B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 5,1981 Herb and Trudy Marsh stand at the entrance to their historic brick home in Nottingham. Holiday tour Stonehedge BY SUSAN KAUFFMAN Staff Correspondent A holiday candlelight tour of ten homes and a church is the main event of a special fund-raising weekend in the Southern Lancaster County area next weekend. December 12 and 13. The homes are scattered throughout the area from Willow Street to Strasburg to Nottingham to allow par ticipants of the tour to visit homes both close by and in areas not usually open to public viewing. All of the homes will be decorated for the holidays. Many were built in the 1800’s and have been restored. A number of the homes are situated in the southern most part of the county. Most of these are open to the public for the first time. Lancaster Fanning visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. Herb Marsh, Nottingham, R 2, to talk with them about their early 1800 bnck home and the tour. Trudy Marsh said opening their 91 (omestpad c H/offiS Herb and Trudy’s room, once the servants’ quarters, is decorated with rose and blue colors. Trudy made all the drapes and Herb made the valances. The woodwork is a dark blue against a white wall. With them is pride and joy, gandson Benjamin. home for the tour is a new venture for them. Although she and her husband have participated in several such tours as guests visiting others’ homes, they never really considered their own home for such an event until the per suasive coordinator for this fund raising weekend aproached them. The Marshs have graciously consented to invite the public to visit with them next Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Although the Marshs’ address includes a Nottingham post office, they actually live in what is better known as the Kirk’s Mill area in the southern edge of Lancaster County several miles west of Nottingham, Chester County. The Kirk’s Mill area abounds in homesteads and a mill which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In fact the total community is listed in the Register. With an extensive file of the historical research findings spread features home before bun on the kitchen table, Herb traced briefly the history of the bnck home they have called their home for eight years. The original property deed was part of a land grant by William'Penn in the 1700 s. Later it was owned by a tanner who built the present house, except for a frame addition added mthel92o’s. The original home was built in a typical L-shape with the kitchen and the servants’ quarters on the eastern tip of the L. The mam dining and living room on the first floor and master’s bedroom suite on the second floor are in the larger part of the house facuig west. Three tanners subsequently owned the property before it was then purchased by a blacksmith. Marsh stopped a moment to comment that now, so many years later, at least part of the history of the homesite is being relived because their son, Chns, does the family’s blacksmithmg for their hunting and jumping horses. Chns owns a number of antique smithing tools. He holds a dream of one day setting up a blacksmith shop on a much larger scale. Once a part of a 214-acre land grant in 1737 issued to Henry Reynolds, the property was in the Marsh home is this display of foxhunting memorabilia. It includes a hunter figure and antique copper honor surrounded by greens. The Stonehedge home of Herb and Trudy Marsh will be part of a ten-house Christmas tour open to visitors December 12 and 13. The original property deed where the house stands was part of a land grant by William Penn in the 1700 s. This bedroom with high poster single bed and fireplace is that of daughter Patti Jo. The patchwork quilt and refinished random-width floor boards add a feeling of warmth to the room. whittled down after numerous subdivisions to a little over twelve acres twenty years ago. The Marshs moved from Newark eight years ago on the ninth of December. Trudy recalls that moving so close to the holidays was difficult. Herb began commuting to Newark as he has continued to do for these past eight years. His job with Diamond Telephone makes the commuting a necessity. Their real attraction to the old homestead was that it provided a place for horses. As the house stands now it also includes a frame portion added in 1921 to “square” the once L-shaped house. A bathroom, a bedroom and a downstairs room were in corporated into the addition. At one time the lane brought visitors to the front of the house facing south.- Later a road was built west of the house and a new lane replaced the old, bringing guests to the northeast corner which is the frame section. At the time when the Marshs moved in, the house included a modern kitchen which had been built by the previous owner to open out a pantry into an eat-in kitchen area. The walls were panelled and 'a large picture window was added to open a solid east wall. Herb and Trudy found the original, old extenor shutters in an outside building. Herb said he is no carpenter, but they restored the shutters and painted them a light shade of green before putting them back on the house. The shutters were stenciled with numbers matching the various numbered window sashes so placement was a simple matter of matching numbers. These have been repainted twice since the first re-hanging, the Marshs added. Putting up rainspouting and repairing wooden porches took care of the major renovations to the exterior of the house. Restoring the inside required patching plaster, painting walls, laying carpets'for the downstairs and refinishing wood floors on the se cond floor. The family shows evidence of artistic talent from the oil pain tings of, buildings and outdoor scenes to the tailored drapes designed by Trudy and the decorative valances fashioned by Herb. Add to these eye-catching aspects of paintings and attractive window treatments the pleasing folk art articles of patch work quilts, table covers, embroidery, and wall hangings, and one fmds a warm home for family living. At present the Marshs have a daughter home from Messiah College for the holidays. Patti Jo is a sophomore majonng in art. She is responsible for many of the paintings displayed m the home. Her sister Kathleen and Kathleen’s two-year old son are also living with the family while Kathleen’s husband is stationed in Okinawa. Mrs. Marsh said the home will decorated for the holidays with (Turn to Page B 4)
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