Ten years in the making, the Lancaster County Convention Center has opened its nineteenth-century doors in the historic heart of the city.
A painstaking $170 million project preserved the 120-year-old Beaux Arts facade of the former Watt & Shand department store on Penn Square, a local crossroads since 1729.
“First and foremost, it’s a wonderfully unique building,” says sales and marketing director Josh Nowak. Several important artifacts were preserved during construction: three sides of the 1810 William Montgomery House, an example of Federalist architecture, have been preserved and incorporated in the facility.
Adjacent to the center is the Stevens-Smith Historic site. When completed, it will interpret the homes and lives of Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. senator and advocate of emancipation, and his housekeeper Lydia Hamilton Smith. A cistern discovered and displayed at the site was likely used as a hideaway for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.
The 90,000-square-foot center includes the 300-room Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square and 300 spaces of dedicated parking in an adjacent garage. Nowak says the Center has already booked 26 events for 60 days through the end of 2009. This week it hosts the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities.
Source: Josh Nowak, Lancaster County Convention Center
Writer: Chris O’Toole