I was passing by the Chesapeake Crab Connection yesterday on Columbia Avenue near Centerville Road, Lancaster, PA.
Next door to it was a house in the process of being torn down (you can see it in the corner past the sign).
The roof had already been torn off. As I passed by, I noted, to my surprise, that underneath the clapboard, the home was an eighteenth century log house!
I was dismayed, thinking that yet another piece of Lancaster County history was about to be destroyed. I turned around, which in rush hour traffic on Columbia Avenue took me a mile of driving and fifteen minutes of stop lights to be able to get back to where I could go back and ask some questions.
It turns out that the Crab Connection owns the property on either side of the restaurant. They're doing a major expansion of their parking lot, and had planned to tear down the old, nondescript houses on either side.
When the contractors removed the asbestos siding over this home, they found old clapboard underneath. When they started to remove the clapboard, they found original 18th century logs! The good news is that the owner is allowing a father and son team to remove the house at their own expense and relocate it to a more appropriate site!
Meanwhile, the Chesapeake Crab Connection is planning an expansion of the "beach", as they call it, for outdoor dining in the warmer months, along with the larger parking facilities. Kudos to everyone involved for recognizing and allowing a valuable, though hitherto unrecognized, piece of Lancaster County, PA history to be preserved.
This log home is one of the oldest buildings still in existence on Columbia Avenue.
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Brian Schulman offers expert personalized real estate representation and services in Lancaster County, PA. To contact him, visit http://www.FindLancasterHomes.com/ |
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