Peter Wentz Homestead

Peter Wentz Homestead

Peter Wentz Homestead. September 2012.
Location Schultz Rd., Worcester Township, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°11′56″N 75°20′2″W / 40.19889°N 75.33389°W / 40.19889; -75.33389Coordinates: 40°11′56″N 75°20′2″W / 40.19889°N 75.33389°W / 40.19889; -75.33389
Area 9.9 acres (4.0 ha)
Built 1758
Architectural style Georgian
NRHP Reference # 73001656[1]
Added to NRHP May 8, 1973

Peter Wentz Farmstead is a historical German American farm which has been continuously farmed since 1744. It is located in Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania near Lansdale.

History

The first family to till this land was Peter and Rosanna Wentz (both 1st generation) and their 6 children. Peter inherited the property from his father who may have purchased it as early as 1710. It was sold to Dewalt Bieber in 1784 and then to Melchior Schultz, a minister of the Schwenkfelder faith, in 1794. Schultz family descendants owned the home until 1969 when it was purchased by the County of Montgomery. The Georgian style mansion was built in 1758, and is a large 2 1/2-story, dwelling with attached summer kitchen and bake oven. The main house consists of two floors with four rooms and a large hallway on both, a cellar with a spring house and a full attic. The front facade is built of dressed red sandstone and the remainder of the building is built on uncut sandstone. Nearby is a red building that has a visitor center with restrooms and a gift-shop and employees offices upstairs. Also on the property, there are many reconstructed outbuildings; Privy, smokehouse, woodshed, ice-house, barn, chicken house and sheepfold. Currently the farm has sheep, cows, pigs, horses and chickens.

The house served as headquarters for the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army George Washington before and after the Battle of Germantown, October 2–4 and 16-21, 1777. His Excellency did not travel alone. He had a staff of 9 military secretaries or aides-de-camp, a dozen servants and his personal guard unit, the Commander-in-Chief's Guard. That unit consisted of 60 infantry soldiers and 3 officers. Washington set his 12,000 strong army 2 miles south on top of the Methacton hill to be in striking distance of the 8,000 Crown forces in nearby Germantown.[2]

By October 20 news arrived that the fortifications and breastworks around Philadelphia were completed, the British abandoned their outpost in Germantown. Washington responded by moving his troops within a half days march of Philadelphia. Whitemarsh or Fort Washington was chosen as it was 15 miles away.[3]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ George Washington to Continental Congress, September 29, 1777, George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799: Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799, Image 477 of 1104.
  3. ↑ "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes William K. Watson (November 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Peter Wentz Homestead" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-05-05.


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