Gettysburg House Histories

07/11/2023

One of my top five favorite barns...and I have been in A LOT of barns! It's as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside!

The barn was built for Mr. John Shull, near Ardentsville (Adams County). Construction began on June 7, 1901, and was finished later in the month.

06/30/2023

Airing your dirty laundry in public...early 1800s style...

09/18/2022

Korff Sleeping Porch in 1917.

05/06/2022

I love this! We rarely get to see what the INSIDE looked like.

A few interior photos of a home of a Victorian-era family.

12/02/2021

It doesn't get any better than this!

A notice in the newspaper from January 24, 1832, advertising the property for sale...and...the original deed, dated April 7, 1832, transferring ownership of the property to the highest bidder from the sale.

11/30/2021

One of my clients found some goodies hidden in the wall in his out kitchen. He estimated these (and other things he's found) to be from the 1910-1930 era.

06/16/2021

I’ve seen a lot of unusual staircases throughout the years, but this is definitely the oddest. Ouch!

06/12/2021

The Rose Farm on the Gettysburg Battlefield, c.1889

The first picture, taken from "The Loop", shows the Rose Farm buildings and the second picture (added just for fun!) shows "The Loop" taken from the Rose Farm.

06/09/2021

Additions are quite common on older houses. A number of houses were originally built on the smaller side and additions were added over the years to increase living space.

This stunning (c. 1870) house in Butler Township was pretty straightforward in showing me her "old" and "new". The original two-story house had a one-story summer kitchen attached. I've added arrows to the pictures so you can see the changes made to the original structure. Also note the change in foundation materials in the first photo.

06/07/2021

We have some pretty spectacular "cow houses" in Adams County. Just look at this beauty in Highland Township built in 1883 by Nicholas D. Miller. A barn can tell a story almost as much as a house can!

05/17/2021

Barbara Brutchey and her husband, Solomon, were paupers living at the Adams County Alms House in the 1850s when she suffered a life-threatening accident...

"Barbara Bruchy (sic) was palsied for twenty years, and was almost entirely helpless. Being left alone by her husband on the 3d of December 1859, her clothes took fire, and before relief came she was so badly burned as to cause her death in 20 hours." Her husband died a month later.

(Note: The ages on the tombstones don't match the ages in the mortality schedule, or in other census records. This is a common occurrence. In some instances people didn't know the year they were born...in other instances the error is made by the census taker.)

05/11/2021

Gettysburg Academy, c.1801-1802, corner of South Washington and West High Streets, Borough of Gettysburg

Originally erected as a schoolhouse building, the property was later sold and turned into a private residence.

05/02/2021

I was out with the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable Plaque Committee this morning inspecting a house for consideration for a "Civil War Building" plaque.

Today we were at the Solomon Powers House (West High Street) in the Borough of Gettysburg (built circa 1847). At the time of the battle Powers operated a stone yard at the rear of the property.

04/23/2021

In 1857 Adams County built a new courthouse on the corner of Baltimore and West Middle Streets in the Borough of Gettysburg.

An article in the "Adams Sentinel" newspaper dated October 19, 1857 talks about the purchase of the land on which the new courthouse was to be built. The photo is a picture of the courthouse circa 1915.

04/21/2021

What I hear a lot..."log houses are all super old"
What is actually true...not all log houses are as old as you think

In Adams County surviving examples of log houses were built anywhere from the mid-to-late 1700s all the way through 1880. The most popular time period for log house construction seems to be during the 1830-1850 era.

The log house pictured here is indeed an oldie...built in the very early 1800s. But as you can see from the newspaper article, log houses were still being built in the area in 1878.

04/15/2021

Some of the early settlers in Adams County opted to give their surveyed land a name. Tract names ranged from the ordinary, such as John Pope who called his combined tracts "Fair Hill" when his land in Tyrone Township was surveyed in 1774, to the quite extraordinary, such as William Terrance of Mount Pleasant Township who called his 227 acres "Bread and Cheese Valley." One of my personal favorites is "Sarah's Fancy," surveyed in 1786 for William Griffith of Menallen Township.

Some of the landowners seemed less than pleased with their tracts..."Hard Struggle," "Hills and Rocks," "Cheap Survey," "Hare's Trouble," "Mount Misery," "Half Good," "Toil," "Necessity," and "Fail All".

04/09/2021

Sherfy Farm on the battlefield, Emmitsburg Road, c.1870s

04/03/2021

I was out with the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable Plaque Committee this morning inspecting this beauty for eligibility for a "Civil War Building" plaque (the final step in the process to obtain a plaque). I don't have an exact date of construction (yet!), but it is definitely a pre-war house, c.1820-1830. (Tyrone Township, Adams County)