Satanic cult worship and ''booze, drugs and sex parties''

Sounds like a Louchefest™

State OKs razing of Packerton Yards
But arts center owner says county official misrepresented site.
By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call Satanic cult worship and ''booze, drugs and sex parties'' have taken place in a historic railroad building marked for demolition to make way for industrial development, the Carbon County commissioner chairman told the state Historical Museum Commission.

Besides that, a New Jersey developer plans to build at least one shell building on the site measuring up to 80,000 square feet, and possibly a second building of up to 30,000 square feet, Commissioner Chairman William O'Gurek told the state in a letter seeking to justify the demolition.



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Mobile News | Subscribe Online | Order Reprints Based on the information, the Historical Museum Commission has deemed the 42,000-square-foot, century-old building in Packerton Yards in Lehighton and Mahoning Township to be of no historical significance, and cleared its demolition for development of an industrial hub.

But a Lancaster arts center owner who wants to redevelop the massive building said the county misrepresented the building's history in its proposal to the state to get the demolition approved.

And the county's minority commissioner, who is opposed to tearing down the building if someone wants to use it, criticized the details of O'Gurek's letter, saying it doesn't address the building's historic value.

Review of the building by the Historical Museum Commission was required before demolition under the U.S. National Historic and Preservation Act because the county used $675,000 in federal and state grants to buy the 57-acre Packerton Yards and assess environmental problems there. The county also would use government money for the demolition.

In an Oct. 24 letter to the state, O'Gurek said the building not only is a dilapidated eyesore, but it is ''being used for booze, drug and sex parties, satanic cult worshipping and harboring vagrants and vagabonds.''

Asked about the letter Thursday, O'Gurek didn't give details of the alleged activities, but said that after walking though the building and viewing debris and graffiti, it is obvious what has recently been happening there.

Lehighton Police Chief Matthew Bender on Thursday gave no indication of police finding satanic cult activity, but said homeless people live in tents at the north end of Packerton Yards — about a mile from the historic building — and children congregate there to drink. Bender said a group of youth recently set a brush fire in the area but it was quickly put out.

In 1992, Lehighton police said they found charred boards, pentagrams and an animal carcass on the floor of the building, but then-Patrolman Larry Smith said, ''This to me is not devil worship but the result of a group of kids with an overactive imagination.''

Efforts Thursday to reach Mahoning Township Police Chief Mark Zenko were unsuccessful.

The Historical Museum Commission determined the building is a remnant of the railroad complex and ''does not convey the significance of the site,'' nor is it eligible any longer to be placed on the National Register on Historic Places.

''A property must retain integrity, the ability to reflect its history, in order to be eligible for the National Register,'' Anne MacDonald, chief of preservation services, wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to commissioners. ''This property has lost its integrity of setting, materials, feeling and association. Therefore, no further evaluation of effects to historic structures is necessary.''

The county must still do an archaeological survey of the earth at the site.

Commissioners voted 2-1 in October to award a $67,000 contract to Flynn Demolition of Pottsville to tear down the building, but haven't said when the work would begin. This museum board ruling allows work to go forward.

But Republican Commissioner Wayne Nothstein, who opposes the demolition, said O'Gurek's letter didn't address the building's historic value.

In his letter, O'Gurek said the structure was used as a storehouse with two or three employees. The information is validated by a Lehigh Valley Railroad track map from 1917.

But the overall Packerton site was used as a transfer station for freight cars from the 1870s until 1971.

April Koppenhaver, owner of Mulberry Art Studios, Lancaster, who has proposed developing the buildin g, also said O'Gurek misrepresented the building's size and valuable history.

Koppenhaver, who redeveloped an 1800s bakery in downtown Lancaster and New Holland investor Bruce Clark are interested in preserving the building and developing it as an arts center and shopping area. New Jersey developer Larry Masi of Dominion Development has said he is interested in teaming up with Koppenhaver and Clark to develop residences at the site, which is along the Lehigh River.