Less than a month ago, state legislators gathered in Jim Thorpe to celebrate $300,000 in grant money secured for major repairs to the Asa Packer Mansion, including a roof replacement.

Now, one of the borough’s most famous homes and a popular tourist attraction is the subject of a contentious debate over who should run its day-to-day operations.

The three-story, 18-room, 11,000-square-foot Italianate Villa style mansion was built in 1861 and home to Packer, a prominent philanthropist, politician, and founder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Lehigh University. His daughter, Mary Packer Cummings, willed the home to Jim Thorpe Borough in 1912. In 1954, the borough struck an agreement with the organization now known as the Jim Thorpe Lions Club, who became caretakers of the property and opened it to the public for tours.

Lions oversight

That 69-year relationship is fraying as several members of borough council said they’d like to see the municipality take back full oversight of administration and caretaking duties at the mansion.

“This really started when Dr. Clem McGinley, a longtime Lions member, came to us with a discussion about how the Lions membership was aging and we thought it just made sense for the borough to take things over,” Council President Greg Strubinger said. “The Packer family is pushing for that. The timing just seemed right.”

Over the past several years, however, the Lions Club has seen some turnover with younger members getting involved and a desire to maintain caretaking responsibilities at the mansion.

Three Lions members, Jay and Pamela McElmoyle, and Kerri Gallagher, addressed council at its May 4 workshop citing concerns about the borough’s future intentions as it relates to the current agreement between the two parties.

Jay McElmoyle, who serves as chairman of the mansion for the Lions Club, said there has been recent confusion among mansion employees over who runs the mansion and protocol spelled out in the borough’s agreement with the Lions has been broken.

“I’m here today in support of the Lions continuing to run the Asa Packer Mansion in good faith,” he said. “This is a community project of the Lions Club with 69 years of investment. I would love to tell you with 100% confidence that moving forward, we will be able to ensure a smooth operation of the mansion, but that would be a lie. What I can tell you is we will put out our best effort to mend what is possible and do our best to resolve this disruption that took place.”

Jay’s wife Pamela, who joined the Lions Club two years ago, said when he became chairman of the mansion, he was never given the keys to the building.

“When I joined the Lions a few years ago, the older members were looking for more members and help with new ideas,” she said. “We’re now up to almost 30 members. We are not pushing out old members, but bringing in new ideas and fresh perspective to help build us back to pre-COVID-19 levels. We have a great team that can help support the mansion and we all want to make decisions for the greater good and betterment of the community.”

Improvements

Borough officials said estimates from engineering firm Barry Isett Associates showed the mansion needs around $650,000 of capital improvement work and when you factor in project contingencies and engineering costs, the total rises to $762,500. The roof replacement alone is pegged at $320,000.

Strubinger said while the relationship with the Lions worked at one time, the borough now has a better ability to take on oversight.

“There was a place for the relationship at one point,” he said. “The Lions have been doing it for a lot of years, but it was a different time. Just because something was done for 70 years, that doesn’t make it applicable in today’s day and age. We have a professional office now and a borough manager. We have three competent staff members now and we’re going to be hiring one more. It’s a different borough. It isn’t run by the council anymore. It no longer makes sense to have someone in between the mansion and the people that own it.”

Current mansion curator Ava Bretzik has been there for almost 50 years and Strubinger said she and the current guides have a lot of experience.

“We’re a little concerned that if something doesn’t change, we’re going to lose them and the wealth of knowledge and experience they have,” he said.

Revenue

Each year, the Lions Club keeps 15% of the net profits at the mansion and pours that money back into the community through events like the annual Halloween Parade, scholarships to students and contributions to other organizations such as the local fire company.

“I think it’s great they are doing that,” Strubinger said, “but I think they should be doing other things to get the money to do that. Mansion money should go back to the mansion.”

According to a letter provided to the Times News by Lions members, talks with the borough regarding updating the current caretaker agreement and better specifying everyone’s roles began in early 2023.

“The Lions Club was blindsided when approached by a borough council member with a draft of an unsigned letter dismissing the Lions Club of their involvement in the mansion,” the letter states.

All communications between the two sides are to be conveyed through a committee each organization appoints, according to the Lions Club, which attributed a delay in the mansion opening for the season to council members “going around the chain of command and speaking directly to staff at the mansion.”

Strubinger, meanwhile, said the Lions Club had not historically honored the part of the agreement that called for them to come to the borough when repairs to the mansion needed to be completed.

“What they did, in some cases, was have friends do the work instead of seeking out more qualified people to do the work,” he said. “Things should have been bid. Sometimes they were and sometimes they weren’t. It just really wasn’t consistent.”

Having joined the Lions Club in September, Kerri Gallagher was looking forward to helping to come up with ideas for new events and activities to generate more revenue for the mansion.

“I’m disappointed in how things between the Lions Club and borough have gone since I have been a Lions member,” Gallagher said. “The Lions took charge of the mansion in 1954 and have been the ones ever since to manage, preserve and promote it. The mansion is not the only part of the Lions Club, but it is a big part of the club. We’d like to have it stay that way.”

Strubinger said he’d like to see a new 501c3 organization formed as an Asa Packer Mansion board of directors. The board would consist of three council members, a director and three at-large members.

“We told the Lions they could apply for those positions,” Strubinger said. “Council has not objected to that new board, so we’ll see what happens.”