Bowlby Library hosts Denny House History presentation; ‘The Denny House: Waynesburg’s Archived Jewel’

On Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Bowlby Library hosted Pamela and Kent Marisa, the owners of the Denny House, for a presentation about the House.

The Bowlby Library frequently hosts community events such as bingo, movie nights and other clubs for community members to participate in. However, this event was a way to provide a history of the town to community members in an effort to expand participants’ knowledge.

Andrew Novak, an employee of the public library, said, “We always pride the library on being a place to expand your knowledge and your literacy about everything.”

Pamela Marisa focused on explaining three main parts in this presentation; the history of the Denny house, the renovations that were made to the House and the events that have been held there so far. 

Pamela Marisa gave a brief description of the Denny family, their three daughters and their history. She also highlighted how her and Kent Marisa fell in love with the Denny House and the renovations they made themselves in the beginning. She briefly named the events that they hosted and touched on how she recruited the Shaner family as their innkeepers for the house.

Following that portion of Pamela Marisa’s Presentation, she mentioned that this decision to speak was motivated by her book that she has published on the Denny House. Novak mentioned that the presentation was being held now because the Denny house is used as a venue for many occasions and to highlight the renovations that are currently being made. 

As for future events, “We’re really pushing to have more events like this in the future. We want this to be a place where people can come and learn more things and empower themselves,” Novak said.

Members of the community can keep up to date with events and news on the library’s website or social media. If they cannot attend in person, the library also streamed this and similar presentations on its YouTube channel.