BIS-Lancastar Fanning, Saturday, February 13, 1988
s
BY PAT PURCELL
OXFORD (CHESTER CO.)
The historically rich three-story
brick home of the Hostetlers tow
ers above the more modem homes
in the village of Hayesville, Ches
ter County.
The magnitude of this home
finds its only competition sky in
the adjacent feed and grain towers
of Hostetler’s Grain Company.
The Hostetlers are doing more than
processing neighbors grain into
livestock feed. They are mking
history.
The home of William and
Melissa Hostetler and their two
children, Rebekah, 9, and Phillip,
3, is located on the Hostetter fami
ly farm owned by William’s
parents, Wilmer and Joyce Hostet
ter. This home dates back to the
early days of the 1700’s.
If Walls Could Talk
Ten years ago, William and
Melissa Hostetler moved into a
house which already had a long
and active history if need of repair
was any indication. William, who
now manages the grain operation,
moved into the house when he
Melissa were married, but it was
hardly a sight which would delight
many young couples.
“It was in need of a great deal of
repair when they moved in. “All
the walls had one or two layers of
wallpaper on them. The floor in the
what is now the family room was
rotted and all the windows were in
very bad shpe. When the wind
blew, the curtains moved,”
explained Melissa.
But she is not complaining.
Restoring an 18th century home
may not appeal to everyone, but
Melissa appreciates is aged look.
“If I had a new house, I would
find a way to make it look old,”
said Melissa.
However, restoring an old home
is not without its problems.
Located on the “road leading
from West Chester to the Oxford
Borough, two-and-a-half miles
from the later place, known as the
Hayesville Hotel property,”
according to newspaper clippings
from the Chester County Histori
cal Society, this home is on part of
the Hayes original tract
Described in an 1880 newspaper
real estate sale ad in 1880:
“The improvementns consist of a
large substantial brick dwelling
*
Although not the size of a concert hall, the spacious living room in which the Hayes
vllle Post Office and general store were operated at one time is now filled with the old
and new. Melissa Hostetler (left) assists her daughter Rebekah on the piano. This Is
the only room in the house with a narrow plank floor suggesting the floor was probab
ly replaced long- after the house was built In the 1700’s.
Hostetters Of Hayesville Continuing
The
The Heritage Of Their Home
conveniently divided into com
fortable rooms, with a most excel
lent wash house attached, contain
ing pump, water furnaces and all
the necessary conveniences. The
house also contains a large store
room and fixtures.. There are also
three good tentant houses.
The room described as the wash
house with all the necessary con
veniences may be the room which
serves its present family as the
kitchen. Described as being
“attached” Melissa believes the
wash room now kitchen was defin
tely an afterthought.
“The big block of granite
between the kitchen and dining
room makes me believe the room
was built on after the rest of the
house was built. A block of stone
like that was usually found at the
entrance of a house. It just doesn’t
make sense to put it between two
rooms within the house,” said
Melissa.
Also directly beneath the kitch
en and mudroom are two hand dug
wells lending more evidence that
the kitchen was the washroom.
According to Melissa there was
up until a few years a go a small
house on the property that could
have been the tenant house they
mentioned. It has since been tom
down. There were two tracts of
land and some different accounts
on the Hayesville Hotel and post
office which were operated on
both tracts of land.
Hayesville Post Office and Hotel
From the 1946 newspaper arti
cle “It was Henry Hayes who took
over 500 acres about the year
1705, where he had 15 children
and many grandchildren .”
The first post office was estab
lished in 1850 with James Hayes as
the first postmaster.
“It is supposed that the post
office was in the general store or
hotel belonging to James Hayes,
and that he died while he was
postmaster.”
After several subsequent post
masters the post office was closed
in 1879, but reopened in 1881
under a new name of Townsend.
The new postmaster was Harry S.
Powley and he acted until Jacob H.
Wolf was named postmaster in
1884. Wolf served for more than
12 years.
However, Wolf reportedly was
a farmer and a hotel proprietor. He
The three-story brick home towers proudly over the smaller
Hayesvllle neighborhood and Is only outdone in height by the
pany on the adjoining prope '
moved the post office to his hotel
and about 1935 he tore down the
the post office building. By 1946
he had died, but it was reported
that his family still owned the hotel
property, which is the Hostetler
home
“We have had several people
drop in whose ancestors have lived
here. One man whose mother lived
here was a descendant of Jacob
Wolf. He brought with him a pic
ture of the house when it housed
the post office and general store.
The men were all sitting around
outside 6n boxes and horses were
tied up outside. I would love to
have that picture, but he would not
part with it. I don’t blame him. He
remembered the general store of
the early 1900’5,” explained
Melissa.
The front room of the Hostetler
home extends for the entire length
of the house. According to Melissa
it was this room in which the post
office and general store were
operated.
It must have seen a great deal of
traffic. It’s wooden floor is made
of narrow planks, which were used
in houses built much later than the
18th century. All the other rooms
have the wide plank board floors.
This suggests perhaps that this
floor was replaced in the 1900’s.
Room by room at pelce. je. sa and William have
turned this 18th century house Into their home. Family anti
ques fill the home with memories as well as beauty. Every cor
ner and niche has a story to tell and the observer always finds
something different.
A history of Restoration
The bricks were reportedly
brought over from Great Britain on
ballasts by Henry Hayes, but in
1850 Jacob Wolf purchased the
home and covered the bricks in
stucco. Consequently, the Hostet
ler’s first task was to clean the
stucco from the brick.
The Hostetler’s contracted
Oxford builder Joseph Chamber
lain, who is well-known for his
restoration work. However, after
beginning the process of cleaning
the brick with blasting machines,
Chamberlain noticed that many of
the bricks were disintegrating
under the pressure.
“For the next two years Bill and
his brothers spent weekends and
any free time they had chiping
away at the bricks with hammer
and chisel for the next two years,”
modem homes In the
Hostetler Grain Com-
said Melissa. “We had no choice.
Mr. Chamberlain came back and
finished with some sandblasting.
He replaced and repointed the
bricks,” she said. “To keep out the
fine dust we had to hang wet sheets
over the windows and doors. It’s
beautiful now, but I don’t think we
would ever go through that again.”
However by exposing the beau
ty of the brick, the brick was also
being exposed to the weather and
that resulted in some unpleasant
surprises.
“After a driving rain one Christ
mas Eve, we returned home to find
water streaming down the inside
walls of our living room on one
side. The bricks were poruous.
Since then we have had the house
sprayed with silicone to seal the
(Turn to Page B 19)