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
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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
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