Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
JOHN UPDIKE’S HOME IS NOW A MUSEUM
Friends and family come from near and far to praise the late author
A modest white house with wood siding along Philadelphia Avenue in Shillington where John Updike spent most of his childhood is now home to Pennsylvania’s newest historical marker with Saturday’s dedication attended by the late author’s four children and several of his childhood classmates.
“This house,” Dr. James Schiff, vice president of the John Updike Society, told an audience of about about 150 gathered Saturday for the unveiling ceremony at the new museum at 117 Philadelphia Ave, “will complement Updike’s writing and become a spot on the global literary map, like Hemingway’s Key West home or Dickens’ home in London.”
The grand opening for the John Updike Childhood Home museum was held immediately after the ceremonial ribboncutting for the new museum founded by the John Updike Society, which has members in 35 states and 17 countries.
Updike, a novelist, poet, shortstory writer, art critic and literary critic, was one of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. He died in 2009 at age 77, but his work, including the novel “Rabbit, Run” and its sequels, continue to resonate with readers.
“Through Updike’s writing, the town of Shillington and his life here have been preserved and mythologized,” said Schiff, who lives in Ohio. “It has been a gift to all of us. Shillington resonates within those of us who have read him.”
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers a program of historical markers. The more than 2,600 cast aluminum markers across the state tell the stories of important people, places and events from the state’s history.
Nominations for historical markers may be submitted by any person or organization, but it’s hardly a done deal, Dr. William V. Lewis, a commissioner on the museum commission, said during the ceremony.
“Getting one of these markers is a huge accomplishment,” he said. “To put them together, literally, you’ve got to write the equivalent of somewhere between a master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation.”
The Updike marker was approved on the first round, something that rarely happens, Lewis said.
“John Update was such an iconic American author,” he said, adding that few American authors will approach the richness of depth of his writing.
Fittingly, then, the marker “is the commonwealth’s perpetual tribute to John Updike,” joining such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, historical fiction writer James Michener and “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott, all of whom were born in, raised in or worked in Pennsylvania.
Lewis credited support from local state legislators, including Sen. Judy Schwank and Rep. Mark Gillen for securing the Updike marker.
.The roadside blue-andyellow marker and the National Register of Historic Places plaque on the building itself together put a bow on a nearly decadelong effort by the John Updike Society to preserve Updike’s childhood home and transform it into a museum.
“That may not seem like such a tall order but the reality is we were a few English professors who knew nothing about real estate, architectural preservation, curating or how to launch a museum,” Schiff said.
“We were not a group that you would want to bet on initially,” he said, explaining that a simple decision about throwing a pizza party for grad students can turn into a two-hour debate among he and his colleagues.
Fortunately, they were led by James Plath, society president, who lived in a century-old house that he had rehabbed and cautioned the group that it would take a long time and much collaboration to accomplish their goal.
The Updike home was restored by R.J. Doerr, who had previously restored thehome of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Doerr based his restoration on Updike’s writings, the house’s architectural “footprints,” Updike interviews, correspondences with Updike friends and family, and comparisons with local period houses.
The result is a recreation of the way the house would have looked during the years that young John Updike lived there, 1932 to 1945, after which the family moved to Plowville.
The Rev. Colleen Cox, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church down the street and the daughter of an English teacher, delivered a prayer before the ribbon-cutting.
“Today we pause to honor and celebrate the life and work of John Updike,” she said. “We are grateful for stories and books he wrote, for the lives he created, for his skill to take us on journey after journey and for his ability, as he said, ‘to give the mundane its beautiful due.’
“As we take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate all that John Updike meant to this community and to our larger world, may we be inspired to find ways to give the mundane its due.”
Miranda Updike, the youngest of the author’s four children, said her father would be amazed that a group of fans would go through such an extensive effort to preserve his childhood home.
However, she said, he did tell his family that the house 117 Philadelphia Ave. was more than a place to live, it was where the seeds of his creativity were sewn and sprouted through the relationships and sensibilities he had.
David Silcox, in whose kitchen the John Updike Society was created, was Updike’s local contact for 10 years before his death.
Silcox said Saturday that Updike, whom he knew for 20 years, was misunderstood by some locals who thought the author turned his back on his hometown after moving away as a young man.
Updike didn’t like to be the center of attention, he said. He once rode in a firetruck in the 1976 bicentennial parade in his home town, but later told his friends he felt like hiding under the truck.
Updike would later visit friends and family from his youth, but did so quietly, Silcox said.
“But he didn’t ever forget Shillington,” he said. “Shillington was his home. That’s where the eggs of his creativity hatched.”