West Overton board picks duo from staff to share leadership duties at historic village

Two familiar faces at East Huntingdon’s West Overton Village have taken on a higher profile as plans are underway to expand on offerings at the historic site.

Aaron Hollis, who had served as director of education, is now co-executive director of the museum complex.

It’s a title and responsibility he shares with Patrick A. Bochy, formerly the director of visitor experience at West Overton.

“It’s an exciting time,” said Hollis, who has been involved at the site in various capacities since he volunteered as a tour guide in 2013. “We’re sharing the workload.”

Surrounding a museum and event center in the village’s former whiskey distillery are a number of restored or repurposed buildings — including the homestead of the founding Overholt family and a new distillery where rye whiskey is being made at the location for the first time since the arrival of Prohibition.

After much preparation, Hollis said, “We’ve opened up our educational distillery, really, in just the last year.”

“People are knocking on our doors to get a taste,” Bochy said. The distillery was open for whiskey tastings and sales July 23 and 24.

The museum just debuted an exhibit about the lives and work of people who labored in a variety of industries — from farming to coal mining to weaving — that once were active at West Overton, beginning in the 19th century.

Looking ahead, Hollis said, there are plans to reopen the building’s second floor to visitors, with additional space for exhibits.

“We’re still figuring out the details,” he said.

MORE ABOUT WEST OVERTON MUSEUM AND DISTILLERY:

• West Overton Museums presents exhibit on Industrial Revolution
• Educator joins West Overton staff as whiskey distiller
• Diners sample reborn rye whiskey at West Overton Village

When Jessica Kadie-Barclay resigned as CEO of West Overton, where she’d served for about 11 years, the historical organization’s board opted to move to a dual leadership model that has proven effective at other museums, according to board chairman Richard Rega.

Hollis and Bochy “each bring their own strengths that we can rely on,” Rega said.

He cited Hollis’ experience with the museum’s archives and preparing exhibits. Bochy, since joining West Overton about a year ago, has focused on booking special events, such as wedding receptions and anniversaries, on the village grounds or in its buildings.

The co-directors can back each other up when one is away from work, Rega said, adding, “They can play off each other. It’s always good to have someone who you can ask for an opinion, good or bad.”

Hollis said Kadie-Barclay will continue to be involved with West Overton, as remote transition ambassador.

“It’s good being able to still call on her and pick her brain,” he said.

Rather than launching a search for a new CEO, the West Overton board decided “to leverage the people who have been here,” Hollis said. “We’re in the middle of some really exciting things, so it was important that we didn’t have any down time.”

Rega said other ambitious ideas being floated for West Overton include installing a lift, for improved access to upper floors, and developing a welcome center for visitors.

Along with a new leadership team, West Overton has a new logo, developed with the assistance of consultants Design Branch and Pittsburgh-based Blue Archer. The logo appears on the West Overton Facebook page and will be featured in a planned redesign of its website.

Bochy explained the logo incorporates the initials “W” and “O,” centered in a decorative border with elements representing stalks of rye and the patterned coverlets that were woven in the village in the 1800s.

Before joining the West Overton staff, Bochy served as assistant to the executive director and school programs manager at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

He said the East Huntingdon village, with its agrarian background, “hits all my interests. I grew up on a small farm in Mercer County.”

Bochy and Hollis each have earned master’s degrees in a history-related discipline. Bochy said he enjoys chatting with museum visitors and fellow staff about historical topics.

He noted he’s helped at the museum in a variety of ways, from conducting tours to demonstrating period recipes for bread and boiled pudding.

“That’s the charm of working for a small museum,” he said.

Hollis, a Scottdale native, first encountered West Overton during an eighth-grade field trip.

“There are a lot of area historic sites, but most of them are re-creations,” Hollis said. “Everything you see at West Overton is original.

“I’ve been studying the Overholt family so long, I think of them almost as my own. I want to make history exciting, and I want to make sure it’s told in a responsible way.”

Visit westovertonvillage.org for more information.