(WHTM) -- A Midstate architect's legacy stretches far beyond the buildings he designed and art-lovers in Harrisburg want to make sure everyone in Central Pennsylvania knows who he is.
Walking around her childhood home, the passage of time for Dr. Mary Simmonds is visible.
"Look how high that is," she said, gesturing to a fir tree. "My father would put Christmas lights on it and maybe needed a ladder, and now you could never do that."
Still, on the outside and the inside, some things haven't changed.
"The structure of the house, is original, in fact, we have not even replaced windows," Simmonds said.
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It has been more than 60 years since Simmonds and her family moved in but she remembers it well.
"[I] remember being in school that day and going home to a new house," she said.
She also remembers the man who designed the home -- whose name appears on the original blueprint.
"I. William Eppleman, registered architect, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida," Simmonds read.
In his career, Eppleman, a Pennsylvania native, helped design famous buildings in major cities, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In the 50s, he moved to Harrisburg and designed the Simmonds family home, among others.
"We do know now that it's a very special house," Simmonds said.
His influence, however is not just evident in the walls but in what hangs on them.
"Mr. Eppleman did collect art and...I think inspired my parents," Simmonds said, adding that Eppleman gifted her parents several pieces of art.
That influence stretches far beyond one home.
"I absolutely love this piece, number one, I’m a sucker for a really good, beautiful print," Rachel O'Connor, curator at the Art Association of Harrisburg, said of one of the pieces Eppleman collected.
O'Connor is the curator for the Art Association's newest exhibit The Eppleman Collection.
"I'm talking visual art, which you see here, I'm talking furniture, craft, literature, music in the form of records," she said.
O'Connor said the Art Association already had some of Eppleman's art collection in-house, but the exhibit also includes pieces inherited by close family friends.
"It's like the gift that keeps on giving, you know, it just keeps carrying on," O'Connor said.
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She explained Eppleman collected pieces from well-known artists locally and nationally.
"It made me realize, honestly, the importance of Eppleman," O'Connor said. "With this exhibit, so many people can see it, people who didn’t even know who Eppleman was."
O'Connor said this exhibit will help people realize Eppleman's architecture is just one part of his legacy.
"He really did leave the world more interesting than he found it, not only through the things that he's producing but also the things that he's amassed and collected and taken care of throughout his life," she said.
The Eppleman exhibit will be up at the Art Association of Harrisburg through June 22.
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