Walking through history, with cookies in Butler
Cookie walks are a tradition in central Pennsylvania, and if it’s one thing the Butler County Historical Society is known for, it’s for keeping track of traditions.
The historical society started hosting a cookie walk of its own in 2021, and it will host the sweet-sharing event again Saturday afternoon, Dec. 7. Jennifer Ford, executive director of the historical society, said doors will open at the Senator Walter Lowrie House at 4 p.m., and the event will be over when the 3,000-plus cookies run out.
“There’s 300 dozen cookies in people’s ovens over town,” Ford said. “There's no hard and fast time for the walk, because the first year we were sold out in under an hour. Next year we overcompensated and never did run out.”
Ford said she brought the cookie walk idea with her from her time as director of a historical society in Bedford County. Since the Butler historical society adopted it in 2021, the cookie walk has been the organization’s busiest day of the year, with hundreds of people coming through the Lowrie House to grab cookies and, hopefully, learn about the historical society.
Ford said it is also the group’s biggest fundraiser of the year, because the society sells $10 bakery boxes for visitors to fill with cookies. The cookies help lure people in the house, which is also the society’s base of operations. The house is also decorated for Christmas each year, with modern and some old-school pieces populating the scenes.
“It's outreach. Many people who come to cookie walk say they have never been in the house,” Ford said.
The event takes an “army of volunteers” to pull off. Ford said up to 20 people per year bake cookies — the historical society asks anyone who is remotely connected with the organization to bake — and about the same number of people are present during the walk itself to make sure it runs smoothly.
Some bakers in the past have tried to tie in historic elements to their baking, to different levels of success, according to Ford.
“Starting last year, we tried making historically accurate cookies from cookbooks of families that lived in the house from 1839 to 1856, and that was a challenge,” Ford said.
Volunteers from the historical society as well as schools and other community organizations will help direct people through the house and pass out cookies. Ford said Butler County Community College students will play music throughout the afternoon.
The historical society is also sending some of its cookie stock down the block to the Butler County Symphony Orchestra, which is having its own reception Saturday following its winter concert.
Ford recommended that people get to the cookie walk early so they can secure a box of cookies for themselves, seeing that there is a limited number, even though there are many. She commented that the event has become a “smash hit” and has helped get more people interested in the historical society.
“If people make sure they are in line by 5, they should be fine,” she said. “So many people do ask about the house when going through.”
