Taylor Rollins photo: Public history majors Allie Stacy and KayAnn Warner hold a 1922 map of the Frontier Park area in the city of Erie for the “Erie Places, Erie Stories” project.

Mercyhurst students will be taking photographs of buildings all around Erie and getting testimonials about the chosen buildings as part of the project “Erie Places, Erie Stories.”

For the term project, Professor Chris Magoc, Ph.D., has assigned his students a section of Erie, from which they will then choose different buildings to photograph. This choice can be based on historical relevance, interesting architecture, or anything else that makes the building stand out. After the photographs are taken, the students find a local person who knows about the building and can tell about it. These testimonies, along with the photographs, are what the students turn in for their final product.

The students of Introduction to Public History and Museum Studies were split into nine teams of three before being given a section of the city to work within. Magoc organized for an introduction to photography workshop to teach the students how to take intriguing photographs of the buildings. Most of the photographs taken were on camera phones and quite proficient.

When asked about the general reaction of the students, Magoc said, “Most of the reactions I get are positive. The students are getting to do an interactive experience for their project rather than book-work. Except for those with difficulties getting testimonies, they all seem to be enjoying it.”

The photographs Stairways Center City Arts, 138 E. 26th St., in December. They will be for sale and with the proceeds going towards locally run nonprofit causes. “This allows this project to raise awareness of the city’s historical relevance and simultaneously provide funding for local causes.”

“The new length of the semesters allowed the students to have enough time to complete it” said Magoc. “I never could’ve assigned anything like this if Mercyhurst was still on trimesters.”