Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art
Scranton
The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton has been welcoming visitors for over a century. The museum opened in 1908 and will mark its 110th anniversary May 30.
Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart, a Scranton physician and Civil War veteran, provided money and items from his personal collection, including much of the animal taxidermy in the bird room, said Dawn McGurl, museum marketing coordinator.
But the Everhart’s “eclectic” collection also includes fine art and history pieces from around the globe such as African, American, Asian, European and local artwork, as well as local fossils, a reproduction Stegosaurus named Spike and a rock room with a case of glowing, phosphorescent minerals.
“We have a little bit of everything,” she said.
The museum is available for daytime and after-hours events and is closed to the public on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so “those are great days for meetings,” McGurl said.
The Everhart is tackling renovations that will refresh existing galleries and add new spaces. In the main gallery, which can be used for events, the carpet is being ripped up and the original Italian terrazzo tile floors are being restored.
The folk art gallery will be converted into a 950-square-foot multipurpose room, and a new adjacent classroom will have about 1,700 square feet for events, although that could change with the addition of a conference room or offices in the future.
On the lower level, the basement gallery is a large, open area that can accommodate 80 to 100 people for receptions or presentations.
Staffers are also re-examining the Everhart’s permanent collection and will display some pieces “that have never been hung, so you’ll see new and different things,” McGurl said.
Stirling Guest Hotel
Reading
The striking Stirling Guest Hotel in Reading was built between 1890 and 1892 for James Hervey Sternbergh, a local iron and steel magnate. The mother of the family was Scottish, and the view from the house, sweeping landscapes of the surrounding mountains and the Schuylkill River, reminded her of the views from Stirling Castle in Scotland.
The Chateauesque-style, pink-granite mansion with its large, Tudor-style carriage house remained in the family as a private residence for more than 100 years.
“The building is a living piece of history,” said TJ Sophy, who co-owns the guest hotel with Peter Sutliff. “The house was in the same family for 106 years, so that table in the library and the bedroom furniture is all still here, a lot of the family portraits are still here.”
Today, the mansion has 15 guest suites and five large rooms on the first floor that can be used for meetings, meals and receptions. The entire first floor can accommodate seated meals for 120 guests or cocktail parties for 140 people. Every event that books the mansion is a private party, Sophy said, so planners have flexibility in how to set up the space.
The main room is about 700 square feet, and the library can seat 16 people around the family’s large 1850s table, making it ideal for board meetings, he said. The dining room and drawing room can be used as breakout space, and guests will find a piano in the music room, which makes it an excellent lounge area.
A large covered porch works well for cocktail hours or coffee stations, and Sophy has even used it for breakfast meetings.
The mansion also delivers a parklike setting because it sits on five acres in a residential historic district across the street from a 140-acre cemetery, so “our neighbors don’t make much noise,” Sophy said.
