{"nrhp_refnum":"71000708","name":"Herr, Hans, House","other_names":["Christian Herr House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1851 Hans Herr Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lancaster","county":"Lancaster County","state":"PA","lat":39.980925597000066,"lon":-76.26190943899996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-05-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-a-half-story stone dwelling house in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, built in 1719 with a stone-vaulted root cellar and rectangular plan measuring 37 feet 9 inches by 30 feet 10 inches.","why_significant":"The nomination states the house is the oldest dwelling in Lancaster County and the oldest Mennonite meeting place in America. It is linked to the Herr family, early settlers who came to the county seeking religious toleration, and it was the subject of a painting by Andrew Wyeth.","narrative":"Built of local sandstone in 1719, the Hans Herr House is a one-and-a-half-story dwelling with a stone-vaulted root cellar beneath half of its ground floor. Its plan measures 37 feet 9 inches by 30 feet 10 inches, and the kitchen room contained a large fireplace. The house was built on a tract deeded to Christian Herr by William Penn in 1711. The Herr family, of Swabian descent, had renounced knighthood and war to become nonresistant Waldensians and later Mennonites, and they settled here seeking religious freedom. After the Herrs left, the house served as a place of worship for well over a century, and it is regarded as the oldest Mennonite meeting place in America. Original windows survive in the attic and upper attic, while the ground floor openings were enlarged in the late eighteenth century. The house is also the subject of a painting by the American artist Andrew Wyeth, whose mother was a distant relative of the builder.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The house was unoccupied for about a century after its use as a place of worship ended; restoration studies were underway at the time of nomination.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.998589-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/71000708.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000708/a5fa958beb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000708/a5fa958beb-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NORTH_(REAR)_ELEVATION_AND_WEST_ELEVATION,_FROM_NORTHWEST_PHOTOCOPY_-_Hans_Herr_House,_1851_Hans_Herr_Drive,_West_Lampeter_Township,_Willow_Street,_Lancaster_County,_PA_HABS_PA,36-WILST.V,1-2.tif\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NORTH_(REAR)_ELEVATION_AND_WEST_ELEVATION,_FROM_NORTHWEST_PHOTOCOPY_-_Hans_Herr_House,_1851_Hans_Herr_Drive,_West_Lampeter_Township,_Willow_Street,_Lancaster_County,_PA_HABS_PA,36-WILST.V,1-2.tif"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996060","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Herr_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5650145"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lancaster-county/herr-hans-house-71000708/"}