Construction crews began tearing down the historic Avalong barn in Springettsbury Township on Tuesday morning. The building started to come down around 7 a.m. along the 2800 block of Whiteford Road.
The Springettsbury Township board approved a plan to build a new Susquehanna Bank at the barns current location at a Feb. 28 meeting.
The white barn formerly housed the Pfaltzgraff Outlet. Plans to tear down the barn have met with resistance, as protestors laud the historical value of the barn.
Susquehanna Bank issued the following statement:
“We certainly understand the concern about losing the Meadowbrook/Avalong Farms barn. It is never easy to part with a piece of the past, especially one that is the source of so many memories. Although the barn was once part of a dairy farm and was later converted to a retail store, it has been vacant in recent years and no workable reuse of the barn has emerged. Our bank proposed to lease the site to build a new branch, consulted with the state Bureau of Historic Preservation to determine that the property was not a National Register-eligible historic site, and received approval for the project from the township. Building the new branch will return the property to an active role in the business community, helping families to achieve their financial goals and providing businesses with financing to grow and increase employment opportunities. We intend to incorporate the barn’s cupola and cow weathervane into the branch and display images of the barn and Avalong Farms. As a bank that has been serving central Pennsylvania for more than a century, we are invested in the community’s past and its future.”