Featured Advertiser:     

Lancaster County Started Here!

1719 Hans Herr House & Museum
 

After enduring severe persecution in Germany for their beliefs, ten Anabaptists families came to Penn’s Woods seeking religious freedom and land ownership in the spring of 1711.  Settling in the valley along the Pequea creek, from Strasburg to Willow Street, this group of Mennonite families became the first permanent settlement in Lancaster County.  Built in 1719 by Christian Herr, son of Hans Herr, the Hans Herr House is the oldest building in Lancaster County.  Owned and operated by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society since 1969, the Hans Herr House & Museum is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, April 1 to the first weekend of December. 

The 1719 Hans Herr House & Museum is a living history museum that features the Herr House.  It is an outstanding example of Swiss-German style architecture with its steep roof and central fireplace.  Built out of locally quarried sandstone, the Herr House retains most of its original interior woodwork, including the fireplace crane, fireplace lintel and roof support beams.  Using the inventory taken at Christian Herr’s death, the house is furnished to the time period of 1749. 

The Museum also includes the 1835 Shaub House and the 1895 Huber House, both built by Hans Herr’s descendant.  The Faith and Furrow exhibit building includes displays of artifacts related to the daily life and faith of the Herr family.  The Agricultural Implement Shed houses farming equipment from the mid 1800’s through 1940’s.  There is also a bake oven, smokehouse and blacksmith shop that all are operated during our Special Events.

During the first weekends of August, October and December, the Museum hosts Special Events.  Heritage Day is in August, Snitz Fest in October and Christmas Candlelight Tours are the December Special Event. Each event features docents in the 1719 Herr House, cooking on the hearth, blacksmithing, using the smokehouse, and many other demonstrations throughout the grounds.  Heritage Day focuses on the agricultural practices of the Pa. Germans.  Snitz Fest celebrates the importance of the apple, using antique varieties of apples grown in our orchard.  During Christmas Candlelight Tours the 1719 Herr House is illuminated by candlelight as each room in the house features various demonstrations. A food tent is available with traditional Pa. Dutch food at Heritage Day and Snitz Fest .

School Frolicks take place in the spring and fall of the year and are great educational opportunities for teachers to enhance their history curriculum through hands-on learning for students in grades one through eight.  Three Spring Frolicks are schedule in April and May and one in the fall. The Fall Frolick is geared for home school families, where home school students can be introduced to a trade or craft, then they can spend time learning more about it on their own and then come to the Spring Frolicks as demonstrators.  Field trips are available for school groups, offering wagon rides and a chance to play colonial games.  Mama & Me (Papa, too) is a Saturday event for pre-school aged children and their care givers to experience the Herr House at their developmental level and make a craft or two to take home.  Summer Day Camp offers real life experience with colonial living as students in grades three to ten dressing in colonial clothing and learning trades and crafts from the 1700’s. The Summer Student Program encourages students to be junior guides at the Herr House by volunteering a day each week during the summer months.   

Come and see, touch and smell the place where it all started.  Lancaster County Started Here!  For more information call 717-464-4438, e-mail info@hansherr.org or check us out at www.hansherr.org