{"nrhp_refnum":"92000398","name":"Gehman, John, Farm","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Township Rd. N of Harlem, Hereford Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Seisholtzville","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.46816805350005,"lon":-75.58506308343956,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-05-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 87-acre farmstead in Hereford Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, near Seisholtzville, with a Swiss bank house, a stone farmhouse, a dated stone bank barn, a stable, a stone wagon shed and a springhouse. The buildings sit on a hilly tract beside a small tributary of the Perkiomen Creek.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the farm is significant in agriculture and architecture under Criteria A and C. Its buildings are described as outstanding examples of farm architecture from c.1767 to c.1840, including a Swiss bankhouse said to be the only one of its kind in Berks County. The dated 1806 barn is called one of the earliest examples of its type to be dated, and the farm is tied to early distilling and apple production.","narrative":"Hilly farmland on a dirt road in Hereford Township, Berks County, holds a group of stone and log buildings begun in the 1760s by the Gehman family. The farm was bought in 1767 by Rev. John Gehman, a Mennonite minister, and the Swiss bank house, a multi-purpose domestic building with a basement kitchen and a log upper floor, is probably his work. His son John S. Gehman built a large stone bank barn in 1806, dated on a wooden board, along with a stone farmhouse, a stable, a stone wagon shed and a springhouse dated 1847. The farm is regarded as a rare survival of an early nineteenth century hill farm. John S. Gehman was a farmer and distiller who sent applejack by wagon to Philadelphia. The farm's buildings, fields and fencerows have changed little since the 1800s, which gives the group its importance for understanding Berks County farm life.","period_of_significance":"1767-1940","architect_builder":"John S. Gehman (builder of the barn, stone farmhouse, stable, wagon shed and springhouse); Rev. John Gehman (probable builder of the Swiss bank house)","architectural_style":"Swiss bankhouse; standard Pennsylvania banked forebay barn","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Used as a summer home and country residence after 1945, with fields rented to a tenant farmer; buildings kept in repair.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.786438-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/92000398.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000398/e02f7331f7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000398/e02f7331f7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"PattiParker","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Gehman_Farm_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">PattiParker</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Gehman_Farm_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992310","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gehman_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6235051"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/gehman-john-farm-92000398/"}