Table of Contents:
1. Purpose and History of the Project
2. This Project: Directors and Producers
1. Purpose and History of the Project
Work on this project began in 2005. Professor Tom Greaves and Brian Conboy (’07) at Bucknell University began to assemble a complete photographic inventory of the structures within Lewisburg’s Historic District . The intent was to fill a gap: although three fairly extensive collections of photographs of Lewisburg’s buildings existed (see "Available Sources and Bibliography Relating to Lewisburg’s Architecture" on the disc's Homepage), nowhere was there a complete photographic inventory of the Historic District. Our objective has been to create such an inventory, organized into a computer-searchable database, and available on a CD disc. Although not always visible on the photograph, the date of each photo is digitally embedded in the photograph and can be retrieved with computer software. Compiling a complete inventory of the Historic District has been itself a formidable task. By our count, (as of November, 2008) there are 824 residential, commercial, educational and commercial buildings in Lewisburg’s historic district.
This is perhaps an appropriate place to note that some owners will look up our photo of their home or other building and find that our photo caught the structure just before it underwent a beautiful refurbishment. We regret the accident of timing that brings this about. Hopefully in a future year an owner's up-dated photos of such structures can be added.
The Historic District's oversight is not limited to the architectural gems in Lewisburg. Rather, its protections apply to all structures, whether wondrous or mundane. Further, on each lot not only is the principal building covered by preservation requirements, but also the associated garages, out-buildings, and recycled carriage houses and stables (referred to locally as "barns") on the property. Lewisburg's many public monuments, certain road works, and even the abandoned, rusting, railroad bridge across the Susquehanna River also have protected status. The underlying theory is that the Historic District (see "Map, Historic District" elsewhere on this disc) takes its character from the ambience created by all of these things.
Even with well over 800 structures in our database, there are, thus, a very large number of structures under the aegis of the Historic District that are not included on this disc. What the database consists of is, nearly always, the principal structure on each tax parcel - a house, or public, religious, or commercial building. Other structures on the same lot, such as garages, sheds, "barns," and other outbuildings, as well as Lewisburg's public monuments, roadworks, bridges, etc., have not been included, even though many of these have the same protected status as the buildings in this database.
When looking at a picture of an historic building, perhaps the first question that comes to mind is, when was it built? Although information on the construction date of a house may often be known by the owner, neighbors, and various experts on local history, there is only one general data source for Lewisburg’s buildings, the tax records maintained by Union County (now on line at http://www.unionco.org/unionviewer/ ). We have looked up the principal building on each tax parcel and have supplied on each Structure page of this disc the date information from the Union County tax listing. However, for many structures “1900” is entered, which indicates that a specific date is not known. Nonetheless, we have provided what is listed there. Other information on the structure is also part of the tax listing; persons wanting further descriptive information about a structure can look up any tax parcel on the Union County Tax Assessment on line database.
A second question many viewers will have is, what architectural style does the building exhibit? We haven’t inserted such commentary because the stylistic classification of any actual building reflects, to some degree, the preferences of the classifier. Particularly when styles are transitional, stemming from being built when style preferences were changing, or stylistically mixed due to a building being remodeled during later periods, the same building may be described by two authorities quite differently. Too, there are a number of buildings in Lewisburg, many of them delightful, which are “eclectic,” unconventional products of the imagination of specific builders and owners. Hence, we provide the photograph, and defer to the viewer to supply the stylistic analysis. In the section of this disc's Homepage entitled “Three Useful Sources for Identifying Architectural Styles” we suggest books that will assist the novice in classifying the architectural features of any building of interest.
2.This Project: Producers and Directors
The producers of this disc are many: Professor Tom Greaves and Brian Conboy (’07) began this project in 2005. Later Louisa Diodato (’09), Danielle Kane (’11), and May Naldo (’09) dedicated long hours of work to the project. A significant part of the effort entailed obtaining suitable photographs, taken mainly in the winter when obscuring leaves were absent, and the weather cooperated. Many buildings required several visits to encounter an occasion when the structure was not blocked by large vehicles parked in front. Too, the amount of data entry, literature study, and software expertise needed to produce a functioning disc has been prodigious. Certain professional staff at Bucknell’s Information Services and Resources provided critically needed counsel and assistance with technical issues, especially Michael Weaver and Debra Cook-Balducci. Doris Dysinger, former Curator of Special Collections and University Archives, at Bertrand Library guided us to archival sources. We have also benefited from the knowledge of many local citizens, among whom Nada Gray, Deane Clements, and Florence Pyle deserve special mention. Bucknell’s Presidential Fellows program and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology’s student wage budget gave us essential support. Tom Greaves directed and labored on this 3-year project, but it has truly been a team effort.