Lost and Found

Written by in the Lost and Found category and the Summer 1994 issue Topics in this article: anthracite, architecture and architects, Connecticut, Lebanon County, Luzerne County, Methodist Church and Methodists, Mt. Gretna, New England, Presbyterian Church and Presbyterians, Susquehanna River, Wyoming Valley
Lost and Found features brief profiles of historic landmarks and structures, one lost and one saved.

Lost

Strained by the weight of nearly a half-million pounds of snow during what has become known as the Winter of 1994, the century-old Mount Gretna Playhouse collapsed in February. The historic open-air theater was built in the Lebanon County summer resort in 1892 by carpenter John Cilley, a self­-taught engineer. Measuring one hundred feet in diameter and shaped like an umbrella, the facility’s conical roof was supported by twenty-six chestnut posts. Plans are underway to construct a new playhouse on the site. Individu­als interested in making contributions are encouraged to write: Mount Gretna Playhouse Building Fund, P. O. Box 111, Mount Gretna, PA; or telephone (717) 964-2046.

 

Found

Completed in 1808, the historic Forty-Fort Meeting House in Forty-Forty, Luzerne County, is an extremely rare example of a New England­-style meeting house in northeastern Pennsylvania. The wood frame structure, measur­ing forty by fifty feet, was designed and built by Joseph Hitchcock of New Haven, Connecticut. The building originally served two congrega­tions: Presbyterians and Methodists living on the west side of the Susquehanna River. An architectural treasure that played a significant role in the development of organized religion in the Wyoming Valley, the Forty-Fort Meeting house remains the least-altered example of New England­-influenced building style in the anthracite region.