{"nrhp_refnum":"00000060","name":"Muhlenberg, Henry Melchoir, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"201 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Trappe","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.19648774900003,"lon":-75.47003700099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-02-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion","Architecture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-story stone house at 201 West Main Street in Trappe, Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, built circa 1755 and restored to its 1776-1787 Colonial-style appearance. It sits on a 1.7-acre property.","why_significant":"The house is associated with Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, who lived there from 1776 to 1787. It is regarded as a rare mid-eighteenth-century Germanic building with an unusual half-hall floor plan, and the property contains subsurface remains of a pottery kiln dating to circa 1720.","narrative":"Built around 1755 of local stone in Trappe, Pennsylvania, this two-and-one-half-story house was restored between 1994 and 1998 to the appearance it had when the Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenberg lived there from 1776 to 1787. Its plan, with a half hall leading from the front door to a rear kitchen, is regarded as a rare early German type, and the house has gable-end stone chimneys rather than the central chimney typical of Pennsylvania German farmhouses. Muhlenberg, who founded the first church and school in Trappe, used the house during the Revolutionary War to shelter family, friends, soldiers and officers, and General Anthony Wayne stayed there in 1777. The property also holds subsurface remains of a pottery kiln believed to date from around 1720, which is considered among the oldest known in Pennsylvania. Since 1998 the house has operated as a museum interpreting Muhlenberg's life and early American building methods.","period_of_significance":"circa 1720-1787","architect_builder":"John Jacob Schrack, Jr. (builder, circa 1755); John Milner Architects, Inc. (restoration, 1994-1998)","architectural_style":"COLONIAL","criteria":["B","C","D"],"status_note":"Restored and operating since 1998 as a historic house museum; the outbuilding functions as a visitor's center and the garage is used for storage.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.014451-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/00000060.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000060/deed03b027-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000060/deed03b027-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muhlenberg_House_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muhlenberg_House_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998374","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Melchior_Muhlenberg_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5725774"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/muhlenberg-henry-melchoir-house-00000060/"}