Spring House 2014
by Beth S. Buxbaum
In 1983 Nancy and Kerry Gingrich rescued a centuries-old farmhouse from demolition and then dedicated six years just to make it habitable. They commenced on this pioneering adventure while they were renting half a farmhouse in Hatfield. Searching for their own farmhouse, they came across a multiple listing of this property in Perkasie—a stone farmhouse with acreage. So they asked their realtor to show them the property.
“We had always wanted a stone farmhouse with land to have horses,” explains Kerry. He describes how they were initially admiring the stone house on the approach, down a quarter mile stone lane. “We loved the stone house and the fact that it was off the main road,” he continues. But there were some drawbacks. “The house had been on the market for two and a half years because it was in such deplorable condition.”
When the couple first entered the house they saw evidence of neglect. They found out the owner moved and had rented the house for the last ten years. “The last renters were a motorcycle gang with sixteen people living there,” Kerry reveals, “and the house was a party destination.” Kerry says it was a mess. “As a side note, sometime in the mid 1990’s, I did meet someone that lived, off and on, at the house when the gang lived there,” adds Kerry. He told me about the wild parties, fights, motorcycles being driven through the house and jumping off the porch.”
The homestead’s present condition is truly a low point of this old stone house’s history. Originally built in 1790, the property, originally 80 acres, was a cattle farm surrounded by stands of lilac bushes, and was called Lilac Farm. The Gingrichs were told that the original farmhouse was built in the German style, indicated by the construction of the roof overhang with the exposure and positioning of the stone and beam joists. “We were excited that this was the original structure, still retaining all of its early charm,” Kerry adds. Other than its earliest history, they did not know much more about their homesteads’ past until years after they moved in.