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Historic Preservation is identifying, protecting, and enhancing buildings, places, and objects of historical and cultural significance. Historic preservation also helps to shape local identity and gives one a sense of place.
Since 2003, Wilkes-Barré Preservation Society’s mission is to promote the architectural and social history of Wilkes-Barre. In December of 2003 and 2004, Tony Brooks, Betsy Bell Condron, Lisa Griffiths and Harry Haas hosted Victorian-themed tours of the downtown mansions. Over the years, thousands have enjoyed architectural walking tours of Wilkes-Barre’s River Street Historic District, Luzerne County Court House and social history tours of Hollenback Cemetery.
Under Tony Brooks’s leadership, the Wilkes Barré Preservation Society hosted a public meeting in 2016 to discuss idea for Irem Temple restoration. From that meeting, the Irem Temple Restoration Project
was formed, and a team assembled to restore, preserve and program the 1907 built one-of-a-kind architectural gem. In 2017, the Preservation Society saved the oldest house in Wilkes-Barre, the 1793 Zebulon Butler House, from demolition and is in the process of restoring it and creating an early Wilkes-Barre history museum. In 2020, the Preservation Society launched a YouTube channel of local history, Diamond City: Trail of History. In 2022, the Preservation Society is collaborating with the Times Leader Media Group and NEPA Camera Club to publish “Great Historic Houses of Wilkes-Barre,” a beautifully designed coffee table book featuring 100 historic houses. WBPS is also collaborating with the Osterhout Free Library to publish a children book on Wilkes-Barre history.
In all the work they do, the Preservation Society emphasizes the value of having a sense of place. Sense of place is defining oneself in terms of the landscape, history and shared experiences of a given place. The emotional factor makes a community psychologically comfortable, shapes local identity and gives one a spiritual bond to the land. Combining a strong sense of place with the goal and role of preservation and the storing telling that goes with it – is to pass the torch of civilization through the generations.
Through their partnership with The Luzerne Foundation, their endowment fund will ensure the torch is passed.
The community is the collective caretaker of magnificent and historically important buildings, they should be passed through the generations with pride, integrity and dignity.
Should you wish to support The Wilkes-Barre Preservation Society Fund of The Luzerne Foundation, please feel free to donate via the website listed below or by mail. If you’re passionate about historicpreservation or other causes and want to make a difference here in Northeastern Pennsylvania — please give us a call at The Luzerne Foundation.
Do you want to make our community better? So do we. Let’s do it together.
Because of you and for you, we are … Here for good.™
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C. David Pedri is President and CEO of The Luzerne Foundation. This weekly column series is an advertising partnership between the The Luzerne Foundation and the Times Leader. For more information about the organization, visit www.luzfdn.org or call 570-822-2065.