Keith DeVore stands with his wife, Maria, behind his newly created podium during its presentation at the council meeting.
Photo courtesy: Gabe Tenaglia
by Maryanna Savage Phinn
Keith DeVore of Langhorne Borough regularly attends meetings at Langhorne Borough Hall as a committee member for the town’s Planning Commission and the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB). Over the years he observed many people presenting at meetings at a nondescript podium in the chamber room.
“We had a little rickety podium which was really just a four by four standing up. It was cut at an angle with a board on top and with metal brackets holding it together,” Keith said. “So, while sitting at these meetings and watching people give presentations, I just said to myself, the borough deserves something which better suits what a great place it is to live here.”
As a retired union carpenter and cabinetmaker, Keith decided it was time to design and build another podium to replace it with something more dignified for council meetings and presentations. As a highly skilled cabinetmaker, he said he spent many years building fixtures and doing custom millwork for Strawbridge & Clothier and Gimbels department stores at their former flagship locations in Philadelphia.
After approaching the borough council president and another member about his idea to build a new podium, Keith got approval to build it at no cost to the borough. The new podium was unveiled and presented to the borough council at the October monthly meeting.
“I wanted to do it totally gratis as just a small legacy of myself to the borough,” he said. “Fortunately, I had a large black walnut tree which was dead in my yard from about five years ago. It had to come down, so I hired a person to come with a bandsaw mill and sawed it into planks and lumber right in my backyard. Then I stacked and air dried them under cover for four years. And that’s some of the wood I used for the podium.”
Keith noted that his tree was American Black Walnut which is prized for its lumber. “It’s one of the most expensive native lumbers that you can buy,” he explained.
Keith and his wife, Maria, have been borough residents for more than 20 years. They live in one of the oldest historic residences in the borough, a circa 1801 federal style home. “I’ve always been making furniture, like my front door, my bedroom set and different chairs, but I never wanted to do it for a living. It’s a hard living to make furniture and sell it to make a comfortable life.” But, he noted that he enjoys making furniture as a hobby and for their home. The couple also collect antiques as another hobby. “We always try to find things made around the period that our house was built. We have a lot of stuff from the early 1800s and late 1700s.”
Before the new podium was presented at the October council meeting, Keith brought it to Borough Hall earlier in the day and covered it. He talked to the members about his idea and how it came to fruition before unveiling it. “I think everyone liked it. I think it’s something good for the borough for years to come,” he said. To ensure that future Langhorne Borough residents and local leaders will always know the history of this unique project, Keith also had a brass plaque etched and fastened underneath the podium noting that he designed, built and presented the podium to the borough council in the fall of 2024.