Stoltzfus House

Nicholas Stoltzfus was born in Germany in 1719. He married an Amish girl in 1744 and came to Pennsylvania on the ship Polly. The ship landed in Philadelphia on October 18, 1766. This is the sea chest in which he brought his belongings across the ocean. (How many of your belongings could you take with you if you could only take what fit in this chest?)

Nicholas and his son Christian bought land in Berks County in 1770 and built a stone house which still stands along the Tulpehocken Creek.

At that time, Berks County was a wild and wooly place to live. Nicholas died in 1774 and by 1801 his son Christian moved to Leacock Township in Lancaster County which was a more safe place to live. The Stoltzfus house passed through a long succession of owners. In 1989 it was inhabited by squatters and then was abandoned. Mother Nature took over and covered the house with a curtain of dense foliage so its shameful state of disrepair could not be seen.

While the house quietly stood its ground against urban sprawl, the construction of a super highway, industries, and the ravages of nature, the Stoltzfus clan who could trace their lineage to this spot blossomed and grew in other places.
In the year 2000, some of the estimated one million descendants of Nicholas Stoltzfus formed a committee to preserve and restore the old house at 1700 Tulpehocken Road, Wyomissing, Pa. Every year, on the second Saturday in May, a benefit auction is held to raise funds for the preservation and restoration of this historic house. This year we were finally able to get there. I had seen the outside of the house before, but had never been inside. I wanted to go to the auction mostly because the house was open for free tours.

This is the kitchen.

This is the front door which opens into the kitchen. A wooden panel at the bottom of the door slides up to cover the nine panes of glass in the top half of the door for safety during Indian attacks. For this reason it is called an "Indian Door."

The barn that once stood on this property collapsed in 1924. Today ground was broken to reconstruct a barn.
The Nicholas Stoltzfus House serves to remind us of the important part the Amish played in the history and development of Berks County. I think he would be pleased to know his descendants are maintaining both his property and his faith.

Christian Stoltzfus' German Bible