The Homestead - Conrad Brumbaugh
The first home that Conrad Brumbaugh built on the land at Quail Hollow, was made of hand hewn logs deeply notched at the ends to hold them firmly in place. The house was 24 feet by 24 feet, two stories high with a basement constructed of stone. The east side of this was made of soft brick and covered with a plaster. The log house was completed about 1820 and located near the present Brumbaugh Cemetery. The log cabin was converted into a utility building after a much larger home was completed in 1842.
The new house was built on the ridge of the hill with a walk-in cellar which was really a ground floor room. This cellar had an earthen floor, heavy stone walls, and large hand hewn timbers overhead. it provided the only cool storage spece in the house.
There were bins for vegetables, shelves for canned fruit, a rack for vinegar and cider barrels, crocks for sauerkraut, lard and puddidng and containers for milk, cream and butter. Over the entrance was a covered proch running the full length of the house. A grape vine grew on wires attached to the porch posts, In the fall the bunches of large purple drapes were especially attractive to both boys and bees.
The house itself was large and rectangular with a main floor, upstairs and attic. The first floor contained a combination living-sining room. In the dining end of the room was a big wood buring stove with a reservor on the back. The dining table and chairs were located near the stove. In one corner of the dining area was a pantry with a sink. All the water had to be brought in from and outside well.
From one corner of the living room area a narrow winding stairway led to several upstairs bedrooms. Beyond the living room area were two first floor bedrooms.
The attic not only provided a place for storage, but also a room for cured ham and sausage and the drying of vegetables. The attic was also a place for curious youngsters to play and investigate.
The Brumbaugh homestead continued to expand. Additions to the original house were made in the same manner as the same manner as the original. The exterior of the addition had walls of soft yellow brick covered with wood siding to produce a uniform appearance. A wide porch extended along the front of both the old and new structures.
A large summer house was built adjacent to the main house. It served as the center for cooking and serving meals and washing dishes as well as for canning vegetables and making preserves and jellies. The summer house consisted of one large room with a big stove, a pantry, a long table and nnumerous chairs. There was a second floor attic used to store boxes, trunks and old clothes. The summer house had a cupola that housed a large dinner bell, which was rung to call the workers from the fields at meal time.
At one corner of the summer hoiuse was a rectangular wooden building that had exterior siding to correspond to that of the main house. There was a large brick baking oven with an iron door about two feet square. The procedure for its use was to build a quick hot fire in the oven, usually of old dry fence rails, then rake the coals down into an ash pit underneath. Bread, pies, cakes, and beans were put into the oven with the use of a long handled paddle. It wasn't uncommon to nake a dozen loaves of bread two or three times a week.
A rectangular space between the main house and the summer house was paved with flat hollow tile. This gave the effect of a courtyard and tied the buildings into a sort of quadrangle.