Published: May 08, 2008 01:20 am            

Heritage Discovery Center shop makes a tasty debut

With children swiveling on stools and licking ice-cream cones, Johnstown Area Heritage Association leaders showed off the latest addition to their Cambria City headquarters Wednesday.

The “Galliker’s Cafe” is part of a large-scale, $5 million upgrade to the Heritage Discovery Center along Broad Street.

While a handful of kids got a taste of the cafe’s offerings Wednesday morning, the facility will not be operational until the center’s new Children’s Museum opens this summer.

“We’re hoping this will be a really neat place for folks and their kids to come and spend time,” said Ron Carnevali, the heritage association’s board chairman.

The cafe, which got its name from the sponsorship of Richland Township-based Galliker Dairy Co., is situated in previously vacant space on the Discovery Center’s first floor.

A former loading dock serves as a patio. Inside, the cafe’s counter and stools date to the 1950s, when they were used at the former Linderman’s Elite Confectionery in downtown Johnstown.

It is a combination of past and present that typifies the heritage association’s current expansion project.

Inside the massive building that once hosted Germania Brewing Co., the association is putting the finishing touches on the third-floor Children’s Museum.

The 7,000-square-foot museum will feature interactive exhibits focusing on local history, ecology and other themes.

“We’re doing exhibit fabrication right now,” said Richard Burkert, the heritage association’s executive director.

This summer also is expected to mark the opening of a three-story “Mystery of Steel” exhibit.

It will feature a steelmaking movie shown on a 30-foot-wide screen, with some footage shot in Johnstown before Bethlehem Steel Corp. left the city.

Other changes at the center include the addition of rooftop terraces, classrooms and a fourth-floor “social club.”

“We’ll be using that for special events,” Burkert said. “It’s a great venue for gatherings.”

Aside from improvements at the Discovery Center, heritage association administrators are planning renovations at the Johnstown Flood Museum along Washington Street.

That project, to begin next year, will include enhanced exhibits and technology as well as replacement of heating and ventilation systems.

At nearby Festival Park, which hosts the annual FolkFest, upgrades are expected to include landscaping, a pavilion, rest rooms and other facilities.

It all adds up to a price tag estimated at more than $8 million.

The association’s capital campaign has brought in more than $6.7 million so far. That’s not including a $500,000 grant that will be released only if the association meets its fundraising goal.

        

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