{"nrhp_refnum":"82003801","name":"Bauern Freund Print Shop","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"PA 63","address_restricted":false,"city":"Marlborough","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.32890603300007,"lon":-75.45223498099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-07-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2 1/2 story, three-bay, two-pile brick printing shop with a gable roof, built in 1838 in Sumneytown (Marlborough Township), Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and still on its original site.","why_significant":"The shop is significant for its association with Enos Benner, a German-American educator and printer, who published the weekly Der Bauern Freund here from 1828 to 1858. The nomination also argues the building is a distinctive example of an urban commercial design adapted to a rural, free-standing setting, with a transitional blend of Georgian, Federal and Victorian features.","narrative":"Built in 1838 in Sumneytown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the Bauern Freund Print Shop is a two-and-a-half-story brick building with a gable roof, a front porch with turned spindle decoration, and two arched dormers. Enos Benner, a printer and teacher who moved to Sumneytown in 1827, operated his presses here and published the weekly Der Bauern Freund from 1828 to 1858. The paper was the second German weekly in Montgomery County and gave local German-speaking residents news and commentary that the Reading Adler, a German paper, had not provided. Benner's shop also produced religious and patriotic tracts, a German arithmetic text issued in several editions, and a German hymn book that ran to seven editions. The building is valued for its close link to Benner's career and for its mixed architectural character, which adapts an urban Philadelphia row-house form to a rural site. Its interior retains original shop space, beaded board partitions, and pine floors.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Transitional blend of Georgian, Federal and Victorian elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Unaltered and on its original site; no major additions or alterations.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.423381-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/82003801.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003801/7a4a70e5ec-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003801/7a4a70e5ec-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bauren_Freund_Montco_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:Bauren_Freund_Montco_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996396","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauern_Freund_Print_Shop","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4873469"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/bauern-freund-print-shop-82003801/"}