This letter was submitted to LebTown. Read LebTown’s submission policy here.
I wonder how many US citizens today would say that it would be OK to demolish General George S. Patton Jr.’s birthplace? Patton was born and raised at Lake Vineyard, his family’s ranch, which was leveled and developed into the Huntington Library complex in San Marino, California, long before he had gained imperishable fame in World War II.
Today, we have a rare (but fading) opportunity here in Lebanon, PA, to possibly preserve the boyhood home of General Alexander M. Patch, Jr., one of General Patton’s close colleagues.
General Patch secured final victory at Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in 1943 and went on to command the US Seventh Army in the invasion of Southern France in 1944. A selfless man, General Patch was beloved by his troops. For highlights of General Patch’s military career, see my letter in LebTown dated July 25, 2022.
Read More: [Letter] Alexander M. ‘Sandy’ Patch, the most underrated general of World War II
General Patch grew up in the Donaghmore-Patch Mansion at 1430 Chestnut Street in Lebanon. (The mansion occupies its own parcel, separate from but surrounded by the school located at 1400 Chestnut Street.) The mansion became part of Lebanon Catholic High School, and was used for offices and to house faculty. The school was closed in 2020 and the complex was bought by a developer (for an undisclosed sum at the time) who initially proposed to demolish the mansion to make way for housing. See two articles; a comprehensive history of the mansion published in LebTown on July 8, 2020, and another article outlining the developer’s initial plans, dated Feb. 24, 2022:
After listening to community input, the developer agreed in 2023 to preserve the mansion and make it part of the proposed housing complex as a memorial to the servicemen and women of WWII and to be used as offices by the management company. See two LebTown articles; a letter dated June 1, 2022, urging preservation, and the other dated May 4, 2023, outlining the developer’s incorporation of the preserved mansion into his plans and disclosing the June 2022 purchase price of $2.2 million for the property.
The development did not proceed for whatever reasons, and the Lebanon School District Board of Directors voted 7-2 in May 2025 to purchase the property for $5.25 million – $3.05 million more than what the developer paid for it just three years prior.
In an article in LebTown dated May 20, 2025, the now-late former long-time solicitor for the school district George Christianson expressed his shock upon hearing about the price to be paid by the district to the developer: “When I heard that figure, I thought they were kidding or that maybe there might be a special purpose.”
Read More: Lebanon school board OKs $5.25 million purchase of Lebanon Catholic property
Also contained in the above-linked article was this quote affecting the mansion’s status, from the district’s superintendent: “…the district intends to demolish the existing buildings and use the land ‘for future educational and administrative offices,’ but gave no timetable or firm plans.”
Since the mansion was apparently again slated for demolition, the community and a member of the Patch family spoke up, urging preservation in these two letters to LebTown dated May 27, 2025, and July 23, 2025.
Disappointed in this shocking “bolt from the blue” from the Lebanon School District, I also decided to make my views known via three private letters sent via USPS First Class Mail to the superintendent and board secretary at their offices in the high school, including hard copies for each of the nine directors. On May 14, I sent the outline of General Patch’s military career (linked above) followed by two other letters.
- June 16, 2025: My daughter, a graduate of Lebanon High, who wrote two letters to LebTown urging preservation of the mansion (published in June 2022 and May 2025 and linked above), also took the time to speak to the board in person for an allotted three minutes on May 9, 2025. This prompted me to compose my own written three-minute presentation for the board. In it, I used references from US & world history in an attempt to outline the mansion’s value in being readapted as a teaching facility (similar to the developer’s 2023 plans for offices) and urged the district’s leaders to work with the community to find a workable path toward preserving the building.
- July 11, 2025: Alex Patch, a descendant of the mansion’s Patch Family, had kindly given me some historical photos which I used in this letter. I noted that in addition to using the mansion as an educational center for teaching leadership, we would also do well to emphasize the engineering arts, since General Patch’s engineers were very prominent in his army’s crossing of the Rhine River into Germany in March 1945.
I have not received any replies to my three letters; perhaps my letters or the district’s replies were lost in the mail. In a LebTown article dated Oct. 21, 2025, the district confirms that it is receiving bids for demolition of the mansion.
Read More: Lebanon SD bids Lebanon Catholic demolition, will tear down mansion
Short of an intervention by a deus ex machina that changes minds to at least delay the irrevocable act to consider possible alternatives, all would appear to be lost.
Robert Kise is a military historian and retired battlefield guide who lives in Lebanon.
