Last Tuesday, the first of April, the Hans Herr House opened for the 2003 season. It will be open every day except Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m. There is a small admission charge, but there is a lot to see, hear, and learn. For a few years now, it has been my practice to volunteer there on the first Saturday of the month. So come out and we can chat this Saturday. Like many organizations, there is no endowment and the work of the Hans Herr House depends heavily on volunteers. One of the things that I liked about the place was the work of the volunteers. The house is located west of Strasburg and south of Lancaster. See their web page with the obvious address, http://www.hansherr.org .
The house is a classical German floor plan of the Eighteenth Century, though one architectural historian told me, "There are very few that follow the classical pattern so this one is unusual."
Over the course of the season, I will expect to see visitors from abroad (if they are traveling), especially from Germany. More than once, having detected that the visitor might be foreign, I have asked when they got to the U.S. and received the answer, "Less than 24 hours ago." On pursuing the matter farther, I have found that the Hans Herr House has a good write-up in the German tourist guide books to America. And all of them have told me that it deserved the favorable mention it had been given.
The house is in the middle of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, and that helps to attract visitors. Visitors find it difficult to believe that some of the people choose to live in a manner which they find "difficult". It is certainly a trip to another age and world.
The house was the home, as a guest, of Hans Herr. (The house belonged to his son, Christian.). It is the oldest building in Lancaster County. Because the Mennonites (the Herrs were Mennonites) used their homes as meeting houses ("churches"), it occupies a special place in Mennonite history. It is believed to be the oldest extant Mennonite meeting house in the Americas. There was an earlier group of Mennonites at Germantown, but their original meeting house has lost its identity.
Allow about one and a half hours for the tour and you still won't see everything. Mostly it is a guided tour. You can explore a lot on your own.
I strongly recommend it. If you can't come just immediately, put it at the top of your list of places to visit.
(04 Apr 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.