The "One Of Lancaster County's Oldest Residences" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a few of the many pages of notes and documents I have printed that tell about one of Lancaster's oldest houses.  The Landis House was built in 1728 on a tract of land along what today is known as the Oregon Pike.  One of the pages of notes yielded a few photos which upon closer examination startled me.  The fellow I was staring at looked to be a fellow I had graduated with from high school 59 years ago.  The more I looked at the photograph, the more I was sure it was Hal Landis.

Hal Landis and his wife.  Hal was a member of my graduation class from High School.

 Don't know why I hadn't put 2 and 2 together earlier, but it suddenly made sense that the Hal Landis I graduated with could be the Harold Landis in the photograph I was viewing.  The historic Landis House sat east of Neffsville and south of Oregon along what is known as the Oregon Pike.  The story all started about 1721 when 62 year old John Jacob Snavely came to Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  By 1735 his son, John Snavely, owned close to one thousand acres.  Years before he had built a log cabin, but in 1728 the family built a stone house which eventually became a refuge to Swiss immigrants who stayed until they had secured land for themselves.

The original Landis House on Oregon Pike.

 Close to the house ran a small stream later known as Landis Run.  Then in 1751 Anna Snavely, John's daughter, married Benjamin Weaver Landis and they settled at what would become known as the 1728 Snavely-Landis Stone House.  

The original 1728 Landis House (formerly the Snavely-Landis House)

Only two other homes in Lancaster County are older with the 1719 Hans Herr House in Willow Street and the 1725 Witmer/Landis House on the Old Philadelphia House being older.  Eventually the house became known as just the Landis House.  The Snavely-Landis graveyard sits to the South-East of the home, near the Westminster Presbyterian Church memorial garden where a stone memorial lists all the names of the early known graves.  

A headstone features members of the Landis family.  Click on images to enlarge them.

Features of the Landis House, with a street address of 2201 Oregon Pike, include a fireplace in the living room, an attic smokehouse, a large arched ceiling cellar, a narrow staircase, a Bible cabinet built into the two-foot stone wall, a built-in jelly cupboard and pegs in the wall to hang clothing.  A date stone is on the front of the home on which is chiseled H I S 1728.  The "I" frequently stood for "J", thus the stone would be Hans Jacob Snavely, the builder of the home.  

The date stone on the front of the 1728 Landis Home.  Notice the 1728 H I S  on the stone.

An exterior layer of stucco was placed on the house years ago.  The homestead was an important place in early days.  Tax lists credited Benjamin Landis with 900 acres which eventually was broken into separate allotments for his children.  In 1875 most of this land was in the Landis name, but as of the early 1030s, barely 500 acres were owned by Landis families.  

The. front door as it appears today

The home was known to be a place for early immigrants to reside until they were able to locate permanently.  It was also said that closeby was a cooper shop, blacksmith shop, barns, sheds and other outbuildings occupied by numerous servants and visitors.  Close to the Landis home sits the Landis Valley Farm Museum which is an agricultural museum which tells the story of Lancaster County's rich agricultural history.  One of the most prominent residents was Benjamin Landis who was born in 1730 and who purchased property that eventually became a tract of more than 1,000 acres of rich agricultural land which ran from Roseville to Oregon and upon his death was divided among his seven descendants.  On Sunday, January 20, 1974, a large barn along the Oregon Pike near the Landis House was destroyed by fire.  Loses to the barn and contents was estimated at $100,000.  Cause of the fire was children playing with matches in a "fort" of hay and straw in the barn.  Luckily the Landis House wasn't harmed in the flames.  The 1728 Landis House, which by now is the oldest house of continuous occupancy in Lancaster County, has been part of the Landis family for the past 10 generations, but in September of 1976 was turned into a restaurant.  The current owners of the house, Albert F. and Harold Landis, supervised the restoration of the home into a restaurant.  The restaurant served breakfast, lunch and dinner.  But, the change didn't last long, since a story in the January 10, 1982 Sunday News told of the Landis House as being the new quarters for the Lancaster Office of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia.  

Another view of the front door.  This is the entrance into the house
as well as the restaurant entrance and today's businesses that are in the home.

The two-story structure, which by now is situated on about five acres of ground, has several Landis heirs who still own stock in the firm.  Several months later the firm changed its name to 1728 Landis House, Inc.  At the time it was said that the building's stucco would be removed and the original stone walls would be repainted.  By now The Landis House is listed on the Lancaster County Preservation Trust and on the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places.  

The plaque showing the Lancaster County
Historic Preservation Trust Site sign.

In 1983 Lancaster County Commissioners approved a least agreement with 1728 Landis House, Inc. for rental of 1,200 square feet of office space for an office for District Justice Horton.  The house will now be protected from demolition in the future, no matter what business may move in to the property in the future.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.