Christmas in Clearfield 100 years ago
- by Lou Bernard
- December 24, 2024
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It’s always nice to see a community put effort into making a nice holiday for the local children, and there are many stories from history where this happened. The Pennsylvania Wilds is packed with historic incidents of local communities ensuring a good Christmas, and a century ago was an especially heartwarming moment with a record-setting crowd.
Clearfield, 1924. Christmas, a hundred years ago. Back then, in what would later become part of the I-80 Frontier landscape of the PA Wilds, a heartwarming holiday celebration happened in a local theater.
The Clearfield Progress, local newspaper of the time, reported that the Clearfield Rotary Club had planned a huge festival for the local children. They’d booked the Driggs Theater for the event, with the nearby Liberty Theater remaining on standby in case of overflow.
Image: The Progress building in modern-day Clearfield, where it still serves as the local newspaper
The event was planned to provide a happy Christmas for the local children, which may have been difficult for their families because of the economic recession of the time. It was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Christmas morning. The manager, a local man named Hartman, opened the doors for nearly 1,200 children who attended the event. (The twelve hundred children is pretty impressive; based on my own family gatherings, I personally pretty much top out at three or four kids.)
The members of the Rotary were on hand to act as ushers at the event, and getting the kids into their seats turned out to be no problem at all. The children, presumably in the knowledge that Santa was watching, stayed well-behaved. The newspaper observed, “Not a single incident of unpleasantness occurred during the couple of hours the kiddos were being received and entertained.”
Image: Modern-day Third Street in Clearfield, the street where the Driggs Theatre used to be.
Entertainment consisted of a comedy show put on for the children, which brought considerable laughter. Then Mrs. Gibson, wife of Reverend C.K. Gibson of the Eleventh Street Methodist Church, told the children a story that enthralled them. Afterward, the curtains opened on a huge, magical Christmas tree that had been decorated by local citizens.
But the celebration wasn’t over yet, thanks to Rotary member Samuel T. Warner. Warner came onstage dressed as Santa Claus to make a short speech for the children, who were thrilled.
“The Santa Claus or his street double in the person of Sam Warner, properly accoutered,” said the Clearfield Progress, “appeared on the stage and after greeting the children and congratulating them on the turnout and their good order, informed them a present of a box of candy would be waiting for them at the door and the little folks filed slowly out of the theater, departing for their homes with the Rotary remembrance tucked carefully under their arms.”
Due to the efforts of some citizens and local businesses, the children of Clearfield had an especially good Christmas a hundred years ago. Here’s hoping for an equally good Christmas this year, throughout the Pennsylvania Wilds.
Image: PA Wilds Center communications manager Britt Madera (who lives in Clearfield and is on the Nice List this year) and Santa Claus
