Henry and Elizabeth Berkheimer 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

The Henry and Elizabeth Berkheimer Farm is a farmstead at 240 Bentz Mill Rd. in Washington Township, York County. Its farmhouse was built in 1817 in the Pennsylvania German vernacular and Georgian styles, banked into the hillside as a two-and-a-half-story dwelling.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2000 under criteria A and C, with local significance in agriculture and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1815, when the Berkheimers purchased the land, to 1928, when the farm entered an economic decline.

Physical character

The farmhouse has sandstone walls on a sandstone foundation, flat-arched stone lintels, and a brick interior end chimney, and the barn is a Type F Sweitzer barn with a gambrel roof and a cantilevered forebay. A rear porch was enclosed with aluminum siding in the 1960s, and around 1920 a shed-roofed extension was added to house an electricity generator.

Historical context

Robert Comer received a warrant for the land in 1746, and the Berkheimers bought it from Abraham and Naomi Bower in 1815. The farm passed to Hattie and Jacob Baker in 1908, entered a 34-year economic decline in 1928, and was sold to Gertrude and Bruce Hess in 1937; the Potts family purchased it in 1962.