THROOP -- A project to restore an old school building in Lackawanna County is taking shape. A contractor purchased the former St. Anthony's School in Throop, hoping to save it from demolition.
"I hate to say it, but it seems anything that's in disrepair is torn down anymore."
Tom Lukasewicz didn't want a building on Boulevard Avenue in Throop to meet that fate, so he bought it seven years ago.
"If you would have seen this place seven years ago, it would have been torn down," said Lukasewicz.
It took all that time to slowly restructure the century-old building. Now Lukasewicz is almost done with the outside of the property.
"Basically, I've been trying to restore the outside and keep the integrity of the building as it had looked back in the 1900s when it was built."
Lukasewicz says he thinks the building was built back in 1900, but most people in Throop will remember it as St. Anthony's School. Its cornerstone is still on display.
Lukasewicz went to Sunday school there and now he spends a lot of his free time inside its walls. There's still a lot of work to do, but he now has permits to open a coffee shop on the first floor.
"It's got some history to me, but a lot more history to the people who lived in Throop and actually went to school here," he said.
Frank Sekelsky knows the old St. Anthony's well and in the past, feared it would be torn down. Now he thinks a coffee shop is the perfect fit.
"There's nothing here unless you want to go to Scranton, or you want to go up the mall or some place. It would be great if he could do that," said Sekelsky.
"What I want to do is have an area where people from Throop can come and sit down, talk to one another, a nice neighborhood meeting area," Lukasewicz added.
Lukasewicz is trying to fix St. Anthony's without taking out a loan. If all goes well, he hopes to open his shop sometime next year.