The building was close to caving in.

But the town of Jim Thorpe rallied to save it.Now a statewide organization has singled out the project for a prestigious award.The reborn 1878 Kemmerer Carriage House in Jim Thorpe is getting rave reviews. Preservation Pennsylvania, the only private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of the state's historically and architecturally significant resources, has chosen the project for an initiative award, recognizing community involvement.The restoration project, a work in progress, will be recognized by Preservation Pennsylvania later this month at a ceremony in Huntingdon.The building isn't simply an old carriage house.The Kemmerer building is the final vestige related to one of four Front Hill mansions that once graced the steep hillside. Some of America's wealthiest families lived inside those majestic homes Josiah White, John Leisenring, Edwin Douglas and Mahlon Kemmerer.The carriage house was built by Leisenring and turned over to Kemmerer when he married Leisenring's daughter Annie.It housed stables located uphill from the majestic mansion and its 25 or more rooms.Kemmerer died in 1926, and his daughter donated the property to the people of Mauch Chunk, now Jim Thorpe.To the rear were a few other elegant domiciles, such as the extant Asa and Harry Packer mansions.But the four Front Hill mansions, home to magnates of America's Industrial Revolution, are gone.The Kemmerer House was lost in the 1930s, ruined by water damage.A basketball court in Kemmerer Park now defines its footprint.And the carriage house was only two weeks away from demolition in 2008 before local residents stepped forward to save it.Many hurdles were overcome along the way.For example, an electrical line was run to the building, a 425-foot-deep well was dug, a grinder pump was installed, and a 375-foot sewer line was required to connect to a municipal system.It must be noted that the building sits on a mountainside so steep and inaccessible that some contractors refused to bid.The restored brick carriage house now includes a main-level apartment where rent paid by tenant and restoration enthusiast Martha Sullivan helps to generate income to help sustain the property.Plans are underway to complete the upper floor to provide meeting space for nonprofits and a museum to honor the Front Hill entrepreneurs and their families.And so what was once a home for horses will now serve as a cultural touchstone and a monument to adaptive reuse.John Drury of the Mauch Chunk Museum, head of volunteers, said the project was fraught with obstacles."The hardest part was the fear that we wouldn't get enough funds," said the man who, at the start, reached into his own pocket to install a $40,000 fence to secure the site.In fact, appreciative organizers named the old horse trail approaching the carriage house "Drury Lane" to honor him.But Drury took the sign down, saying it's a community effort.Today, Drury deflects any recognition and instead points to the many groups and individuals making it happen.Among them: the museum, Mauch Chunk Historical Society, Borough of Jim Thorpe, Kemmerer Family Foundation, Leisenring family, Kemmerer Memorial Park Association, Carbon County Correctional Facility, Jim Thorpe Area High School, Colaviti Construction, The Home Tune Up, Carbon Career and Technical Institute and Troop 555, BSA.The award will be presented Sept. 26 at Juniata College.