Preliminary approval <\/p>\n
Erie City Council on Aug. 5 approved a first-reading ordinance regarding the designation. Council must still give final approval to the designation before the city’s zoning map is amended to reflect the property’s historic status.<\/p>\n
That could happen as soon as City Council’s next regular meeting on Aug. 19. <\/p>\n
Historical zoning designations aim to protect and preserve properties deemed historically, architecturally or culturally significant. In some cases, the designation can also help owners access specific types of grant funding. <\/p>\n
Erie City Hall: City government headquarters added to National Register of Historic Places<\/a><\/p>\n The 4,240 square foot building is currently owned by an entity named Lease Erie LLC, according to Erie County property records. <\/p>\n Matthew Falcone, the City of Erie\u2019s historic preservation planner and cultural resource manager, has said the city’s Planning Commission and Historic Review Commission<\/a> also support a historic zoning designation for the Forman Block property.<\/p>\n The commission is a seven-member group with five citizen appointees that advises city officials on historic preservation issues.<\/p>\n Forman Block history<\/p>\n According to city historic nomination documents, the Forman Block building was constructed in an area that primarily housed wooden structures occupied by European immigrants in the 1800s.<\/p>\n In November 1875, according to city documents, the property was conveyed from Alanson Sherwood and his wife, Clarissa Sherwood, to Isaac Armstrong Forman, who would develop it into the Forman Block.<\/p>\n For the next several decades the building housed various commercial and\/or residential tenants. “Business advertisements from this time, as well as the building\u2019s interior features, indicate that the first floor was used (as) a commercial storefront space. The second floor operated as individual office space for rent, accessible through the grand staircase, and the third floor were high-end rooms to rent,” according to city documents.<\/p>\n Spencer House: Erie bed and breakfast poised to gain historic status from city<\/a><\/p>\n Erie’s Winter family owned the building in 1911 to 1981, city documents show, operating the Winter Piano Company there. Other businesses that would operate at the building in later years include the Winter Inn; State Street Food Market; Docksider; the Crooked I; and McCoy’s Barrelhouse & Grill.<\/p>\n City officials are considering the Forman House for historic status in part because it is an example of Romanesque Revival architecture, a 19th-century building style inspired by medieval European Romanesque architecture that features heavy masonry, thick walls, round semicircular arches, square\/round towers, and stone facades. <\/p>\n It was a popular style for churches, university buildings, prisons and other public buildings.<\/p>\n Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at@ETNflowers<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Historic status eyed for downtown Erie’s Forman Block building<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/daf1bb07-0961-4c8c-a318-ef0015a25ddf.jpg\"\/)
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