Pierceville Run Agricultural Historic District
Why it's listed
Fourteen historic farms make up this agricultural district of roughly 1,000 acres in southwestern Codorus Township, York County, bounded on three sides by Pierceville Run. The district contains 76 contributing buildings, mostly farmhouses in the Pennsylvania farmhouse form, forebay bank barns dating from the mid-19th to early 20th century, springhouses, summer kitchens, poultry houses and corncribs. Contributing sites include cultivated fields, woodlots and ponds, and the fields are strip cropped and contour plowed. Its significance lies in how well it records regional farming from 1830 to 1960. Early farms were small and diversified. By 1927 Codorus Township was among the state's leading poultry townships, and the Reibald/Fair farm alone held about 1,400 chickens. Truck crops for canneries and swine production also expanded. The district is also regarded as representative of Pennsylvania German building traditions and of the kinship, labor and land exchange ties that bound its families together.
Significance in brief: The district is argued to be locally significant under Criterion A in agriculture because its farms and landscape illustrate regional patterns of diversified farming, poultry and swine production, cannery crops, mechanization and labor between 1830 and 1960. It is also presented as having a documented Pennsylvania German architectural character and internal consistency in farm layout and building forms.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 12000902, listed February 7, 2013. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Fair School, Myers, Meckley, Rockville, & Narrow Gauge Rds., & Pierceville Run, Glen Rock |
|---|---|
| County | York County |
| Listed | February 7, 2013 |
| Reference number | 12000902 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1830-1960 |
| Architectural style | Pennsylvania farmhouse; Pennsylvania forebay bank barn |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Agriculture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Acreage | 1000 |
| Coordinates | 39.76269, -76.77386 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 12000902.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.