Klein to receive Rebecca Lukens award
Historic preservationist to be honored by National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum
COATESVILLE » Noted historic preservationist and museum management consultant Janet S. Klein will be the 12th recipient of the annual Rebecca Lukens award presented by the National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum in Coatesville.
Established by the Graystone Society’s National Iron & Steel Museum to honor individuals who exhibit the qualities of Rebecca Lukens, the annual award will be presented to Klein at a May 31 reception, in the Lukens National Historic District.
Klein was an early supporter of the restoration of Terracina — the first historic home in the Lukens National Historic District, through the William Penn Foundation Grant. Terracina was the home of Isabella Huston, daughter of America’s first female industrialist, Rebecca Lukens, according to a press release.
“Terracina showed tremendous potential as an historic house museum with great heritage and a solid nucleus of supporters,” said Klein.
According to Scott G. Huston, National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum president, Klein has been instrumental to the Historic District since its inception.
“In fact, it was through her efforts and guidance that our first historic home, Terracina, began to take shape. So, in a way, you could say that Janet’s efforts were a catalyst to the beginning of this entire Historic District in Coatesville,” he said.
According to Eugene DiOrio, a Graystone founder and Historical Advisor for the National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum, the William Penn Foundation underwrote programs for historic house assistance in the Philadelphia region.
“It was a three-year program, covering the entire area. We
were struggling, as there weren’t any funds to even assess the renovations at Terracina. So, we applied for this grant and Janet came out and she was impressed with what she saw. We didn’t win the first year, but we won the second year we applied,” DiOrio said in the release, adding that Terracina was selected as one of six houses that year to receive operational and restorative advice from a team of experts.
“It was enormously instrumental when we were just starting our journey. Now, we have come full circle and I am so thrilled that Janet is the 2018 Rebecca Lukens Award Honoree.”
Klein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, mother of two, and wife of television management professional, Lew Klein. As a native of Philadelphia, Klein is known in many historic arenas, but initially for her work inspiring and promoting Fairmount Park house tours for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, according to the release.
She is also credited with the creation of projects that includes The Liberty Trail, for which she designed and promoted a 165-mile automobile route of historical attractions, installed road signs, and produced and distributed a corresponding color map and brochure. Her work with historic house tours grew as she became affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation which provided technical assistance to 18 historic house museum agencies “to solve their problems of administration, interpretation, restoration, volunteers, marketing, fund raising, grants, financial management, and collections,” she said.
Klein cited several reasons for her involvement with historic preservation including, “appointments to positions by Philadelphia mayors, Fairmount Park commissioners, Pennsylvania governors, National Trust for Historic Preservation and as consultant to Terracina funded by a William Penn Foundation Grant.”
During the early 1800s, Rebecca Lukens fulfilled the last wish of her dying husband by running their rolling mill, according to information provided by the National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum. In doing so, she secured her place in U.S. history as the first female industrialist. It was Rebecca Lukens who became the driving force behind the company that eventually became known as Lukens Steel.
The award, displayed in the National Iron &
Steel Heritage Museum, is mounted to a scale replica of the original mill that Lukens operated in the early 1800s and includes a commemorative etching of the recipients’ names.