Meet Lee Stoltzfus
History, Community & Love: Meet Lee Stoltzfus of @lancaster_streetscape
Recently, while walking the streets of our lovely city, I experienced a super-fan moment. Like, a “Oh my gosh, it’s him!” moment. A “Should I talk to him? But what if I embarrass myself?” moment. You know the kind I’m talking about. But there he was, taking pictures, and I decided to take the chance and approach him to say, “I love your work.”
And when he did not step away in fear from this complete stranger recognizing him on the streets of Lancaster, I pushed myself to continue: “I look forward to each new picture you share. How do you get the homes to just pop off the screen?” But before he could answer, I boldly asked, “Would you be willing to be interviewed for Fine Living Lancaster magazine?”
As you might now guess, yes was his answer. I continued my walk home, euphoric about the opportunity to spend time learning about this talented local photographer and his account that has been dominating my Instagram account.
On a surprisingly warm late winter day, sitting in the backyard of the Wolf Museum of Music, Lee Stoltzfus—an extraordinary photographer of Lancaster City homes, as seen on his popular Instagram account @lancaster_streetscape—sat and chatted with me about his life, his loves, and his extraordinary talent for capturing the beautiful architectural designs of our city.
Lee is now retired. His former job was the buying and selling antique books (yet another reason that this history nerd/bibliophile is so enamored of her interviewee). Now, he has taken this time to downsize and teach himself the skills necessary to produce photographs that truly astound his followers. He shares that the photographs featured on his account are simply taken with an iPhone. Then, however, they go through Lee’s rigorous, self-taught Adobe Photoshop editing process. Lee explains that his goal is to make Lancaster City look as good as possible, and suggests that, through his photos, he can share what these historic homes used to look like before electrical lines, air conditioners in windows, and—the bane of every city home owner—those ugly gas meters.
He refers to his daily walks to discover his next photo subject as “urban hiking.” He prefers gray days, as well as spring and autumn days when the trees are at their most colorful and fullest. He does his best to avoid street cleaning days.
Through his travels, and later his digital research via LNP archives and the Lancaster Historical Society’s archives, Lee discovers the history and details that make each house and its past inhabitants come alive for his followers.
He tells me that he does not have a “favorite child” (by which, of course, he means a favorite house), though his post of a particular yellow home on W. Orange Street that once served as the location of the Red Cross has received the most likes. Instead, his favorite is the home he is researching at any given time.
As we speak, Lee excitedly shares that he is fascinated by the single-family homes located on Howard Avenue. These homes were built in the 1700s, and have been overshadowed by larger, fancy houses; but, as he explains, they represent an important part of Lancaster City, and he’s digging hard into discovering and recreating for his followers the stories of the people that lived and loved in those homes, just as he does for all of the homes he photographs.
“I want to celebrate my community and all of the people in that community,” Lee says. “These homes have stories to tell. I want to tell the stories of all of the people that lived, worshiped, danced, felt joy and sorrow. So often the women are forgotten. Generations will be recorded with indiscriminate mention of the women, but a complete listing of the men.”
Lee’s body of work includes a website that showcases the various architectural styles found in Lancaster City, from Federal to Victorian, as well as a map of where you can find those homes. On his connected Pinterest page, you can find all of his photographs, organized by category (from window boxes to urban trees, C. Emblem Urban to candles in windows, and more). As I got lost in his photographs, I kept thinking that we live in such a beautiful town, so rich in appreciation for preserving our history and celebrating our community.
At 67-years-old, Lee has no plans on slowing down any time soon. He is active in Lancaster’s vibrant Downtowners club, and appreciates attending Landis Valley Museum’s annual Herb and Garden Faire, which he created decades ago. Lee loves his community and his own Mennonite roots. Now, he is reveling in his purposeful work, done on his own time.
As he sits outside at any one of our city’s cafés, in his words, “looking busy,” researching his current subject, Lee always finds a way to celebrate the diverse, beautiful city we all share, generation after generation.
By Marian Pontz
