Threatened: Pre-Revolutionary War House
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | June 17, 2010
The Justice William Smith House was the meeting place of the Black Boys, the first armed resistance against British Rule in 1765, which led to the British to leave western Pennsylvania.
Credit: Karen Ramsburg
A house in Mercersburg, Pa., has become a place of controversy for the second time in its 200-year history.
Once the meeting place of the "Black Boys," a citizen army that pre-dated the Revolutionary War, the house is slated to be torn down for a fire station's parking lot or new facility.
The nearby Mercersburg, Montgomery, Peters & Warren Volunteer Fire Company bought the house in 2009 from a longtime owner.
"We bought the property and the structure just for the land, with no intention of doing anything with that house except removing it," Chief Dusty Stoner says. "No one [cared] about this house until we bought it."
When locals found out about the potential demolition of the house, a group, Save the Justice William Smith House, Inc., formed to save it.
"If we relocate [the fire company], they get what they want, and ultimately we save the house. That would be the best-case scenario," says Karen Ramsburg, president of the Committee to Save the Justice William Smith House.
Hoping to qualify for grants, the group wanted to list the house on the National Register of Historic Places, but the State of Pennsylvania has deemed it ineligible because it has been altered.
"The building in its current condition is probably not going to be eligible," says Erin Hammerstedt, shared Field Representative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Pennsylvania. "No one is questioning the [house's] significance; it's the integrity that we're having a hard time with,"
Now Save the William Smith House wants to list the property on the National Register as an archaeological resource—but without the owner's permission, that could be tricky, Hammerstedt says.
Although the fire company has allowed archaeologists on the property in the past, last week its board of directors voted to halt further archaeological study of the site "for now," according to Stoner.
"We've been misinformed a few times. They said they would dig three holes in one day; they ended up being here a week," Stoner says.
During a dig earlier this year, archaeologists discovered glass beads, pipe stems, Chinese porcelain, pottery dating as far back as 1750, and other artifacts. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission assigned an archaeological site number to the property on May 26, but that designation offers no protection.
"The only oversight from our office would come if there were some federal or state assistance," says Keith Heinrich, historic preservation specialist at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "If it were a private owner, they could build on it."
Stoner says the fire company may apply for a demolition permit in the coming months. "We are a business, and I have to do what's best for this business."
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Comments
Submitted by John at: June 22, 2010
I hope this fire department is too intelligent to let something happen to it like an unexplained arson fire. They're going to need to guard it with their lives to make up for the anger the chief has roused with a lot of the public.
Submitted by David at: June 22, 2010
“Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” Proverbs 22:28
Submitted by Joy at: June 22, 2010
In Europe old structures are cherished and respected, and we Americans pay big bucks to go see them while here in America we let disrespectful people tear down our heritage all around us and hold positions of authority when they don't even have enough sense to be ashamed of themselves for the things they say and do.
Submitted by Good Business at: June 22, 2010
Pennsylvania is full of historic structures, but one as old as this should definitely be protected and preserved, preferrably on its original site. Tourism pours millions into the state's economy each year. To demolish a building so significant diminishes all the people of Pennsylvania. Our public entities such as the fire department should all be headed by people more aware of their duty to protect unusually important buildings than the current chief demonstrates with his words. We have seen how state highway departments carelessly destroyed important structures in what they deemed as progress in the past only for later generations to realize that the temporal nature of progress which in no way compensated the future economic prosperity they had destroyed. The fire station should be moved, not the judge's house. That's just good business.
Submitted by A business? at: June 22, 2010
The fire department is a business? I thought that being funded by the tax payers, the fire department had to be responsive to the public good..