News that Saxonburg borough council has put out for bid to preserve the historic John Roebling Wire Rope Workshop is welcomed news for Saxonburg, Butler County and the nation.

It was 2017 when I first brought to the borough’s attention that I had observed the stone foundation collapsing. My call for action was not viewed as critical and I was told, “You are not an engineer. You don’t know what you are talking about.”

Well, the condition worsened. For years, I provided updates documenting the building’s tilting and floorboards weakening. I contacted experts who provided advice and verbal cost estimates, which were always increasing. But no action.

Finally, in 2022 an engineering study was undertaken, only if taxpayer funding wasn’t used. Thanks to public support, that study happened. Armed with that study and fundraising, the borough is now at a critical stage where preservation work may commence.

Throughout the last nine years, the Butler Eagle’s repeated articles and editorials helped elevate the attention of the public and local leaders to the deterioration and the reasons to preserve the workshop. Thank you for the years of coverage and support as I raised the issue.

As I have stated in presentations and testimony before state lawmakers, the Wire Rope Workshop is significant because it is where Saxonburg’s co-founder, John Roebling, perfected wire rope and began his acclaimed suspension bridge career. The workshop is a major part of Saxonburg’s history and truly the “birthplace of the wire rope cable industry in America.”

J. Fred Caesar,

former curator of the Saxonburg Museum