Members of The Tarentum Book Club — the oldest club in the Alle-Kiski Valley — aren’t surprised people are clamoring to join.
“Everyone in the club values it,” member Mary Jane Jacques said. “Whatever committee you’re on, we all do our very best.”
As the club marks its 125th anniversary, members are reflecting on tradition while crediting the right amount of evolution to keep moving forward.
Jacques, an attorney who now lives in O’Hara, has been a member for 60 years.
“The club was founded at a time when women didn’t work outside the home,” she said. “We used to take roll call using only our husbands’ names — I would be called as Mrs. Charles Jacques.
“We have since become more progressive.”
Current reading titles support that.
Members last month read “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” by former TV actress Jennette McCurdy. It touches on topics that include abuse and manipulation.
Other recent titles include Amanda Skenandore’s “The Second Life of Mirielle West,” based on the true story of America’s only leper colony.
Mary Lou Beck of Harrison said she gives everything a try — “even if it isn’t my thing.”
“It’s not just the stories that we talk about, and I like talking with everyone,” she said.
Beck especially enjoys the camaraderie of a diverse group.
“There’s a good mix of people, and we all get along,” Beck said. “I look forward to going every month. We stay together because of a common interest.”
The Tarentum Book Club was founded in 1901 with a mission of learning, connecting and outreach. Membership was, and remains, by invitation only.
The club donates to the Community Library of Allegheny Valley in Harrison and, more than 100 years ago, paid to install the statue of Hebe, the Goddess of Youth, at the foot of what is now the Tarentum Bridge in 1912 before the span over the Allegheny River was constructed.
The statue was struck by a horse and wagon in the 1920s and then destroyed by a truck in 2014. The book club partnered with the History and Landmarks Foundation to replace it.
“Hebe has become a landmark in Tarentum,” club President Cindy Homburg said. “We all love Hebe and are so glad the Tarentum Book Club donated her over 100 years ago.”
The club plans to host a public birthday party for Hebe on June 26 in Riverview Memorial Park.
The book club’s founding coincided with the borough’s first library. Prior to 1901, there was a reading room in the YMCA but it was for men only.
Early club meetings were held at the Dunn Hotel, home of founding member Mary Alice Neel Dunn. It sat at the corner of Ross and East Sixth Avenue, where the Marathon gas station is today.
Meetings now rotate among members’ homes where committee members provide themed décor and refreshments.
Homburg is a relatively new member, having joined about five years ago, but has already stepped into a leadership role.
“The club has stood the test of time,” she said. “It was one of the first organizations in the borough, and there have been a bunch. We don’t have so many of them anymore. The Moose, VFW, Kiwanis and Rotary, they’re all gone.”
According to Homburg’s research, the book club is the second oldest in the state.
“It’s a community asset,” she said.
Jacques said it’s the people that have piqued her interest, more than the books, over the past six decades.
“I enjoy 99% of the books, but the people are so interesting,” she said. “You read things you wouldn’t otherwise, and it spurs conversation.”