A photograph taken on 6 March 2020 showing demolition equipment and work being done to raze the old Riegle-Dietrich Homestead, located at the triangle between Specktown Road and Old Specktown Road, Specktown, Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The main part of this old home was believed to date to about 1840. The widow Hannah [Rickert] Riegle (1847-1919) purchased the property shortly after her husband, Harrison Riegle (1840-1899) died, and it was there she raised her younger children and also where her granddaughter was raised. After Hannah died in 1919, her granddaughter, Helen [Hoffman] Dietrich (1895-1977) and husband William E. Dietrich (1896-1977) purchased the property and resided there until 1977.
In 1977, the property was sold at auction, pictures of which were posted on this blog. See:
The home was the subject of a George Tschamber painting commissioned by Kathryn [Dietrich] Gasbarro (1915-2003) in 1977.
The Eugene Fetterhoff family that bought the property in 1977 kept it until recent years, and at times rented it, but failed to maintain it.. The septic system became a crater in the front yard and eventually the house began to lean. Then the property was foreclosed upon. The current property owner apparently realized that the house was not salvageable and decided to demolish it.
The photos that follow show various views of the property after the house was razed.
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Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.