Schantz Barn is a Township Treasure

The Schantz barn, which is located on the Lower Macungie Township Municipal Campus near the Community Center, was the starting point of the barn tour sponsored by the Lower Macungie historical society last month.

Jonas Wescoe, original owner of the property, built the barn in 1846, according to a date stone on the rear end wall. The barn contained bays for horses and cows on the basement level, and bays on the second floor for farm equipment and buggies, along with a threshing floor and grain bins.

According to “Barns of Lower Macungie Township” compiled by the Lower Macungie Township Historical Society in 2011, the barn was owned by W. Oscar Lichtenwalner in the early 1900s, and then by his son-in-law, Lester Schantz, who converted it into an egg-production operation from 1946 to 1990.

“The barn is a stone-to-the-peak standard structure and is large, sized at 75 ½ feet long by 41 feet wide,” said Greg Huber, architectural historian specializing in barns and old homes. Huber talked about Lower Macungie barns at a lecture the night before the Sept. 17 tour.

A pieler eck, the German dialect word for pier corner, is located at each front corner of the barn. These are L-shaped formations, usually made of stone, at the front corners of the barn on the basement level. Corner cupboards can be seen at each of these corners and are likely original, according to Huber.

“This is an extreme rarity, as such cupboards almost always were incorporated into the fabric of the barn only at the horse end of the barn,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the time, horses were placed at the house side of a barn.”

The barn is now owned by the township and used for storage of equipment and supplies.