Sometimes plans don’t pan out.

And maybe things happen differently because they’re meant to.

That might be the best way to characterize what occurred between two youths growing up in 1950s Mahanoy City.

Blue collar life for many boys in the hardscrabble, coal region town was anchored in football, baseball and basketball.

Many youngsters longed to become a sports hero. Others studied for a career in trades.

Michael Cheslock dreamed of becoming a journalist. Friend and classmate Gary Senavites was interested in animals and biology. Likely a future veterinarian.

But together, the schoolmates admired visual arts and architecture, especially when walking past a familiar old house dominating a corner parcel.

They saw greatness in the declining Victorian mansion setting on a gentle rise at the end of Main Street. A stone palace losing its luster.

Time was taking a toll, posing a threat to ornate details and majestic design.

The two boys looked up at the stone castle with wisps of imagination. They wondered what could be.

And in those moments, forged a bond that would last a lifetime.

Smith Mansion

In its day, the 1908 John Zincak Smith Mansion was the embodiment of the American dream.

It was built by a Rusyn immigrant who left Carpathian Ruthenia with only $5 in his pocket.

Through entrepreneurship in shipping and banking, Smith amassed enough money to build the $40,000 mansion overlooking downtown.

With 14 rooms, stained glass windows and elegant chandeliers, it stood in stark contrast to miners’ houses, the simple housing stock lining narrow streets nearby.

“It was a place made to be shown,” said Cheslock.

Sadly, the structure had fallen on hard times. Just about abandoned.

“After the Smith family left, there was no real full-time ownership, about the 1970s.”

A succession of short-term owners came and went, each stripping away some of the mansion’s valuable appointments.

By 1986, the place was up for sale again.

Nobody, it seemed, had interest or ability to step in.

So Cheslock and Senavites saw their opportunity.

Neither had pursued earlier career goals. Instead, they had stayed together, opening a plant shop in the Lehigh Valley.

“We were doing interior plantscaping for malls and commercial buildings,” said Senavites. It was just meant to be.

So they pooled resources, channeled their talents, and embarked on what would become a 40-year labor of love.

They painstakingly restored the mansion by relying on self-taught skills and boundless imagination.

“We just didn’t want to see it lost, or another parking lot,” said Cheslock.

They did their best to honor the mansion’s 1908 appearance.

“We even had a man scrape down coats of paint from the original wallpaper,” said Senavites. “We still have a strip of it for framing.”

‘Makes a statement’

By the 1990s, the stately mansion was ready for public showing.

The local Chamber of Commerce conducted a tour, selling tickets for $1.

“At the Christmas tour in 1993, we had 1,200 people come through in one day,” said Cheslock.

The private residence hosted meetings, teas, socials and even Halloween tours. It occasionally still does.

And it operates without a supporting retinue. No operational staff, no nonprofit foundation, no advisory board.

Instead, it’s run by those two young boys who dared to dream. Two gifted children who fell in love with the house in the 1950s and envisioned something glorious.

Today’s Smith Mansion is a reflection of their devotion. It honors unwavering perseverance to save and restore a grand residence.

“There so much of both of us wrapped up in this house,” Cheslock admitted.

Of course, it’s not just any old house. It’s a landmark and one of Schuylkill County’s finest homes.

“It makes a statement about what Mahanoy City was,” he said.

Now in their 70s, the men ponder the mansion’s future.

“It should be placed in the right hands,” Cheslock said.

Both he and Senavites envision it a valued, appreciated, perpetual community resource. It must be protected.

They’re tossing around ideas, uncertain what will happen. Or even what should.

But they have faith the answers will come. Because all of this is just too important, they said.

The Smith Mansion has returned to glory. It must remain.

Because some things are just meant to be.