{"nrhp_refnum":"77001168","name":"Gass House","other_names":["Gass Family Home","Farm House at Franklin Farms","Union Plantati"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Chambersburg off U.S. 30","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chambersburg","county":"Franklin County","state":"PA","lat":39.929469795000045,"lon":-77.62927893799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2½-story fieldstone farmhouse built about 1760 on the plantation called \"Union\" near Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, with a smaller attached stone kitchen wing. The county later used the house as part of its almshouse.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a well-preserved example of Scotch-Irish farmhouse architecture typical of early regional farmers. Its significance is also tied to its owner Patrick Gass, a soldier in the War of 1812 and a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition who published an account of the journey.","narrative":"Built about 1760 by William Gass, this two-and-a-half-story fieldstone farmhouse in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, was constructed of random-course fieldstone on the Union plantation. The main block has five bays across the facade, a recessed central entrance with a flat-stone arch, and quoins at the corners. A smaller two-bay stone kitchen wing is joined to its north gable end. The Gass family were fullers of cloth who built a fulling mill nearby. The house passed to Patrick Gass, who published a personal account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, of which he was a member, and who served in the Creek wars and the War of 1812. In 1808 the county bought part of the Gass lands for an almshouse, and the farmhouse was later used to house Black residents and then as storage. Its interior was heavily altered for the almshouse, though exterior fabric survives largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1760","architect_builder":"William Gass","architectural_style":"Colonial elements","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.12359-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/77001168.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001168/5d75792874-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001168/5d75792874-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gass_House_FrankCo_PA_1.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:Gass_House_FrankCo_PA_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994991","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gass_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5526639"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/franklin-county/gass-house-77001168/"}