Lynn Hall’s new owners are old hands at restorations/By Martha Knight

The restaurant, home, architect studio and landmark known as Lynn Hall used to seem as if it had emerged from the hillside along Route 6, three miles past Port Allegany toward Smethport. So much a part of its setting was the sprawling building, with its indigenous stone, a viewer could imagine Walter Hall and his crew “discovering” it by removing the surrounding earth and rock.

In recent years, though, viewers could have the impression that the hillside, or Nature, was swallowing up the manmade beauty of Lynn Hall, re-assimilating the building by degrees, with giant evergreens obscuring it and dropping layers of needles, water and frost washing out mortar and heaving the stone.

Lynn Hall is the only place in the Port Allegany area that is on the National Register of Historic Places. But it looked as if it might become history, in the worst sense. People would comment about its plight, and say, “What a shame!” But who could rescue it? What prince would chop through the tree-hedge and waken this beauty?

Think of the cost! Think of all the skills that would be required! Who would understand this particular architecture, and grasp this approach to masonry? Who would be able to work within the constraints of historic preservation that go with a registry listing? Some said it couldn’t be done privately; there would have to be some organization, and grant funding. But no such group jelled.

Enter Gary and Susan DeVore, retired business owners. This couple, most recently residents of St. Paul, Minn. (on a paddle-wheeler they rehabbed), are old hands at restoration, team building, running programs, construction processes. And they are the new owners of Lynn Hall.

Theirs is a patient, painstaking, hands-on approach. They foresee five to seven years of hard, methodical work at Lynn Hall.

First the DeVores are working to make the separate, small residence at Lynn Hall into a home and headquarters for themselves. They have taken some protective measures at Lynn Hall proper, and of course, they have studied it and its history extensively. Susan has roots in the Smethport area and attended school there.

The DeVores spent the greater part of their 30-year career directing summer camps and youth development programs for inner city youth in Boston, Chicago and Milwaukee. More than half of that time they also operated their own private camp dealing with inner city youth, and also providing camp programs for religious and youth organizations.

Experience gained in those social work oriented programs was repurposed in the form of services offered to corporations, which became another element in the DeVores’ business. They provided team building and group problem solving workshops to various companies.

Between them the DeVores have nearly 50 years of experience in architecture, construction and building rehab. Gary grew up working with his father, a stone mason and builder. Later he was able to oversee maintenance and construction at summer camps, including grounds and as many as 50 buildings at a site. He dealt with utilities, roads and landscaping.

Susan believes she inherited, or absorbed, some of the “hard-working culture of the Swedes here in northwest Pennsylvania,” and describes herself as “a willing partner in both destruction and construction.” Gary says she takes the lead in decoration and finish.

Looking back on previous restoration projects, the DeVores mention a 200-year-old New Hampshire lodge, an old lakeside cottage in northern Wisconsin, a “gut-rehab” of a 150-year-old original Mississippi farmhouse, a 4H summer camp, and the paddle-wheeler on the Mississippi.

Travel has been a favorite pleasure for the DeVores, as well as a form of research. Usually they bicycle, taking a close look at landscape and structures. They have biked coast to coast in the U.S., Australia, England and Scotland. Sometimes they have worked with schools and involved students in their adventures. They confess to being avid boaters and hikers, and “have already scoped out local routes for our daily walks.”

Wherever the DeVores have been, they have checked out the range of architectural interpretations of prairies style architecture. Gary studied at the University of Wisconsin School of Architecture, which is guided by a strong prairie-style philosophy.

“When we came across Lynn Hall we knew it needed to be our next project,” says Gary.

The DeVores do most of their own work, but also work with local craftspeople and suppliers as much as possible.

They have begun what they describe as “the careful dismantling of the buildings, to record the techniques and to assure historical accuracy in the reconstruction.”

Then what? The DeVores have considered several possibilities, but say the final direction of a project emerges as they proceed.

“Once we feel the site is clean and safe, we will attempt to offer limited tours of the facility so the public can follow our progress,” Gary says. Also, they are building a website so interested onlookers can see Lynn Hall’s restoration, stage by stage.

Reciprocity will be valued. “We would appreciate any pictures and stories people have of their Lynn Hall experiences,” Gary says, adding, “We are thankful to the descendants of the Hall family for deciding that we were the right new owners to return Lynn Hall to some of its former glory.”