The Farmhouse, Museum and Library/Genealogical Records
The Center houses the collection of more than 10,000 artifacts of the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Culture Society. The distinctive collection represents Pennsylvania German rural life of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There is special emphasis on the household, the school, women's clothing, as well as farm and agricultural equipment.
The collection reflects the time of transition between hand- manufactured and machine-manufactured goods. It also represents the role of women in the development of the domestic skills and cultural taste of the region. The collection contains many rare and fascinating items related to Pennsylvania German life. Impressive parts of this magnificent collection will be displayed in our newly restored Eichler-Frankenfield farm house.
The Center also houses the Pennsylvania German Genealogical Center, an important resource established through the research of the late Russell Baver and through subsequent contributions of materials. In cooperation with the Palatinate Historical Institute in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the historical records of German emigrants to Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early 19th centuries are now accessible at the Center. All of these genealogical resources are available to the public. Inquiries are invited.
Educational Program
The Center is part of the educational and cultural program at Kutztown University. It was established in 1992 to gather, preserve, and distribute knowledge of Pennsylvania German rural life in southeastern Pennsylvania. The primary functions of the Center are educational and archival. The means that the purpose and functions carried out are programs and collections which authentically portray Pennsylvania German life.
Activities include lectures, musical events, historic reenactments, and courses in folk lore and history. Special programs for children are held in the Freyberger School, an authentically-restored 19th century one-room school house. Annual events of special note are Harvest festival, a fall weekend celebration of Pennsylvania German life in a farm village setting, and Glieder Fescht, the festive early-spring dinner meeting the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center Membership.
Our collections include over 10,000 artifacts, numerous historical documents, and 18th and 19th century Pennsylvania German family genealogical records. The genealogical collection is a partnership project of the Center and the Palatinate Historical Institute, Kaiserslautern, Germany. Genealogical research is available at nominal cost through the Center.
Preservation of the Pennsylvania German ("Pennsylvania Dutch") dialect as spoken in southeastern Pennsylvania is one of the Heritage Center's goals. In cooperation with Grundsow Lodges and other organizations, the Center sponsors dialect classes in the fall.
Buildings
The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University is an excellent example of a 19th-century Pennsylvania German farmstead and architecture with European antecedence.
Representative of the geographic lifestyle of the Great American Valley of Pennsylvania and its Virginia Shenandoah Valley counterpart, the farm buildings are a grouping of exceptional rural American limestone structures
On the site is a stone farmhouse, a cold storage wash house, butcher house (both circa 1800), a Swiss bank barn (1871), a corn-crib shed and a inverted corn crib (circa 1890), a pigsty (1928), and the Freyberger School, an authentically-restored one room school (circa 1870). The school was moved to the farm site for educational purposes.
The stone farmhouse and the Swiss bank barn are of museum quality. The exterior of the stone farm house has been renovated and the interior has been fully restored.
The schoolhouse is in continual use for educational programs for children, seminars, and presentations related to Pennsylvania German culture. The visitor’s center houses a genealogical library.
During the spring and summer, the 60 acres of fields at the Center are tilled and maintained by the Old Time PlowBoys Club, Inc.
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