Memories and marble: Courthouse employees share reflections

The Luzerne County Courthouse might be filled with Italian marble, brass fixtures, elaborate woodwork and magnificent murals, but there are some things taken from the edifice – and others that remain there – that are priceless.

Regardless of whether folks have worked there for decades or visited for the first time, feelings of pride and admiration are apparent when describing the 100-year-old structure.

“Most Monday mornings, I’m given the assignment of welcoming the jurors for the week. … One of the things I tell them while they’re waiting for their assignments to a particular courtroom is to take some time to notice the beautiful artwork on the ceilings, in the domes, in different areas through the courthouse and how beautiful they are,” said Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.

Visitor perspectives

Brenda Garber, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier/supervisor from Wilkes-Barre who was serving jury duty this week, said she’s seen every floor of the courthouse during previous jury duties and is impressed by “the ceilings, the artwork, the marble.”

She considers the courthouse in Bangor, Maine, where she was born, “a little dinky one” compared to Luzerne County’s. “It makes me proud to be a citizen of Luzerne County,” said Garber, of Hunlock Creek.

Fellow juror Rob Andrews, of Conyngham, called the courthouse a “pretty impressive place – the dome, all the marble, the way it’s laid out.”

Juror Emil Kasarda, of Hazle Township, said he’s visited all 67 county courthouses in the state after retiring as a geography teacher from the Hazleton Area School District, “and this is the most grand.”

Kasarda recalled being part of a sequestered jury at the courthouse for a 1991 murder trial, but he enjoyed the experience. “I thought it was fantastic to see how justice is carried out in our county,” he said.

Proud moments

Olszewski is proud to be a part of that heritage of administration of justice. Two of his most poignant memories under the dome are from his two terms as district attorney.

One was the case of the Commonwealth v. Keith Snyder – a man who had been a suspect in the arson death of his wife and son in 1982. Snyder was never charged until Olszewski, who took office in 1992, re-opened the case in 1993 and, within a few months, arrested and prosecuted Snyder. Snyder was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

The other was the case of the Commonwealth v. Michael Bardo, who was accused of molesting and murdering his 3-year-old niece, Joelle Donovan, in September 1992. Her body was found in Solomon Creek.

“Bardo’s lawyer offered a plea of first-degree (murder with) life (in prison). I turned it down. That doesn’t happen very often. I tried the case and got a first-degree murder conviction. Two days later, he got the death penalty,” Olszewski said.

“When those verdicts were read by the forepersons of the juries, those were my fondest memories,” the judge said.

Olszewski has more pleasant courthouse memories from childhood – observing his father try cases as a lawyer and then preside over cases on the bench.

Like father, like son?

Peter Paul Olszewski Sr. began working in the courthouse as a lawyer in 1952. He was elected judge and spent 16 years on the county bench before serving 22 more on the state Superior Court.

“My connection to the courthouse has been very close, especially when I was a trial lawyer and judge. I look around at the courthouse frequently and think: this structure could not be replaced today,” Olszewski Sr. said.

One memorable murder case over which the elder Olszewski presided in the county involved a defendant who escaped during a lunch recess. The defendant, whose name Olszewski Sr. did not recall, was not accompanied by sheriff’s deputies into a third-floor restroom and managed to climb out the window, onto a ledge and the roof and threatened to jump, he said.

Olszewski Sr. recalled walking back to the courthouse after lunch and seeing a commotion, with “a large group of King’s College students shouting, ‘Jump, jump.’” He said a newspaper reporter climbed out on the roof and coaxed the defendant to a window by promising him he would write his story.

“They got him to come close to a window, they yanked him in and the trial continued,” he said.

Kennedy and security

One of the most memorable events for Al Pellegrini, administrative assistant to the prothonotary, was John F. Kennedy Jr.’s visit in 1988.

“There was something electric about him being here, his presence. It was an actual goose-bump kind of moment when he was here and he started speaking. And believe me, he didn’t say anything that was all that great or important, but there was something magical about that,” said Pellegrini, of Kingston.

Another occurrence Pellegrini recalled from his 34 years working in that second-floor row office was the day a man in a suit carrying a briefcase walked to the center of the rotunda, put down his briefcase and stood there.

“We all thought he was some sort of terrorist or bomber. That was a very interesting moment. I watched that whole thing unfold. Soon, you had sheriff deputies, but nobody was quite sure how to approach him. … It was just a man who unfortunately lost his way mentally and there was nothing special in the briefcase. But it was during a period of time when (the courthouse) had received bomb threats every couple of months,” Pellegrini said.

Situated on the north side of the rotunda in a marble and glass kiosk, Basil Soroka, of Swoyersville, views the courthouse in black and white – on an array of monitors fed images by security cameras dispersed throughout the building.

A security officer in the courthouse for about 12 years, Soroka thinks the public edifice is “about the nicest in the state.”

“It’s such a beautiful building. The architecture is great,” he said. “And all the nice functions they have here during Christmastime. They have nice Christmas programs here.”

Celebrations

Albina Fonzo, a clerk in the Tax Claim Bureau, shares Soroka’s love for the annual festivities.

“I love working here at Christmas. It’s so beautiful – the tree, the decorations, everything. All the school choirs come in and sing. It’s just beautiful,” she said.

Fonzo, of Jenkins Township, has worked in the courthouse for 10 years but still hasn’t seen every room. “I never took a tour. I work on the first floor, I don’t go upstairs. But what I see here is beautiful,” she said.

Heidi Franco has been working in the Assessor’s Office in the courthouse basement for almost two years. She also loves the Christmas festivities and laments that she hasn’t seen as much of the courthouse as she’d like.

Stop to notice

Laura Beers, Treasurer’s Office manager, has worked there 15 years and loves the building.

“But you take it for granted. When you’re coming in and out the door every day, you don’t look up and see how absolutely stunningly gorgeous it is. And it’s unfortunate. When you do stop and take a breath and look, you realize how gorgeous it is,” Beers said.

“Just being in the rotunda and looking up and seeing that stained glass, I never worked in such a beautiful place. … You don’t see ceiling heights like this. You don’t see a door that the world’s tallest man could come through, you know? … Look at the brass plate behind the doorknob. It’s got the county seal on it. You just don’t see that anywhere else,” said Beers, of Mountain Top.

Working in such a grandiose building for many people is “wonderful,” said Tony Alu, director of the Assessor’s Office.

“Take me, for example. Going to work every day for how many years, passing by this beautiful building, and then to be able to work in it? I mean, you know, you’re part of history. It’s a great experience,” said Alu, who has worked in the building 13 years.

Restoring a one-of-a-kind?

Working at the courthouse since March 2008, County Manager and Chief Clerk Doug Pape called it a “one-of-a-kind building. We’ve had people come from the West Coast and marvel at the place. It’s 100 years old and showing its age in some spots, and there are some much-needed repairs, but I would challenge anyone to find a more beautiful courthouse in the country,” he said.

“To work for the public and for Luzerne County is an honor and a privilege. But to be able to do it in this building and to have an office here, it’s something special. You always seem to find something new, either the paintings or something you haven’t seen in the past. So it’s kind of a building that keeps telling stories,” Pape said.

County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla called the courthouse “the most remarkable structure I’ve ever been in. And as you walk around, it tells the stories of many people, many political figures. … You can’t just stand in the rotunda and look around. You’ve got to read the history that goes with the artwork and learn the story,” she said.

That, Petrilla said, is why she and other county officials are “so passionate to continue to find the means to make sure the restoration is completed – because we will never see an architectural structure like this again.”