Bill Gantt
Life on the quiet block of Sylvan Terrace in Allison Hill was reminiscent of an old-fashioned neighborhood—almost idyllic.
Neighbors became friends, and their children played tag on the sidewalk, caught fireflies in the summer, and built snow forts on days off from school. The adults lent a hand in each other’s gardens and shared plates of food. The elders and parents all kept a watchful eye on the kids from their front porches.
When a huge snowstorm hit the city one year and the plow couldn’t make it down their tight street, neighbors shoveled the road and dug out parking spots for those who had to work.
“That’s the kind of community we have,” said Deb Rodriguez. “Our neighbors look out for each other.”
Bill and Deb Gantt’s house sits near the middle of the snug block, and neighbors attributed much of the camaraderie on the block to the family.
Next door to their house is the late Eulalia “Lala” Rodriguez’s home, where the families have been neighbors since 1977. Several of Lala’s children and grandchildren have also lived in the neighborhood.
Nearly 10 members of the Rodriguez and Gantt families gathered in the home this spring to reminisce on the neighborhood and share Bill’s story with me—a story that is deeply bound to their own, and their neighborhood’s.
Over the decades, the families’ lives became entwined. Bill was known to casually walk in the front door with a tin of home baked cookies or cake and leave with some of Lala’s signature rice and beans.
When Bill wasn’t baking, he was working on his home, which he restored and designed himself, tending to his garden or helping his neighbors with projects.
“He was like the glue that held the block together,” said Gloria Montalvo, one of the nine children of Lala.
Bill passed away in December from health complications, leaving a hole in the community that he deeply loved. Harrisburg was his home, and the community his passion. And his impact reached beyond Sylvan Terrace, to all of Allison Hill, where he would regularly take on beautification projects and frequent the local watering holes to meet people and make new friends.
Possibly his longest, most dedicated project was planting flowers annually in the historic horse watering trough at Mulberry and Derry streets. Every spring, for 50 years, Bill planted the flowers on his own dime.
“Spring’s coming up, so this is when he’d always be out, so it’s going to be sad,” Montalvo said.
However, the family and neighbors won’t let the watering trough sit empty. They’ve already come together, with help from local organizations, to fill it with flowers in Bill’s honor—fulfilling a final request of his.
“This man devoted his life to that,” said Deb Rodriguez, who married into the Rodriguez family and lives on the block. “There are a lot of people in our community that really do care—Bill was at the pinnacle. He was our go-to guy.”
Preservation Pioneer
Gantt moved to Harrisburg in 1970 for a job downtown at the old Pomeroy’s department store. Living in the same city apartment building, young Bill met Deb, who thought he was handsome. Like the start of a rom-com movie (Bill brought the comedy—his friends and family described him as a jokester) the couple started dating, later married, and bought their Sylvan Terrace home.
The couple fell in love with the city and enjoyed raising their son Julian in such a family-friendly and diverse neighborhood.
The neighbors represented various cultures and races—the Rodriguez’s being Puerto Rican, the Gantts white, and other neighbors were Asian, Greek, Black and Latino—and they celebrated their differences. Although, mostly, they didn’t really think about them, the neighbors shared, as they saw each other as family.
“You didn’t really experience differences,” said Andrea Taylor, Deb and Angelo Rodriguez’s daughter who grew up playing with Julian and the neighborhood kids. “You never thought about it.”
Julian believes that was part of why Bill appreciated his community so much. It was different from his upbringing at his family’s small dairy farm in West Virginia.
“He loved getting to know people from different backgrounds and different cultures,” Julian said. “He was very curious and open and wanted to learn more. He loved the diversity, loved the community.”
Bill wanted his neighborhood to take pride in where they lived, which drove his community and historical work on Allison Hill. He started the South Allison Hill Civic Association and the Allison Hill Municipal Historic District, served on the Harrisburg Architectural Review Board and worked closely with the Historic Harrisburg Association.
“He was really a history preservation pioneer in Allison Hill,” said David Morrison, executive director of HHA. “He was certainly one of the major leaders. His impact on that neighborhood was huge.”
Morrison described his preservation work as “contagious,” and Bill helped neighbors with home projects, while also restoring several houses that he owned.
Bill was an artist and a master of interior design, even crafting curtains for and wallpapering the city’s historic John Harris Mansion, and eventually opening his own storefront.
He loved to use his many talents to help his neighbors. That included hand-crafting a bassinet for a new baby, teaching neighbors some of his skills, and, lovingly, telling a neighbor that if they adjusted their Christmas decorations, the display would look better.
“He would say, ‘I don’t know what you did there, but I would take all of that down. It doesn’t even match.’ I’d say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. We’re Puerto Rican so it doesn’t have to match,’” Diana Rodriguez said jokingly.
Neighborhood Guy
When Andre Butts opened his restaurant, Uncle Dre’s Café on Vernon Street four years ago, Bill quickly became a regular—and a friend.
He came to the café dressed for Halloween, was a judge for the Superbowl hot wing eating contest and would often engage in long conversations with Butts.
“He was a neighborhood guy,” Butts said. “Everybody knew him. He was all about the community.”
Bill’s wife Deb said that he loved going to the local bars to meet people and have conversations about life and Allison Hill. And while people knew he was involved, he never made a show of it, but worked quietly and committedly behind the scenes.
“He just loved it here. He loved his neighbors, and he tried to do whatever he could to improve the neighborhood,” Deb Rodriguez said. “He was so instrumental in all the good things that happened in this neighborhood.”
To continue his legacy, the family will organize the flower planting at the historic watering trough, with aid from local organizations. Historic Harrisburg Association has offered its Community Historic Preservation Fund to collect donations to maintain the trough in Bill’s honor. The Latino Hispanic American Community Center, located near the structure, will also pitch in by using a stipend of the donated funds to pay someone to care for the plants.
Julian believes his dad would’ve loved to see how people have come together to continue beautifying his beloved Allison Hill. Because to Bill, his community was really his world. He wanted others to feel pride in where they lived because that was unapologetically how he felt.
And so, the story of Bill’s life and that of his neighborhood are so tied up that one couldn’t be told without the other.
“It was totally intertwined with his identity—living in Allison Hill,” Julian said. “It was who he was. He chose to live there. He set up his life there after leaving the farm. It was totally part of his soul—living in that neighborhood.”
To donate to Historic Harrisburg Association’s fund for the historic watering trough, visit www.historicharrisburg.org/getinvovled/donate and note that the donation is for the “Bill Gantt Fund.”
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