Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Community Character (Page 1 of 19)

A Delaware County Landmark Reopens!

I fondly remember my evening outings to my downtown movie theater as a child, especially waiting in a long queue at the Eric Pacific to secure coveted tickets to see the Empire Strikes Back in 1980.  While the theaters opened in Lancaster City in the 1980s were modern replacements of the landmark movie houses of the early twentieth century, the excitement of a day out at the movies was always a special memory.

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Preventing Extinction: Saving the Last Wrought Iron Warren Pony Truss in PA

On large stained and moss-covered stone masonry abutments over a single line of tracks in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County rested a dinosaur, a wrought iron relic of the past originally constructed to support the industry of a developing nation. Its appearance was worn and weathered from over 140 years of service.

Random holes and a mixed bag of fastener types and sizes littered the visible faces. The original railroad floor system was long gone and replaced with a timber vehicular deck. Its live load carrying capacity was a mere fraction of what it once was. However, under all of this rust was a diamond, a rare and complete example of a wrought iron pin-connected warren pony truss with built-up corrugated diagonal tension members, the last of its kind.

This is the story of relocation and reuse, adaptive reuse, of the last known remaining pin-connected wrought iron Warren pony truss in Pennsylvania – The Howellville Truss (2004RE01890).

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