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BEFORE THE DEMOLITION
Nancy Herman
8" x 6"
oil on canvas board
Back home in Merion on Latches Lane there is a lot going on. The Barnes Foundation is closed, its Paul Cret designed building's future unknown. Episcopal Academy is gone and St. Joseph's University has taken over. They are well on their way to having a large baseball field completed where young students used to romp, and this stately old home, the largest property on the Lane, is being demolished.
My feelings about all this run very deep as I have been here for 40 years. This home's demise is sad, but actually the fact that someone would spend the money to tear it down and build a new, apparently even larger home is a positive thing for our street. Hopefully the plans for the new home will be green, using all of today's technology to ensure it will be energy efficient. This would be some justification for what would seem to be a waste. The beautiful stone will be used in other projects and people have been removing parts of the house for weeks to use for new jobs. Here is how it looks today. The gaping holes in all the windows and doors feel like the vacant eyes of ghosts to me.
