Rieser-Shoemaker Farm

Built in the early 1800s in Bern Township near Leesport, the Rieser-Shoemaker Farm is a 137-acre working farm with a Federal-style brick farmhouse begun around 1820, a stone bank barn of about the same date, a group of brick, stone and frame outbuildings built between about 1820 and 1930, and a stone-walled spring. The farmhouse has Flemish bond brickwork and an Ionic-pilastered doorway, and an addition of about 1850 was later made into a separate apartment. The barn retains dirt floors, wooden stalls and troughs from its early use, and was not altered to meet dairy codes. The land was granted to Henry Rieser in 1725 under a Penn patent, and the Rieser family held it for roughly 175 years. It is listed for its agricultural continuity and for its well-preserved farm complex, which the nomination describes as representative of Berks County's diversified family farms.