Lancaster city landmark church and school starts a new life as luxury apartments [photos] | Home + Garden
It’s served as a classroom annex for the former Lancaster Boys’ High School just around the corner.
In 1909, part of it was converted into a basketball court for the school, “with the maximum cost of equipment not exceeding $25,” according to newspaper records.
It was the home for Lancaster Bible College’s precursor, Lancaster School of the Bible. It’s housed more than one church congregation — most recently, Foursquare Gospel Church.
Standing solidly on North Mulberry Street, the square, pale yellow building looks over Shreiner-Concord Cemetery and Thaddeus Stevens’ gravesite. And it’s been a public hub of one kind or another in this west-end section of Lancaster city since it was built in 1880.
Now, 128 N. Mulberry St. is gearing up for its newest incarnation: Four apartments carved out of cavernous church space. For Ben J. Cunningham, a Millersville University professor and part owner of the project, its been part investment, part neighborhood effort and a test of the creative-thinking skills he employs in his art and his classroom.
A daunting task
When Cunningham and his partner, Jack Prostko, first saw the inside of the former school and church building, “it was dire,” Prostko says. “And it was a shame — it’s worth saving; it’s such a part of city history.”
The floor had sunken in so much, Prostko says, that shadow outlines of where pews used to be attached to the walls were several inches above where the floor had settled.
There had been, Cunningham estimates, perhaps three additions to the original building over the years. Demolition would have to break through three separate roofs to get to the ceiling level.
A massive archway, found walled up inside the building, may have been a rear entrance or main entrance — no one at this point is quite sure.
But even in that state, Cunningham says, the building’s exterior drew him.
shame quote
"It was dire. And it was a shame — it’s worth saving; it’s such a part of city history."
“I used to walk by the building, and it caught my attention,” says Cunningham, who lives in the neighborhood in another building he’s renovated into apartments. “And I thought, I love those windows,” he says, gesturing to tall, gracefully arched openings in the front facade. “I just thought these are really beautiful.”
After Cunningham and Prostko bought the building from the Foursquare Gospel congregation, he says, initial plans were to turn the building into some kind of housing. “It’s much too big as a house,” Cunningham says, “so one thought was to create live-in artists’ studios.”
Once they got inside, though, Cunningham’s history as an artist began to kick in.
Head of the Freshmen Foundations in Art program at Millersville, Cunningham works with found objects in his art. In 128 N. Mulberry, he found one of the biggest “objects” he’s ever worked with.
Define ‘creativity’
“One of the things I emphasize with my students is solving problems ... is not being afraid to fail,” Cunningham says. “We ask, What’s the problem? What are my issues? What has been done, and how can we maybe improve on that?”
And that, he says, carried over to the work contractors had to do to update a 19th-century building as 21st-century living space.
Rebuilding a landmark
When Ben J. Cunningham first envisioned what could be done at 128 N. Mulberry, he says, he knew it would give him a chance to stretch exactly those skills he teaches at Millersville University, where he is a professor:
Problem solving. Brainstorming. Trial and error (and sometimes errors that really stall the process). Creative solutions.
So that's the strategy he and partner Jack Prostko pursued as they began the process of figuring out what the former school building and church could become.
Initial designs were drawn up by M. Melanie Burnette from LeFevre Funk Architects, who then had to redesign floor plans once the giant arch was revealed.
Then craftspeople and other professionals got to work: John Himelright from Broadview Construction as general contractor; Moon Mechanical Services handled HVAC and plumbing; D&H Electrical Construction Company handled wiring and electrical; Barry Martin of Concept Commercial Interiors handled flooring and bathroom walls; Rick Simmons was in charge of painting; Lancaster Stained Glass Designs built windows that Cunningham made; and the building also includes an original wood sculpture by Ben Sowers.
What challenges did they uncover? “Pretty much the whole thing!” he laughs. “Major stuff like floor joists, even just the wood (trim). When you do one thing it kind of affects 20 more things that you weren’t quite expecting.
“But it literally was, how do you run ductwork through a 150-year-old building? My electricians have used drill bits that are about 20 inches long and gone through and said, we’re still not through your wall.”
The kind of creativity that was required of everyone involved in the project, he added, is no different than what he goes through in his art studio.
“When people think of creativity,” he says, “they think of a canvas with paint. But the electricians and the plumbers ... I look at (what they do) and think, Your problem-solving skills, your creativity, your thought process, is the exact same thing. It’s nice, as someone who teaches creativity, to see and acknowledge that expression. It’s good to respect the artisan, to respect the craft.”
Neighborhood anchor
Because the building is part of the city’s Local Historic District, Cunningham and Prostko had to take the project before the Historical Architectural Review Board. Suzanne Stallings, of the city’s Economic Development and Neighborhood Revitalization department, said HARB’s primary concern was the preservation of the front facade’s window style.
But, since that’s one feature that made Cunningham fall in love with the building to begin with, he said, there was no danger of any changes being made.
What he and Prostko still are figuring out, he says, is the building’s exterior color scheme.
Various swatches on the outside reflect the bronzes, creams and other colors they’re still debating, and that work will continue once the apartments are ready for rent next month.
The building “has been a community anchor,” Cunningham says, “and we’re trying to reflect that on the outside as well as the inside.”
The interior, though, meshes a contemporary style with the original architectural detailing. Walls of windows illuminate upstairs spaces and frame views of surrounding rooftops; spiral staircases lead to lofts; brick walls abut wood and granite.
“The artist in me kind of kicked in,” Cunningham admits.
That interior space evolved through a few revisions, says Prostko, an associate dean at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “But we wanted to get it right, because the building was sort of prime property ... right in a place where you’d like to have housing.”
And, Cunningham says, “I knew even before I started, that this is a pretty tight-knit neighborhood. Before we even started anything, we put out fliers and I said who I am, this is what we intend to do, we shared emails and phone numbers ... and people did (contact us).
“It’s been a process of exploring,” he says, adding that Prostko spent hours examining city documents to learn more about the building’s history. “(The building has) served the community in a lot of different ways — I’m trying to honor that.”
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