New Lancaster Museum to Explore Reconstruction Era and the Fight for Democracy
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Asia Tabb
Aired; July 2nd, 2025.
Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation.
In the heart of downtown Lancaster, a new museum is preparing to open its doors — one that highlights a powerful, and often overlooked, chapter of American history. The Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy is set to open next spring, led by LancasterHistory, the organization behind the museum’s development.
“This is the newest museum in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” said Robin Sarratt, President and CEO of LancasterHistory. “When it opens… the Stevens and Smith Center will celebrate the legacies and lives of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, one of the architects of the 13th and 14th Amendments… and his housekeeper, friend, confidant, Lydia Hamilton Smith.”
The museum was recently added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network, a project of the National Park Service aimed at preserving and telling stories from the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. It is already part of the Network to Freedom, which commemorates sites connected to the Underground Railroad.
Mabel Rosenheck, who helped submit the museum’s application to the national network, explained the significance: “It brings together sites… that have some tie to this period of reconstruction. It celebrates the freedom struggle and Black history in America — but this time, after the Civil War.”
For Sarratt, this recognition is both humbling and meaningful. “It’s really an honor to be included in both networks… to be part of a group of equally remarkable sites,” she said. “It means we’re doing good, strong work to bring these stories to light and give Americans a more complex and comprehensive history.”
So far, the project has received “exclusively positive feedback,” said Sarratt. “The community is excited that these stories are here in Lancaster… that we get to do this.”
She added that in an era when some historical institutions face censorship or political pressure, it’s important to maintain the freedom to tell full, nuanced stories. “Historic sites are trusted because they do the work… stripping them of their autonomy is a dangerous business,” she said.
Rosenheck noted that this history has long been celebrated by others in Lancaster, including leaders like Nelson Polite, former president of the African-American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania. “There are people who have been celebrating the story before us and along with us. So I think we’re in great company,” she said.
