King’s College Engineering Department chair Paul Lamore stands inside the former Spring Brook Water Supply Building last year as it was being converted into King’s College’s Mulligan Center for Engineering. While many historic buiuldings have been lost, Wilkes-Barre has seen others, such as this, renovated for new purposes.
                                 Times Leader file photo

King’s College Engineering Department chair Paul Lamore stands inside the former Spring Brook Water Supply Building last year as it was being converted into King’s College’s Mulligan Center for Engineering. While many historic buiuldings have been lost, Wilkes-Barre has seen others, such as this, renovated for new purposes.

Times Leader file photo

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<p>Times Leader file photo</p>

Times Leader file photo

WILKES-BARRE — As part of this three-day special report on historic preservation we are looking at buildings the city has lost, including the Frank Clark jeweler building on South Main Street, which has been the focus of stories on Sunday and today.

That is not the whole story, however.

Larry Newman, executive director of Wilkes-Barre’s downtown revitalization organization, the Diamond City Partnership (DCP), pointed out that successes in historic preservation have helped draw businesses, tourists and — perhaps most significantly — residents to center city.

That, he explained, is why formalizing the mechanism for saving historic properties is so important.

Newman cited recent DCP surveys which showed that 83% of respondents agreed that downtown’s architecture is historic, adding that the trend isn’t new.

In a 2018 survey DCP asked people who identified as downtown residents, what was the primary reason they chose to live downtown. Their top answer, Newman said, is that it is an historic neighborhood.

“Since 2001 and the meetings that led to the creation of the Diamond City Partnership, the public has repeatedly identified several key strengths of Downtown Wilkes-Barre: The riverfront, the colleges, and our historic buildings,” Newman said.

The key, he said, is to get developers to recognize those strengths and capitalize on them both for preservation’s sake and drawing people into the downtown area.

“We do have private developers who have started using tools that are available, including historic tax credits,” Newman added. “Look at the fact that they understand the inherent value of older office buildings for downtown, and that people will pay a premium for an apartment in a restored historic building.”

Case in point: Vintage downtown office buildings, particularly the bank high-rises, that have been refurbished and now house apartments in addition to commercial space.

“The fact is that we’ve added more than 250 new housing units in Downtown Wilkes-Barre in the past decade, and all of them are in rehabbed buildings,” Newman added.

When Visit Luzerne County launched an online survey last year to assess perceptions of the county and top attractions for visitors, touring Downtown Wilkes-Barre’s historic architecture and mansions made the top 15 items, coming in at 14. Number 8 on the list was taking in a show at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts — noteworthy in this context since the Kirby Center is an historic theater that was itself saved from the wrecking ball a generation ago.

“These buildings represent assets to the community that can be used to create economic value for the community,” Newman said.

Newman and others are engaging in talks to examine how to better protect such buildings under city ordinance.

In the meanwhile, he acknowledges that much has been lost, and may continue to slip away.

There certainly have been preservation successes, he said: F.M. Kirby, the Stegmaier Brewery building; within the last year the dual wins of the King’s College chapel moving to the Memorial Presbyterian Church and the college reopening the Spring Brook Water Supply Building to house its engineering school; as well as Wilkes University “tending to its collection of historic mansions.”

“But it’s equally true that there used to be a collection of historic Victorian commercial structures in the commercial core of the downtown, prior to 1972, that were every bit as good and every bit as valuable, and now all of it is gone,” Newman added.

Frank Clark’s 1913 jewelry store has now joined that list.

In Tuesday’s e-edition we will look at some of what has been lost, some of what has been saved as well as some historic buildings that could face a brighter future.