On August 7, 1969, in his nostalgia column in the Lykens Standard, C. L. Peters described the dismantling of an old log house in Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and gave some of the history of the house, including how it was constructed. The above photo accompanied the article.
THAT OLD HOUSE
by C. L. Peters
Marlin Miller recently purchased the dwelling at 451 North Second Street, and is in the process of removing it. This is one of the few, remaining original log houses remaining in town.
After removing several layers of clapboard and shingle siding, the original log building has been bared.
This house was built 20 years before Daniel Hoffman laid out the town in 1848. It is interesting to note the ingenuity of notching the logs together to make for solid construction. The marks of the adz and broadaxe bear mute testimony to the hours of back-breaking labor that went into preparing the logs.
One can visualize the task of raising each consecutive layer of logs into place and dropping them into the notched corners.
After the framework was erected came the task of chinking the space between the logs. This was done by wedging scraps of wood, probably made from tree limbs, between the logs. These pieces were not put in haphazardly, but wedged into place overlapping in a fish scale manner. Over these wedges was plastered a clay mortar, which one can only imagine was renewed at intervals. Much of the original clay chinking is still in place. Some of the clay has whitish markings, indicating that it may have been treated to a coating of whitewash (lime and water).
The window framed being of two and one half rough-sawn lumber is indicative of the fact that some sawed lumber was made in the vicinity at that early date.
These first houses were but log cabins built on the ground without cellars for expediency’s sake. Later cellars were dug out for storing winter stocks of food. Some were walled out with whatever stone was available in the vicinity, other were simply ear- [sic] then cellars.
Heating was usually supplied by a fireplace at one end of the cabin. These were often built of logs and carefully lined with stone and clay mortar. Much of the cooking was done at the same fireplaces.
Later when coal was discovered, metal was used in the construction. Scrap iron and sheet iron was used extensively at the mines and some of it wandered in construction in fireplaces.
It was stated at the beginning of this story that this house was constructed 20 years before Daniel Hoffman‘s survey of 1848. It must be remembered that the Ferrees first laid out the town and sold lots for $11.00 each. Later, Simon Gratz of Philadelphia, who held a judgment against Isaac Ferree, foreclosed the same and came into possession of the 180 acre tract. Simon Gratz died before further development but Edward Gratz then had Daniel Hoffman make a second survey in 1848.
This lot No. 451 was a part of the old Ferree survey and due to the Gratz litigation, some of the records have been lost.
This building served as home for many families over the years, and believe it or not, at one time it served as headquarters for the Moose Lodge while they were building the structure where the Legion is now located.
That old house, one of the few remaining landmarks, will soon be a memory, but after the logs are removed and the debris is cleared away, will soon be lost to antiquity, but the history will linger on.
__________________________________________________
Photo and column from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.