Williamsport- The Lycoming County Historical Society will continue its 2017 Lecture Series on Thursday, October 12, at a Coffee Hour held at 10am in the Community Room of its Taber Museum. The guest speaker will be Charles (Chuck) Luppert who will speak on “Williamsport’s Historic Lumber Era.” Luppert is President of the Board of Governors of the Historical Society.
Presented in a series of slides, Luppert will recount the history of the Log Boom and the rise of Williamsport to become the ‘lumber capital of the world.’ Chuck Luppert’s family was intimately associated with the lumber boom of the 19th century. His ancestor George Luppert, a German immigrant, founded the Keystone Furniture Company. George’s son Valentine Charles Luppert, worked in his father’s factory as a carver and designer. It was Valentine who developed the Luppert friction hinge, a device used to hold a bureau’s mirror at different angles. Because of the great demand for the hinge and the inability of the furniture factory to keep up with requests for the same, the Keystone Friction Hinge Factory was formed in 1905. Valentine Luppert continued his entrepreneurial spirit, forming the Keystone Food Products Company, the Imperial Band Instrument Works, and the Park, Keystone and Rialto Theatres.
The Lecture Series focuses on ‘Communities’ for the 2017 season, combining Coffee Hours (Thursday mornings at 10am, March through June, September through December) with Society Programs (Sunday afternoons at 2pm, May through October). A total of fourteen lectures are presented throughout the year. All are free and open to the public. Light refreshments are served for the Coffee Hours. The next Society Program will be held on Sunday, October 15, and will feature Sherry Gardner Kuiper speaking on the history of Picture Rocks. Her Arcadia publication on Picture Rocks will be available for purchase.