LOWER MERION — Members of the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners held a moment of silence for a township woman who they credited with doing a lot to help build the knowledge and preserve the township’s historic properties.
Karen Rueter Nagel passed away June 6 at the age of 77.
“Karen was an original member of the Historical Commission when it was founded in 2000,” said Todd Sinai, president of the boad of commissioners. “She was in her third term of service when she passed away.”
Commissioner Scott Zelov outlined some of her accomplishments in preservation in Lower Merion.
“She made significant contributions to historic preservation in Lower Merion Township over the course of many decades,” Zelov said. “She was a founding member of the Lower Merion Preservation Trust, which was the predecessor organization to what is today the Lower Merion Conservancy. She was on that board for 26 years.”
Zelov said Nagel was a longtime member of the Appleford Committee and the Lower Merion Historical Society.
“She received a preservation award from our Historical Architecture Review Board,” Zelov said. “Among the properties that Karen helped to save was the Frank Furness-designed Gerhard Building at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Keren also contributed to the enormous effort to document the township’s historical resources, a process that led to the creation of the historical resource inventory and the historical commission in 2000.”
Zelov said Nagel prepared countless historical dossiers of historic properties throughout the township.
According to Zelov, the work Nagel did in the township will benefit Lower Merion through research, documentation, and protection of its historic heritage.
