The Lansdale Historical Society is honoring a retired librarian with this year’s Edwin G. Holl Historic Achievement Award. The award, named for a long-time state senator from Lansdale, goes to Leopoldo Montoya, a former Drexel University librarian who researched and documented the many achievements of architect Milton Bean.

He was known locally as the owner of Lansdale’s first horseless carriage, but Montoya learned that he may have drawn up plans for nearly a thousand buildings in Southeastern Pennsylvania including the Lindenwold Mansion and dozens of other public and private buildings in Ambler, what is now the Univest Headquarters in Souderton, and the Hotel Tremont and Music Hall Theater in Lansdale.  Montoya will receive the award next month during the historical society’s annual banquet at the William Penn Inn.