An August 4, 1987, article by Dave Caroll, staff writer for the Pottsville Republican, gave a brief history of the Lykens G. A. R. Building, located in the 600 Block of North Second Street, Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
LYKENS LANDMARK STILL MAKING HISTORY
LYKENS — Since the 1850s, it has served as a church, a home, a fire company, a hospital, and a Civil War veterans’ meeting place. Today, the historic GAR building, named for the Grand Army of the republic, continues to serve the community, this time as a senior citizens center.
The building was placed on the Pennsylvania State Inventory of Historic Places on October 15, 1980, and the National Register of Historic Places in November 1986.
Located in the 600 block of North Second Street, the structure is historically significant because from the time of its construction in 1852 until the present it housed a variety of community-related functions.
For seven decades after it was built, it was the only public meeting place in Lykens, according to Mark Shadle, present of the Lykens Area Senior Citizens, who now [1987] occupy the building.
In 1948, a group of borough citizens met and determined Lykens needed a permanent church. Landowner Edward Gratz donated a plot of ground and gave $100 to the project. Construction began in 1850, and the building was dedicated as a Methodist Church in 1852. from 1853-1867, it was also a meeting place for Lutherans and Presbyterian denominations, making it a focal point in the lives of the protestant families. Methodists moved into the church in 1867.
From 1867 until 1885, the building was the residence of the family of A. F. Englebert and Emanuel Deibler and his wife. The Deiblers, intending to move to Kansas, and not being able to find a purchaser for the property, permitted the local unit of the Pennsylvania Volunteers Reserves to use the building as an armory.
In 1888, the Pennsylvania Department of Military Affairs purchased the property and continued to use it as an armory. They also made it available for town meetings as well as other social functions such as dances, parties and other civic meetings.
In 1890, the building was purchased by the Trustees of Rescue Hose Company No. 1 of Lykens. The organization of volunteer firemen now had a permanent home. During that period, the building was still available for public functions.
The building was sold to the Heilner Post No. 232 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Dfepartment of Pennsylvania, a Civil War veterans organization, in 1898. From 1898 to 1926, that organization was primarily responsible for the human service needs of area Civil War veterans.
The GAR building became the meeting place of Civil War veterans of not only Lykens, but those living in the surrounding towns of Gratz, Elizabethville, Williamstown and Tower City. The Heilner Women’s Relief Corps No. 101, an auxiliary to the GAR post, also used the building.
With a membership of more than 200, the auxiliary members were instrumental in seeing that graves of veterans were decorated every Memorial Day, that sick and infirm Civil War veterans were not forgotten, and sponsored the memorial marker in front of the building. During the 1918 influenza epidemic, the building was used for a hospital.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the building was available for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and civic clubs. It was the only building available to a range of public groups until the 1920s, when other buildings were constructed or used for these purposes.
In front of the building stands a stone monument with a bronze plaque listing the names of 400 Civil War veterans from Lykens, Wiconisco and vicinity. The monument was erected in 1926.
In 1926, with only five GAR veterans remaining, the GAR women’s auxiliary assumed ownership of the building. They were able to maintain their organization until 1973, when the GAR building was sold to Lykens Borough with the stipulation that “it shall be maintained… as a memorial to Heilner Post No. 232, GAR, Department of Pennsylvania.”
The Lykens Area Senior Citizens took over the building in 1973. The senior citizens were responsible for the reconstruction and renovation project in 1985 that restored the building to its original form, assuring the building will be properly cared for during the next 20 years.
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Article obtained through Newspapers.com. The photo accompanying this blog post was taken about 25 years after the article appeared in the Pottsville newspaper and shows the building at about the time that the Lykens-Wiconisco Historical Society was allowed to use it for its headquarters. At that time I was given a tour of the building. The rooms on the first floor were in usable condition, but the large meeting room on the second floor was unsafe and in need of major repairs, particularly to the ceiling.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.