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The Great Commoner
Vol. 8, No. 1 www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com Spring 2006 |
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Stevens's Lancaster house as it appears today |
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Proposed restoration of Stevens's House |
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Restoration To Continue Despite Convention Center's Fate |
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The Historic Preservations Trust of Lancaster County, the group trying to restore the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith houses, has reached an agreement with the Convention Authority to turn over the site to the Trust if the convention center is not built. This will allow the project to move ahead regardless of the convention center’s fate.
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The Stevens-Smith project had its beginnings in 2001 when the historic structures were threatened by the building of the convention center. Even though an accommodation was reached to save parts of the houses, the restoration has been held up by the continuous controversy over the convention center. Besides clarifying the fate of the historic buildings, it will also aid fundraising efforts. |
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Happy Birthday, Thad |
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Society To Meet May 13
For Show And Tell |
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Thaddeus Steven’s birthday will be commemorated on Tuesday, April 4, at 4:30 p.m. at the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery at Mulberry and Chestnut in Lancaster. After the ceremony, a dinner will be held at Lombardo’s Restaurant, 216 Harrisburg Ave.,where the society will award plaques for the promotion of the memory of Thaddeus Stevens and the actor who played Stevens in the recent play will re-enact some of that role.
Society members and supporters are invited to the ceremony and the dinner. |
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The Thaddeus Stevens Society will meet on Saturday, May 13, at 5 p.m. at the house of Terry Hatch, 50 Oak Lane, Lancaster. Terry, a member of the society, will show us his extensive collection of Thaddeus Stevens books, letters and photographs. The Society's collection of Stevens items will also be present. If you have Stevens items, bring them along for this show and tell meeting.
We will also be electing officers for the next year and making plans, including the possible volunteer staffing of the of the Stevens’s display at the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.
For a ride from Gettysburg, call Ross Hetrick at 717-334-5227.
To get to Terry’s house from places west of Lancaster, take Rt. 30 east and then take the Park City Mall exit. Then make a right on to the Harrisburg Pike. When you get to President Avenue, take a right. That road dead-ends on Columbia Avenue, where you take a right. Continue on that road until you see Stonmill Shopping Center to your left then take a right on to Jackson Drive. Then make an immediate right on to Wilson Ave. and then turn left on to Oak Lane. Terry’s house is at the corner of Oak and Wilson. You will be greeted by a friendly dog named Sophie, so don’t wear anything fancy. |
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And the Winners Are |
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The Thaddeus Stevens Society is presenting plaques on April 4 to Bradley Hoch, Donald Rhoads and William Griscom for their outstanding efforts in promoting the memory of Thaddeus Stevens. Hoch is the author of the recently published Thaddeus Stevens in Gettysburg: The Making Of An Abolitionist. Rhoads is the author of Thaddeus Stevens, The Play, which was performed in Lancaster in January and William Griscom, who has been a vital supporter of all things involving Thaddeus Stevens in his position as president of the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. The plaques will be presented at a dinner at Lombardo’s Restaurant, 216 Harrisburg Avenue, in Lancaster after the ceremony at Stevens’s grave. |
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Stevens Quote:
What an opportunity is presented to this Republic to vindicate her consistency and become immortal. The occasion is forced upon us, and the invitation presented to strike the chains from four millions of human beings, and create them MEN: to extinguish slavery on this whole continent; to wipe out, so far as we are concerned, the most hateful and infernal blot that ever disgraced the escutcheon of man; to write a page in the history of the world whose brightness shall eclipse all the records of heroes and of sages.
January 22, 1862 speech on freeing the slaves
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Stevens Play is Hit |
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More than a 1,000 people saw the new play about Thaddeus Stevens, which appeared at the Fulton Theater in Lancaster in January. To see pictures from the play, click here. |
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Click here for minutes of November 5, 2005 Meeting |
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