By Michael Gryboski, Editor Thursday, September 18, 2025

A Pennsylvania city and a church have reached an agreement to end a months-long eminent domain case, with the municipality paying $350,000 to gain control of a historic property.

The city of Easton and Rock Church of Easton reached an interim agreement over the Hooper House, a local downtown historic property, lehighvalleylive.com reported.

As part of the interim agreement, the city will pay $350,000 to acquire the property, with the funds set to rehabilitate the house. Any money that remains will go to Rock Church, reported lehighvalleylive.com.  

The Hooper House was constructed in 1761 and is one of the surviving buildings in Easton from that time period. Under church ownership, the structure has been vacant for the past few years.

Easton City Solicitor Jeremy Clark announced the interim agreement at a city council meeting held last week, noting that it came just as the two parties were slated to go to trial.

“So, that’s a really great result for the downtown. We get to preserve this property, we can start preservation work on the Hooper House immediately, thanks to this resolution,” said Clark.

In June of last year, the city council approved a resolution introduced by Mayor Salvatore J. Panto Jr. seeking to take control of the Hooper House property via eminent domain.

According to the resolution, the 18th century home “has been deemed blighted by the city” and local officials wanted “to remedy the blighted condition” as well as turn the property into a historical educational resource.

Rock Church had owned the property since 1982. Beginning in April 2012, the historic property has been labeled by officials as being in poor condition due to decades of damage to the structure.

The church and the city had been in talks about the latter acquiring the property for the past few years, with the mayor hoping even after the resolution was passed to reach an agreement instead.

“We’ve never filed against the Rock Church, owners of the Hooper House," Panto said last year, as reported by Lehigh Valley News. “I believe very strongly, and I can say this part of it, that we have two years to restore it. I think it should be done for the 250th anniversary of the country. And so we're bringing it up now.”