It was an ordinary day. Driving around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania taking a few photos of buildings that will soon be gone! For those who live in the city of Lancaster, they already know that we have lost our historical Gunzenhauser Bakery and the historic Reist House, a farmhouse that dated back to 1795. There are many more historic buildings throughout the county, some abandoned, some divided, some threatened by development that will be lost in the near future if we don't do something to stop their destruction. A few of the more historical buildings were featured in my local newspaper this past September. As I read about them I felt I should begin to document these places in case someday soon they might be totally destroyed. The first two that I decided to take photos of and write about are the Roslyn Mansion on North President Ave. and the Hoober-Eby Barn which sits along Route 501N along the Lititz Pike near the Manheim Township High School in Neffsville. Both are in need of some work, but destroying them, as a few other beautiful buildings were in the past, is a crime to society. My guess that the main reason the old buildings aren't preserved is the cost. I'm sure that the cost to renovate and/or preserve a large old stone home or a huge wooden barn must be tremendous and probably the price to destroy the building and rebuild it is probably less money, but these old buildings are a piece of the history of Lancaster County. They can never be replaced as they once stood! And...I certainly don't have the money to help in their reconstruction. Maybe some day we will be able to find a way to renovate and make new again the old decaying properties that are so historical to Lancaster County. I, for one, certainly don't care to have an ALL-NEW Lancaster County!
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and built in 1896. The main mansion has been renovated. The 4,000-square- foot carriage house had a restoration setback when a wall collapsed in 2020 during construction. The building has since been stabilized, but the work is still incomplete. Here's hoping it will be done soon and not demolished! |
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| The Hoober-Eby Barn at 2797 Lititz Pike has a brick foundation and sits next to an assisted care facility and señor community. If either property expands, the large barn could be threatened. Is the cost too much to restore it? |
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| The entrance to the barn with the date listed on the stone. |
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| One final house is located at 907 Lititz Pike in Warwick Township. This small home sits very close to the Lititz Pike and underneath the modern siding is an 19th-century structure, possibly older. Road construction could endanger houses like this. How do we go about preserving homes such as this...or do we just tear them down and build anew? How sad!! |
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