Posted: April 21, 2021 2:59 pm
We are excited to announce spring walking tours exploring the history of the 1889 flood! After a year of cancellations and a few virtual events, it’s nice to see in-person events start to come back to our calendar.
There will be two versions of the tours – one covering the downtown, or “uptown,” area, and one covering “lower town,” which is the area from Walnut Street to the Stone Bridge.
JAHA volunteer Nick Wuckovich will conduct the tours, discussing Flood-surviving building and historical areas, sharing photographs, and telling stories. Wuckovich retired as an Assistant Chief of the Johnstown Fire Department. He also served as the Cambria County Executive Director of Emergency Management and 9-1-1.
Over the last few years, Wuckovich has taken a deep dive into the first-person accounts of the Flood. One of the most important aspects of his work has been compiling photographs of victims and survivors, and pairing them with views of corresponding homes or businesses. Coupled with a guided view of the actual 1889-surviving buildings in downtown Johnstown, these photographs provide museum patrons with an in-depth understanding of the flood as experienced by ordinary people.
The “lower town” tours focus on the area from Walnut Street to the Stone Bridge, and will give information about prominent buildings in that area of town, as well as citizens who were there when the disaster struck.
Walking tours will begin at the Johnstown Flood Museum and are $6, or $4 for JAHA members or with museum admission.
The complete schedule for spring walking tours is as follows: