Friday, September 12, 2008

Hans Herr House


















Last week my mom and I had the opportunity to visit the Hans Herr House in Willlow Street, Pennsylvania. The house was built in 1719 and boasts being the oldest, still-standing dwelling in Lancaster County and the oldest, still-standing Mennonite meetinghouse in the Western Hemisphere! We enjoyed an hour's tour through the beautiful sandstone Pennsylvania-German home, as well as learning more about the historical background of the Amish and Mennonite peoples. We spent some time wandering around the property - viewing the apple trees of antique varieties that we've never heard of, visiting Rosa & Floyd (the resident pigs!), and peeking in the barn and blacksmith shop. The Hans Herr House offers special events throughout the year - including the apple snitz fest in October and candlelight tours at Christmastime. For more info., visit hansherr.org.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Herr's family that owns the wonderful potato chip factory that we love? : )

Ruth, PA

Julie said...

Ruth,

Yes, it's believed that Hans Herr was Jim Herr's ancestor - in fact, when remodeling the childhood home of Jim Herr, they found an old hymnal dating to the 1700's under the floorboards which was owned by Hans Herr's family!

Blessings,
Julie

Jim Michael said...

What a lovely connection to find! I just learned about Herr's Potato Chips this evening while visiting with relatives in Ithaca, New York. When they mentioned their friend, Gene Herr, who is one of Jim Herr's sons, I wondered if we might be related.

Sounds like this is very likely as I am also a descendant of Hans Herr through my paternal grandmother! I hope to be able to visit the Hans Herr house one day when I visit the northeast again. Perhaps we will be able to visit Herr's Potato Chips, too :-)