Lenhartsville Log Cabin Mystery

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Lenhartsville Log Cabin Mystery

An 18th century log cabin owned by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Berger of Allentown, and formerly located in the Blue Marsh Dam project area, has been moved to the rear of the old Lenhartsville Hotel. The Bergers donated the cabin to the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Culture Society in Lenhartsville. Above, Marvin Werley of Orefield stands on the cabin porch, and below, Mrs. Florence Baver of Topton, society president, takes a loaf of bread from the oven in the cabin. The society will honor the Bergers at a dinner Sunday at 1p p.m. in the Deitsch Eck Hotel, Lenhartsville. – Eagle Photos by Walter A. Romanski

I stumbled across this 1976 Reading Eagle article about a 1700s log cabin being moved from Pleasant Valley to Lenhartsville due to the Blue Marsh Dam project. I wanted to see if the historic structure still exists so I did some research into the old Lenhartsville Hotel and found some interesting information.

The Lenhartsville Hotel went out of business in 1987, a decade after the above article ran in the Reading Eagle. Mainly due to the Florence Baver and her PA Dutch Folk Culture Society mentioned in the above 1976 caption. The timelines leave me a little confused, the Deitsch Eck Hotel is referenced, and the Lenhartsville Hotel is referred to as “old” in the 1976 article. However the 1986 Morning call article says the Lenhartsville Hotel is only to be called the Deitsch Eck after the lease ran out causing the shuttering on Feb 1st (1987). Perhaps the Deitsch Eck existed in another location at the time and moved into the old Lenhartsville Hotel when the lease was up in 1987? If you know drop a comment.

Looking at Google Maps I was not able to find a building that appeared to be the 1700s historic log cabin in the picture above. However I do believe I found where it sat:

Lenhartsville Log Cabin Mystery
Google Street View

You can see the door and matching windows above it on the rear of the building on the left side of the picture. Looking at past aerial shots it may have been standing as recently as 2004. So why was Lenhartsville Log Cabin removed after going through the trouble to move and save it from the Blue Marsh Dam project? If you have any answers comment or shoot us an email:
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