Alexander Schaeffer House and Farm

  • Also Known As: Alexander Schaeffer Farm also Sheetz Farm
  • Also Known As: Brendle Farms

  • Address: 213 Carpenter St
  • Vicinity: Jct of PA 501 and 897
  • Phone: (717) 949-2244
  • Travel Genus: Sight , Visit
  • Sight Category: Museums
  • Activity Category: Tour
  • Available for private functions

The The Schaeffer House is among a handful of exceptionally well-preserved early American-German buildings that clearly convey specialized historic usages, and provide significant windows into the lifestyle and impact of German-speaking colonists on the American landscape. The Schaeffer House is quite possibly the only surviving Weinbauernhaus, a type that incorporates domestic functions and spaces used for the production of alcohol within a single building. As such, it is an excellent example of how European traditions were imported to colonial America and adapted to meet American needs and conditions. In Europe, Weinbauern culture was largely centered on wine production; in contrast, its American manifestation focused on distillation and the manufacture of spirits. While the end product was distinct, the functional relationship between the house and commercial activity was identical. The Schaeffer House retains an exceptionally high degree of integrity. Its eighteenth-century, bank house form is entirely discernible and significant features of colonial German architecture abound, including original hardware and painted decoration, the paling, water channel, double distilling fireplace with flue controls, the Liegender Stuhl truss, and the three-room plan with internal fireplace (Flurkuchenhaus). The Schaeffer House is an extraordinary survivor, and provides an unusual and unique Insight into the early history of America. - NRHP, 10 April 2010

Alexander Schaeffer founded the town of Heidelberg, a planned community in which he began selling lots by the early 1760s. Schaeffer was not a new inhabitant of Heidelberg, and his professional and personal interest in the area started at least a decade before he became the official founder of the town. Schaeffer was born January 8, 1712, in Schriessheim, a small village along the Bergstrasse, just south of the capital city of Heidelberg, in the area of Europe then defined as the Rhenish Palatinate. Not much is known about his early life in Germany except that he grew up as part of a large family that worked in an area historically involved with the winegrowing practices of the region. Only a few months before his twenty-seventh birthday, Schaeffer arrived in America through the port of Philadelphia on September 11, 1738, from the ship Robert and Alice. By the mid-1740s, Schaeffer had worked his way from Germantown across southeastern Pennsylvania, and settled, with his wife Anna Engle, on a piece of land just outside of the village of Heidelberg. By 1747, he had received a proprietary patent for land in Lebanon Township and he soon became actively involved in the growing town. In addition to providing a marketplace, public water fountains, and several lots on which to locate cemeteries and churches, he built one of the first and most successful taverns, the King George, by 1752. Soon to be renamed Schaefferstown, Heidelberg was a noted mercantile center which, by the 1790s, boasted several taverns on the town square to cater to the increasing number of businessmen and travers visiting the area. - NRHP, 10 April 2010


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1736/00/00 The Schaeffer House built as early as 1736 by John Miley

Data »

Particulars for Alexander Schaeffer House and Farm:
Historic Use Agricultural outbuildings
Area of Significance Agriculture
Historic Use Animal facility
Area of Significance Architecture
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Sight Category Building
House Style Flurkuchenhaus
Cultural Affiliation German-American
Criteria Historic Event
Area of Significance Industry
Owner Private
Historic Use Single dwelling
Other Description Swiss bank



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 72001130
Resource Type:
Owner: Private
Architect: Miley,John
Architectural Style: Other
Attribute: Swiss bank
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: State
Area of Significance: Industry, Architecture, Agriculture
Applicable Criteria: Event, Architecture-Engineering
Period of Significance: 1750-1799
Significant Year: c 1750
Historic Function: Domestic, Agriculture, subsistence
Historic Sub-Function: Single dwelling, Agricultural outbuildings, Animal facility
Current Function: Domestic, Agriculture, subsistence
Current Sub-Function: Single dwelling Agricultural outbuildings Animal facility

Activities »

Activity
Activity Category Tour

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