SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:STAN “THE MAN” MUSIAL NIGHTTIME RECEPTION: Possibly either Friday or Saturday evening - Donora’s Croatian Club at 329 Castner Avenue. Mingle with other Musial fans and share stories. Food and beverages will be available for purchase.
HISTORICAL PRESENTATION - Stan "The Man" Musial: Saturday at 10:00 a.m. – Donora Borough Building Banquet Hall, 603 Meldon Avenue (Sixth Street entrance) - There was a time in America when it seemed as though even the most casual baseball fan knew that Stan Musial was from Donora, Pennsylvania. That's a testament to the personality and character of Stan Musial, who made it his business to intentionally tell people that his hometown was Donora. A few days after the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in the 1942 World Series, the 21-year-old Musial was back in Donora, clerking at Labash's Store on McKean Avenue. Even though Stan lived most of his life in St. Louis, he never forgot his roots in Donora. Stan loved Donora and he remained connected to it throughout his life. This historical presentation is not so much a statistical review of Stan's career, but rather the arc of his life. The presentation itself will contain photos, game footage and stories. Allow 1 hour.
Q&A and STORYTELLING: Saturday at 11:00 a.m. – Donora Borough Building Banquet Hall, 603 Meldon Avenue (Sixth Street entrance) - After the Historical Presentation, through audience participation, all will have the chance to share their Stan Musial memories, stories or memorabilia. Allow 1 hour.
PHMC MUSIAL ROAD MARKER PLAQUE DEDICATION: Saturday at 12:00 p.m. - 600 Meldon Avenue (Meldon Avenue and Sixth Street) - The “Stan ‘The Man’ Musial” PHMC Plaque will be unveiled and dedicated with comments by the PHMC, Donora native Wayne Stewart, the Donora Historical Society and the Musial Family.
MUSIAL / DONORA BOOK AUTHORS: Saturday at 12:30 p.m. – Donora Borough Building Banquet Hall, 603 Meldon Avenue (Sixth Street entrance) - Various book authors that have written about Stan Musial, the Musial family or the history of Donora will be on hand to answer questions and sign and sell their books that include Donora native Wayne Stewart who wrote "STAN THE MAN - The Life and Times of Stan Musial" and Kathleen Shoop who wrote "The Strongman and the Mermaid" and "The Magician."Other books and authors may be on hand.
RECEPTION: Saturday at 12:30 p.m. – Donora Borough Building Banquet Hall, 603 Meldon Avenue (Sixth Street entrance) - After the PHMC Plaque is unveiled, we’ll return to the Donora Borough Building Banquet Hall for a Musial plaque dedication reception to mingle with other Musial fans, talk to the book authors and share refreshments and possibly food.
FOOD: Donora Fire Department, 605 Meldon Avenue - additional food prepared by the Donora Fire Department will be on hand outdoors with their food truck and grill.
SMOG MUSEUM OPEN HOUSE: Saturday at 1:00 p.m. - 595 McKean Avenue - Visit the Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum to see our Stan “The Man” Musial memorabilia and other Donora artifact collections.
STAN MUSIAL DRIVING TOURS: If time permits, we may host private Stan Musial Site Tours around Donora for a fee on Friday and/or Sunday of that weekend.
RSVP: If you’re interested in attending any of the above events, please send us your name, number in your party, email address and phone number to be added to a list so that we can start to get a head count. The indoor events may have an attendance limit.

STAN “THE MAN” MUSIALPHMC Plaque Fundraising Drive
PHMC IN DONORA: Donora currently has two blue roadside plaques with raised yellow lettering commemorating the “1948 Smog” and “Cement City.” The "1948 Smog" plaque stands in front of the Donora Public Library on Meldon Avenue and the "Cement City" plaque stands to the left of Chestnut Street and the Donora Veterans Memorial off Route 837 close to the Stan “The Man” Musial Bridge. These plaques were cast and erected years ago by the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC) to recognize two things that give Donora incredible historic depth, but as we all know, Donora’s historic depth is deeper than just these two subjects. With your help, Donora is now about to get a third plaque.
STAN MUSIAL: The exploits of Donora and St. Louis baseball great Stan “The Man” Musial need no explanation as they speak for themselves. To recognize an individual for a PHMC roadside plaque, that person would not just need exemplary qualifications, but be deceased for at least five years. When Stan Musial died in 2013, the requirement at that time was that a person need be deceased for ten years. In 2020, the Donora Historical Society learned that requirement had changed to just five years, so we decided to submit an application to nominate him for a PHMC plaque. This application process is extremely comprehensive and resulted in us submitting 20 copies of a 20-page application documenting why Stan Musial is worthy of his own PHMC roadside plaque among the 2,300 others that already exist throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
OUTCOME: In March of 2021, we learned that out of the 39 applications submitted to the PHMC in 2020, our application was accepted among a group of 22 others that included people like Pittsburgh artist Andy Warhol. While the PHMC reviews and approves the applications and casts the plaque, they do not pay for it.
FUNDRAISING: Now that our application was accepted, our next order of business will be raising the necessary money needed to have the plaque cast, in this case $2,150.
Our goal is to not only raise the necessary money for the plaque, but also host a nice reception for those attending the plaque dedication. Any monies in excess of the $2,150 for the plaque, will go towards some sort of refreshments and food for the reception. Any additional monies above that will be used to print a souvenir postcard to commemorate the day and to give donations to Donora organizations that Stan would have supported like he did in the past. While ambitious, we hope we can honor Stan and give those in attendance a nice experience in Donora.
The Donora Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization that is eligible for tax deductible donations to the fullest extent allowed by law.
If you’re interested in helping with a donation toward the plaque and dedication festivities, please send a check with a note saying the donation is for the “Stan Musial plaque.”
Please make checks payable to: Donora Historical Society
Please mail to: Donora Historical SocietyP.O. Box 522Donora, PA 15033

QUESTIONS: Please contact the Donora Historical Society with any questions, ideas or interest in volunteering for this particular event, by contacting us by phone 724-823-0364 and leave a message or email DonoraHistoricalSociety@gmail.com.