Lawmakers explore economic, educational significance of historic preservation
Committee tours site of future museum, explores need to tell truth
Rep. Napoleon Nelson November 14, 2024 | 3:58 PM
LANCASTER, Nov. 14 – Historic preservation drives Pennsylvania’s economy but there are many Black history sites waiting to be developed. The economic and educational benefit of developing Black heritage sites was a theme repeated during a joint roundtable and tour by the House Majority Policy Committee and Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus at the future site of the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy.
“Black history is American history, and in south-central Pennsylvania, we have a wealth of historic sites worth preserving, but many of them have been under-valued or under-developed,” said hearing host Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, who represents portions of Lancaster County. “The committee heard about the economic benefit of preserving these sites, as well as the educational benefits in telling the truth and erasing popular myths that masquerade as facts.”
Slated to open in late 2025 or early 2026, the Stevens & Smith Center will add nine full-time jobs when it is opened in downtown Lancaster on a site that needed to be preserved from demolition about 20 years ago. Stevens (1792-1868) led the charge for some of the greatest reforms in U.S. history, including passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery. While Lydia Hamilton Smith (1815-1884), a mixed-race woman in the 1800s, broke social barriers and built a hub for abolitionists before the Civil War.
“We have numerous historic sites throughout the state, but not all of them are doing the scale of work being done here in Lancaster,” said Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Napoleon Nelson, who represents portions of Montgomery County. “There is a real need to preserve this history and tell the story of Pennsylvania and our nation, so falsehoods, myths and flat-out lies aren’t embraced and adopted as truth.”
LancasterHistory eventually assumed responsibility for the site, restoring the facades of the Thaddeus Stevens House, Kleiss Tavern, and Lydia Hamilton Smith House. It also unearthed compelling pieces of archaeological evidence of the presence of Underground Railroad activity.
Thursday’s House Majority Policy roundtable and tour pointed out how the spaces are being re-imagined, but it also highlighted how the center will educate and bust myths, including the myth that enslaved people only lived in the South. It also highlighted how Stevens’ legacy had been tarnished by the work of white supremacists and by the negative depictions of Stevens during the Jim Crow era following the Civil War.
“When we fail to preserve historic sites, they can be lost forever – or in the case of my home district in Erie, we went more than 100 years before research helped unearth the work of the first Underground Railroad station in Erie,” said Policy Committee Chairman Ryan Bizzarro, who represents portions of Erie County. “These sites must be preserved, in order to let us understand who we are, where we came from and – in some cases – what our relatives overcame to help make our communities better places to call home.”
Information about this hearing and other House Majority Policy Committee hearings can be found at pahouse.com/policy. Photos to be used for publication can be found at pahouse.com/PolicyCommittee/Galleries and Facebook.com/PADemPolicy.