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The 1719 Hans Herr House is the oldest still-standing European dwelling place in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the oldest still-standing Mennonite meeting house in the Western Hemisphere

Welcome to the official 1719 Hans Herr House & Museum website!

An Introduction to the Museum

    The 1719 Hans Herr House, built in that year by Hans’ son Christian, is the oldest surviving dwelling place of European settlers in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest still-standing Mennonite meeting house in the Western Hemisphere. It is reputed to have been the home of Hans Herr and his wife Elizabeth. It was certainly the home of Christian Herr and his wife Anna, and several of Christian and Anna’s children. Both Hans Herr and Christian Herr were bishops of the Mennonite faith.

For more information about the Mennonite Faith in general, a good starting point is found here.

For more information about the situation of the early Mennonite settlers, please visit our page on the History of the Mennonite Settlement.

  

    The “Hans Herr House" is the oldest extant dwelling of a settlement on ten thousand acres granted in October of 1710 to nine Mennonite men. In the Spring of 1711, seven of those men came with their families to establish homes in what was then the westernmost edge of Pennsylvania. Their route to the area followed an ancient Native path called the “Great Conestoga Road”, which passed within yards of the site on which, eight years later, the 1719 House would be built.

(above) chevron door  to the 1719 House

    The 1719 House, or “Hans Herr House” as it is known locally, was a home to several generations of Hans Herr’s family until the 1860s, after which it was used as a barn and storage shed. It was restored to colonial-era appearance in the early 1970s. It is now part of a Museum complex which includes three Pennsylvania German farmhouses, several barns and other outbuildings, and an extensive collection of farm equipment spanning three centuries. The 1719 House is perhaps the most frequently pictured building in Lancaster County. The artist Andrew Wyeth, himself a relative of Hans Herr, created a well-known image of the house before its restoration.