Above: The Shenk House as seen on Google Maps Street View.
The farmhouse at the Shenk Farm is a rare Pennsylvania German housetype, known as a "Gotthardhaus". This historic architectural design combines stone construction with logs: a stone kitchen with a log living space. This combination of stone and log in the same house is unusual in Pennsylvania. There are only several surviving houses of this form here, with no others known in Lancaster County.
The house was constructed ca. 1750 as a two-story log dwelling with an adjoining two-story stone kitchen. Among the rare surviving features in the house are a first-floor kitchen hearth, a basement-level kitchen hearth, and the original Germanic sheathed door in a chevron pattern that leads from the basement kitchen out of the house. Feather-edge board walls survive in the interior.
Photo: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Above: The Shenk House. Early-1800s wood siding, in mustard yellow, covers the log walls.Michael Shenk (d. 1763) received a warrant for a 273-acre tract here in 1733. The patent (the first deed) was 1749. Michael had three wives, of whom little is know except their first names: m(1): Anna, m(2) Maudlin (a form of "Magdalena"), and m(3) Elizabeth.
In 1762, Michael Shenk's son Martin Shenk (1737-1813) received 197 acres here from his father. In 1774 Martin purchased the Clay Hotel. Martin was married to Anna Shenk (1740-1827).
The former barn was built in 1793 by Martin's son Christian Shenk (1760-1829) and wife Susanna Shenk (1769-1826). By 1864 the property was owned by Christian's son Samuel Shenk (1800-1872) and wife Lydia (Shirk) Shenk (1805-1885) (See1864 Lancaster County atlas). Later owners were Jacob R. Hess (1816-1877) married to Mary (Shenk) Hess (1825-1863) (See 1875 Lancaster County atlas), and Frank S. Hess married to Clara M. Kline (See 1899 Lancaster County atlas).
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Photo: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Above: Original Germanic, sheathed basement door in chevron pattern. With segmental stone arches over the door and window.
Photo: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Above: The original first-floor kitchen hearth, with original hand-hewn lintel.
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Photo: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Above and Below:
The 1793 barn no longer survives. It was built by Christian and Susanna Shenk. The barn's datestone was recycled for the garden shed. The datestone was sketched by Clarke Hess on site. The stone is inscribed, "Gott alein die Ehr / 1793" (To God alone the Glory.) This phrase, from Psalm 115, also appears on Pennsylvania German Fraktur.