Regarding the convention center…..the museum is a joke. The artifacts collected from the cistern of the museum is a bunch of worthless rubbish…broken stoneware lids, broken dishes and glassware….that would be considered trash at any auction and promptly thrown away. What a colossal waste of money.
Who, outside of Lancaster County, gives a hoot about Thaddeus Stevens. In addition, not long ago the Convention Center was looking for more money to install solar panels on the newly constructed roof. I must ask the backers, planners, and promoters of the LCCC…..what were you smoking??????
Many people do care quite a bit about historic preservation, especially about the home of a person who had such an influence on our society.
What remains at the corner of S. Queen and Vine has little to do with historic preservation. Only a small amount of the original Stevens’ home remains (most of it is newer construction), and that has been fully integrated into the concrete monstrosity of the convention center.
The museum simply does not exist. What you see there is nothing more than a placeholder, something that was supposed to be temporary for a few months until the museum project could get underway.
The whole idea behind the “Stevens-Smith Historic Site” was to partially placate preservationists and project opponents, while forcing the Historic Preservation Trust to pay for a significant portion of the convention center project. As a result, the HPT is for all intents and purposes bankrupt, with a $741,255 payment to the LCCCA more than a year overdue. There is simply NO money to even start construction of the museum, and little hope that there ever will be.
The LCCCA itself is so strapped for cash (thanks to the agreements which were rubber-stamped by previous LCCCA boards) that it cannot even consider taking on any additional projects. You can expect the Stevens/Kleiss/Smith buildings, and the Swan hotel, to remain undeveloped and unoccupied indefinitely.