The fourth in our 2021 Summer Lecture Series will be at the HCM on Sunday Sept. 26th at 2:00. Paul Zuros, Executive Director of Historic Fort Steuben and the Steubenville and Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau will present a program entitled “History of Fort Steuben – New Discoveries of Old History.” Since 1986 Historic Fort Steuben has been a center in the community for history and culture. With the addition in 2009 of the final building as part of the complex, the story of the Fort seemed to have been told. Today with a fresh perspective, Paul will discuss and reexamine the history of Historic Fort Steuben, the local context surrounding it, its abandonment, commemoration, reconstruction, and its significance in local and National History. Join us for an afternoon of reexamining the past.
Paul (PJ) Zuros was born and raised in Weirton, West Virginia. Raised by parents who were interested in history, Paul developed his love for the past early on. His interest in local history started when he volunteered with the Hancock County Museum in New Cumberland and then later with the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center.
He graduated from Weir High School and went on to WVU to pursue a degree in History and minor in Public Relations and Italian Studies. While at WVU, he worked for the National Park Service in Richmond, Virginia at the city’s Civil War sites. Paul graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a master’s degree in Public History with a concentration in Decorative Arts and Museum Studies. Over the years Paul has worked with the John Heinz History Center in their library and archive, the Fort Pitt Museum, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Before returning to the Ohio Valley to take the reins as Executive Director of Historic Fort Steuben, Paul was operations manager with the West Virginia Humanities Council and served as the Executive Director of the Historic Craik Patton House, a historic house museum in Charleston WV. For nearly two years, he has been writing a bi-weekly local history column in the Weirton Daily Times and the Steubenville Herald-Star entitled, “History in the Hills.” Paul currently resides in Weirton with his wife Abigail, and four beautiful children.