—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Sept. 11. 1976
72
The Kenneth
by building onto and
Fireplaces are one of the distinctive only using three. Here, Mrs. Kenneth
features of the Skiles homestead. Skiles points to an old and valued
There had been five in the house at piece of needlepoint made by a Skiles
one time, but at present, the family is ancestor.
CAINS - The Kenneth
Stales family, Narvon R 2,
likes to move into the future
by building onto the past.
This is evident m both their
fanning operation and their
home. After Skiles pur
chased the farm from his
father four years ago, he and
his family began remodeling
and restoring the farmhouse
which has been m the same
family for over 100 years. As
a result of this refurbishing,
they found that their home
was a living lesson m the
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history of architecture, and,
as a result, the whole family
became involved m its past.
As far as Mrs. Skiles can
tell from studying her
“drawer full” of deeds that
have been passed down and
have come into her
possession, the house dates
back to 1734 when it was part
of a 175 acre Messuage
plantation. At that time it
was sold for 50 English
pounds, or $87.50 in today’s
currency.
“What is now the family
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505 E Main SI, New Holland
Ph 717 354-2214
Skiles family
'W
m -
room was actually the whole
house at that time,” Mrs.
Skiles and her husband
clearly explain. “The house
has been added onto three
times since then,” they note.
A quick tour around the
1734 house turned 1976 family
room reveals thick, two-foot
stone walls, the ghost of a
walk-in fireplace, and a
rearranged open fireplace
located near the center of the
room on a diagonal.
“Those chimneys were
wide,” explains Skiles. “A
fully grown man could easily
climb up and down in them.”
All told, the original house
- after two additions and
before Skiles added the third
had five solid stone chim
neys. Through the years,
however, the number has
whittled down to three.
“Everyone of them works,
though,” says Skiles with
pride.
One of the three was
moved to a more convenient
INC.
Bicentennial farm
. *
place in the family room and
one was built where a walk
in had been, but all three
remain connected to the
original flues.
Fireplaces are not the only
objects of interest in the
Skiles home. Several of the
doors also carry a legacy
with them. The door into the
family room was, and is, an
“Indian door.” Made to keep
the Indian arrows from
breaking the panes of glass
in the upper part of the
portal, a front panel was
built onto it which slides up
and is bolted into place over
the glass.
What is really amazing,
yet true in most cases of
family history, is that Skiles
never even knew the extra
panel on the “Indian door”
existed.
“I lived here for 40 years
and didn’t know it until we
started working on the
house,” he says almost in
credulously.
The first addition to the
house which, as far as the
Skiles can tell, was built
around the 1800’s, possibly
1804-1816, has another
fascinating entryway into
the house. This door, similar
moves
improving the past
1 , *
*V *&?**%* VAX
**«*9
The chimneys are as distinctive a why Kenneth Skiles says that a grown
feature of the outside of the house as man is able to move about on the
the fireplaces are on the inside. From inside of the chimneys with little
the back of the house it is easy to see trouble.
into the future
< „V'V
, 44
< ■**
to one Mrs. Skilea bu seen at
the Edward Hand House in
Lancaster, is double thick
with six-inch boards nailed
horizontally onto the inside
of the door with homemade
nails.
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PLAN IT WITH US
IN MIND.
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“That hinge i« pretty
unique, also,” point* out
Skiles as he show* the
handmade hinge which runt
almost the entire width of the
door.
[Continued on Pago 741