{"nrhp_refnum":"80003551","name":"Rex House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N. Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Schaefferstown","county":"Lebanon County","state":"PA","lat":40.29813739100007,"lon":-76.29299181199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-08-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Rex House is a two and one-half story half-timbered house in Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, with a gable roof, interior gable end chimneys, and a stone lean-to addition at the rear. Its outbuildings include a smoke house and a bake oven.","why_significant":"The nomination describes it as a unique survival of a half-timbered structure once common in Lebanon County and associated with Pennsylvania German settlers. Its plastered simulated brick, stencilled wall paint, cabinet work and hardware are presented as unusual, and the grounds are called among the best preserved 18th century urban garden landscapes in Pennsylvania.","narrative":"Half-timbered house in Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, with a gable roof, interior end chimneys and a stone lean-to at the rear. Its walls are covered with horizontal wooden siding, but beneath it the half-timbering is finished with plaster scored to imitate red and black bricks in a random pattern. Inside, the kitchen walls carry at least four layers of hand-painted red paint with stencilled designs, and the living room and dining room have elaborate paneling and dentil work around their fireplaces. The stair has carved step sides and a carved banister, and the locks and hinges, including Moravian and Dutch-elbow locks, are regarded as unusually varied. Alexander Schaeffer, founder of Schaefferstown, owned the house, which was sold in 1758 and passed to the Rex family in 1799 and stayed with them until 1974. The house is regarded as a rare surviving example of its type, and its wall finishes have no known parallel elsewhere.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The present owners are in the process of complete restoration, returning the house to its 18th century appearance.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.083204-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003551.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003551/a894ba6da5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003551/a894ba6da5-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rex_House_Schaeffertown_PA.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:Rex_House_Schaeffertown_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998057","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7319217"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lebanon-county/rex-house-80003551/"}