The Bank Barn Kistler Made Into a Community Building

Kistler's plan kept part of what was already on the site. A brick farmhouse and a barn were already there, and the federal survey of the town says both were incorporated into the plan. The barn, a Pennsylvania bank barn, was remodeled to serve as the community building on Kistler Green, a focal point of the asymmetrical plan.

The survey describes the barn as having a cupola and Palladian windows. The 1991 federal inventory of the county's industrial sites says it was made into a community center reminiscent of Mount Vernon. The inventory ties the style to the thinking of the day: champions of colonial revival design saw colonial style buildings as expressions of “national character,” and as influential in molding the character of the industrial workers who lived there.

Inside, the survey says, the building held a theater, a poolroom and a dance hall.

The survey says the building burned in 1933 and was not replaced, and the inventory also says the community center was lost in a 1933 fire. The survey adds that one resident reported that in its last years, she visited the building only for voter registration.

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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