Swiss Log Home now located near Pandora

Swiss Log Home

Size: 24' x 29' - 2 ½ stories tall

This Swiss log home came from Mohrsville, PA (north of Reading) and is in very good condition with only a few logs needing replacement.  The majority of the logs are oak & American Chestnut.  We believe that it was built circa 1860-1870.

 This log home notching style was used by the German's, Swiss, and French. In Germany and Switzerland this construction technique is called "Blockstanderbau" or block post construction. In France it was referred as " Piece sur Piece" and "poteaux et piece coulissante" or posts and sliding piece .This notching style is a running mortise and tongue design. The vertical corner posts were hand drilled and chisel cut with a running mortise along the full length of the post. The logs were adzed and had tenons hand cut at the ends. These tenons slid into the vertical post and were pegged with hand whittled 1" pegs. The contractor was able to remove and save about 20% of the pegs. Several of these log home styles were found in PA and Ohio. Examples have been found in Wayne, Holmes, Mercer, and Darke Counties of Ohio.  One example still stands near Berlin, Ohio and was built by early Swiss Mennonites.

My great grandparents Samuel and Eliza (Siegenthaler) Stauffer were from Eggiwil and Dieboldsbach villages situated 6 miles south of Langnau, Switzerland. In Langnau in the Emmental the Swiss Anabaptists( Swiss Brethren later called Swiss Mennonites) were in an area where the typical building method was Blockstanderbau.

There are no fireplace openings, it was heated by internal woodstoves and has a grate that allowed warm air to flow upstairs .This home had 2 ½ floors with staircases to 2^nd floor and attic. The attic had wide poplar boards painted colors of red, green, and mustard. The ceiling joists had decorative grooves and also were painted the same color scheme.The 1^st and 2^nd story floors were tongue and groove poplar and heart pine. Many of the rooms had painted pine wainscoting. The front door and triple doors are original. The triple door opened the area between the parlor and dining area. Square cut nails were used throughout the home for flooring, trim, door, and window frames. The majority of all the original  interior and exterior was salvaged, except for the staircase, window's, roofing rafters, and porch rafters.

The log home was disassembled by Barney Grueser and his crew from antiqueamericanlogcabins.com of Athens, Ohio  in the fall of 2007. It was stored on a hilltop farm near Athens, Ohio before it was brought to Pandora for reconstruction on July 28^th