevonich of Nemacolin who married local businessman Lendo J. Rendina in 1952.  Kay fell in love with her new hometown as she raised her four children there. She was appointed to the town’s citizens’ advisory board by the mayor in the late 1960s as space age technology, social justice and educational advancements began to change America and the world. When Lendo died in 1978, Kay ran for office, first as a council member, then mayor, then council member again as the 1998 Bicentennial brought history into sharp focus. Kay was appointed its chairperson and worked tirelessly with her many friends and neighbors to make it an event to be remembered. 

On the phone, Kay is reflective about the empty storefronts on Main Street. “The malls took our businesses away but look at them now. What goes around comes around.”

What comes around these days in Masontown is yet another generation of folks willing to follow Kay’s lead and work together to keep Masontown a viable, family friendly town with businesses offering local services in an Internet-connected world.

Warren tells me that when he retired as county manager of the Fayette County courthouse 11 years ago, his fiscal and grant writing skills were put to good use as he helped organize Masontown Matters to tackle issues like those empty storefronts, limited economic resources and local kids who grow up and leave for greener pastures. Making it easier to do business in Masontown was a good first step.

“It was Kay’s goal to have an incubator project for new businesses,” Warren notes. The building at 102 S. Main St. that owner George Frank rents to the group for a dollar a year is now the Business Development Center. BDC offers space for new businesses to test the waters. Business owners pay their share of building expenses in lieu of rent and hopefully go on to establish themselves locally wherever the market might be. 

Today’s businesses have their logos in the front windows as I circle through town, taking in its old-fashioned nooks and crannies, making note of things still to be done. Main Street is as authentic as the many historic neighborhoods around cities like Washington DC, where specialty shops draw in customers and street fairs fit right in. I park under a shady tree and stroll to the Masontown Senior Center to say hello to director Caroline Morella. This perennially popular place to be an older adult has something going on every day, from corn hole in the parking lot to parties for every occasion, live music, lunch including grab and go meals, balance and flexibility programs, sign language classes, card tournament teams, and more listed on Facebook. “I used to come here with my mother, now I’m the director!” Caroline tells me with a grin as she heads out of her office to bring the official competition rules of 500 Bid to card players in the back room. 

Down the street, German-Masontown Library’s new director Samantha Lambert has already made it back to her hometown to the job of her dreams.

“When I was laid off in New Jersey I called home and found out about this job, like it was waiting for me!”

The library is part of WAGGIN, the inter-library system that uses one card for all 20 libraries in Greene, Washington and Fayette counties. Like other libraries in the state system, it offers up to the minute electronic library access for kids, adults and serious researchers along with Libby, the one tap reading app for borrowing books and audio books. The library has a steady stream of hands-on learning for kids, especially the ones who are becoming kindergarten-ready. What’s new for the summer for these youngest learners?  

“We’re working on a Story Walk – pages of a children’s book deconstructed – along Browns Run Trail. The Township Supervisors bought 20 posts and will put them up for us.”

When school lets out, kids come popping through the door to grab books and use the computers; some head for the back room to do Fayette County 4-H Robotics Club work with Warren’s wife Mary Ann, another dynamic player on the Masontown Matters team. When we gather in the front room of the BDC at 6 p.m. I’m the impromptu guest speaker. Masontown gets GreeneScene Magazine in the mail so they know the importance of advertising locally, of telling a good story to keep history and self esteem alive and that working together to solve problems one step at a time adds up to a better place to live a good life. Now it’s their turn to show me Masontown – a work in progress. 

We go outside for a group photo under the Fort Mason signage as the setting sun streams in, then wander to inspect the planters that will need volunteers to water them all season and check out buildings ready for new tenants or destined to be removed to make way for green space. We’re tourists on a visionary quest, caught between what’s happening now and imagine this. The after school dancers at Kalivoda Dance Center strike a proud pose. The Masontown Main Street Renovation Project sign on the corner by the Borough building needs its thermometer updated closer to the two million dollar mark. Borough president Bruce Cochran tells me later that work on Main Street has already begun. 

Those big flowering callery pear trees on Main Street that were planted in the 1990s for the Bicentennial did not live up to their touted reputation as the perfect accent tree – their roots have invaded the sewer system and made the sidewalks buckle. They’ll be gone by next spring when new sidewalks are installed, replaced by old style lampposts, the newest addition to the official Mainstreet America look. The county park will also be updated, with pavilions, an amphitheater, walking trails, tennis courts and more.

But don’t wait till next spring to visit Masontown! Come see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. Play bingo on Friday night at the fire hall and make your own fun donation to the fund that keeps Masontown a safe place to live. Better yet – join Masontown Matters and see if there’s a project you want to take on. Just a thought – bring a friend.