McCalls Ferry Farm

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

McCalls Ferry Farm is a historic district at 447 McCalls Ferry Rd. in Lower Chanceford Township, York County, listed in the National Register in 2000. Its buildings went up in stages from about 1799 to 1950, and include a Pennsylvania German vernacular farmhouse, Georgian and Federal-style details, a Sweitzer barn, and a Ranch-style building.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local significance in agriculture and architecture. The nomination gives its period of significance as about 1799 to 1950, reflecting construction on the property beginning around 1799.

Physical character

The farmhouse has a stone foundation and stuccoed walls under a slate gable roof, with two corbeled brick interior end chimneys and round-arched window sash. Its full-facade two-story porch was enclosed with aluminum siding in 1970, and the banked Sweitzer barn was built with mortise-and-tenon framing. Other buildings have concrete foundations and walls of stone, weatherboard, metal, aluminum, concrete or fiberglass under roofs of metal or asphalt, and the farm includes concrete-stave and Harvestore silos, a 1970s manure pit, and a 1980s farm shop.

Historical context

The McCall brothers bought the ferry crossing here from George Stevenson in 1772; in 1811 the ferry was sold to the McCall Ferry Bridge Company. John Thomas and Annie Trout bought the farm in 1907 and ran one of the area's largest dairy operations until 1946, when they sold it to Mabelle and Emory Kilgore.