The Governor Wolf Historical Society is proud to announce they will be holding the 37th Annual Christmas House Tour on Saturday, December 2. The tour features six private, historic homes in Bath and the surrounding countryside. The theme for this year’s tour is coverlets. Finish your day at the society’s Wolf Academy Historic Site with a free Colonial Family fun day featuring hearth cooking, demonstrations, colonial crafts, museum, carolers, crafts for children, raffle, display of antique coverlets, greens for sale and food by Daily Grind.
Each week The Home News will feature one of the historic houses on the tour. The first featured house is “The Filbert” in Danielsville, a Queen Anne Victorian farmhouse with a general store, which currently operates as a bed and breakfast and a unique event venue. The original home was built in the early 1800s; the newest part of the home was added in 1856. This plank home is constructed of chestnut wood and has a stone foundation. The burgundy, white, and estate green colors highlight the fanciful Victorian trim. Outside there is an expansive front porch with original fretwork, original clapboard, shutters, and windows. The wrought iron fence outlines the property frontage. Original outbuildings include the vintage barn, tack house, carriage house, icehouse, pig barn, chicken coop, summer kitchen, wood shed, smokehouse, and outhouse.
The house was part of a 200-acre tract, which Phillip Schaffer purchased from the William Penn family on March 3, 1785. Several generations of the Herman family owned the property and ran the general store from 1882 until 1982. Restorations have continued throughout the fifteen years of ownership. The property was purchased from Lee Herman in June of 2002.
Inside the house you will find the original floors, woodwork, hardware, wallpaper, a room stencil dating to the 1800s, and a functional dumbwaiter. The general store boasts the original tin ceiling, hardwood floors, wooden counters, and dry bins. The tour will include the first floor of the house and general store as well as the outbuildings including the barn on the property.
Tickets for the tour go on sale November 11. They are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the tour. They are on sale at Bath Drug and S. Seem Antiques in Bath, Curt’s Cyclery in Nazareth, Miller Supply Ace Hardware in Allen Township and Snow Goose Gallery in Bethlehem.
Tickets are for sale the day of the tour at the society’s historic site at 6600 Jacksonville Road, just off Route 512, three miles north of Route 22, between Bethlehem and Bath.
For further information, call 610-837-9015. The campus is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The 2017 tour theme is “Coverlets-A Warm Christmas.”
