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The Lost Village of Christian's Spring

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Boys' House

Images of Boys' House

This photograph shows the east-facing side of the Boys' House. The original Gemeinhaus is visible to its right--but the 1760 annex to the Gemeinhaus seems no longer present. A copy of this photo in an album at the Library Company of Philadelphia carries the date of December 1876. (Photo used courtesy of the Jacobsburg Historical Society, Belfast, PA)

The Boys' House consisted of 4 rooms, 1 dining room, 1 kitchen, bakery and a washhouse. It was 35 feet long by 28 feet wide. 2 stories high. Wood frame with masonry. On a 1752 list of buildings, it is called the "New House"; on a 1758 list, "A House in which the Boys Live"; on a 1776 list, just "The Boys' House."

Most photographs of the Boys' House were taken, as far as can be determined, in the 1860s, the 1870s, and the 1890s. They do not depict the same moment in the afterlife of Christiansbrunn: in some the Boys' House has a small attached extension to the south, in some it does not.

 

The image below locates the Boys' House on a 1795 map of the Christiansbrunn community.