LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Danielle Keperling has a passion for the past.
As executive director with the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, her job is to educate and advocate for historic sites and properties.
“We work with municipalities, we work with property owners, we work with various stakeholders to figure out ways to preserve our build-heritage,” Keperling said.
This includes properties like the Charles Bamford farmhouse in East Hempfield Township.
“It’s a simple Victorian farmhouse, but it’s very different than the farmhouses that you would usually see,” Keperling described.
The farmhouse was built in the 1850s and is directly behind a large barn along Yellow Goose Road.
The Bureau for Historic Preservation ranked the property C in 2008, which means the structure cannot be torn down without the township reviewing a demolition permit.
A few miles away in Warwick Township is the Compass Mill, built in 1776.
There was an original structure built between 1757 and 1758, but it was burnt down. After the present mill was built, it served the Moravian community at Lititz.
It is now a shell of its former self.
Keperling says the owner stripped the structure of its wood roof and wood flooring, leaving the rest of it vulnerable to the elements.
“Water is just going to get into the walls and make it less stable,” Keperling said.
The Hoober-Eeby Barn, built in 1861, is also suffering from environmental damage.
The barn was listed on Manheim Township's historic resource inventory with a level 2 significance in 1991.
“If it’s associated with a historic event, a historic person, if it’s associated with a special type of architecture which is why this building was on the list,” Keperling said.
The building at 907 Lititz Pike used to be a trolley stop, a general store and a post office before it was converted to housing.
The property owner expressed interest in tearing down the building; that’s why the Trust is expected to do a walkthrough to determine if it’s worth saving.
“We really do encourage adaptive reuse, repurposing, because a building that is not useful isn’t going to be preserved,” Keperling said.
The Roslyn Carriage House is also being monitored by the Trust.