
Working within the Early American palette popularized by Wallace Nutting, Lewis created a symmetrical complex of elegant buildings to serve as the civic heart of an affluent suburban enclave. Donated in memory of Scranton industrialist Henry Belin Jr., the Community House contains a multipurpose auditorium/gymnasium, attached by arcaded breezeways to hyphens containing the community's library and post office. In its programmatic ambitions, this is a direct descendant of Andrew Carnegie's first libraries in the industrial towns of southwestern Pennsylvania. The socioeconomic gulf between this comfortable village and the Monongahela Valley illustrates the distance traveled by this particular form of paternal benevolence.