Historic structures deserve preservation
History doesn’t just live behind glass in a museum.
That’s proven by the work of Connie Collier and her late husband, Harold, who painstakingly restored a Depression-era railroad caboose that has been displayed on their rural Chicora property for more than 50 years.
Harold Collier, a train enthusiast, bought the caboose in 1973, and the Colliers spent years restoring the railcar to its former glory.
For years, model train hobbyists would visit the caboose to run their trains along a track that wound through the interior of the caboose.
It hasn’t been easy preserving this survivor of a bygone era. Connie Collier said her son-in-law has twice repainted and repaired the caboose, erasing the effects of time and weather.
The Colliers aren’t alone in preserving historic buildings.
The Butler County Historical Society, for instance, works to maintain its headquarters in the Senator Walter Lowrie House, the Little Red School House in Butler and Cooper Cabin near Cabot.
But too often historic buildings are forgotten and neglected.
That’s what happened to the Bantam Jeep building in Butler. After years of abandonment, a fire broke out Nov. 2 and caused such extensive damage — the roof and all the internal floors collapsed in the blaze — that the remains of the building were demolished. It was a sad end to a site that was involved in the creation of the first Jeep prototype in 1940.
The Old Stone House in Brady Township also has seen periods of neglect and renovation.
Founded 200 years ago as a coaching inn, the Old Stone House was in ruins before it was restored and later overseen by Slippery Rock University, which announced this summer it is replacing the building’s roof before turning ownership and management of the structure to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resource’s Jennings Environmental Education Center.
The preservation of historic structures allows visitors to literally step through history and should be encouraged.
— EF
