Troxell-Steckel House, Whitehall, Lehigh County

I had hoped to be starting this post with the announcement that I've got a new podcast episode ready to roll. As it happens, however, I'm still waiting on YouTube's account verification and a couple other details. (I'm trying to clean up the audio quality.) So instead we're just getting straight into the blogging.

This will be a slightly odd blog post, at least by my own standards. I have two markers for the location, because the wording is just a little different on each, but I won't be sharing pictures of the actual farmhouse. That's not to say that I don't have pictures - I do. Quite a few, in fact, and I would love to share them. But it's a peculiar quirk of the Lehigh County Historical Society that you can't publish photographs of either the Troxell-Steckel House in Whitehall or Trout Hall in Allentown without their explicit written permission, and I just never got around to requesting the permission. Maybe they wouldn't mind, but then again, maybe they would, and I don't feel like dealing with any possible legal fallout. I'd rather play by the rules. Eventually I'll remember to write and ask for permission at a time when I'm actually able to do it, and I'll come back and add my photos to the post.

This marker stands on Main Street (PA 329), Egypt,
at the north side of Egypt Community Church

Generations of Lehigh County schoolchildren have gone on field trips to visit the Troxell-Steckel House. I'm fairly certain I was one of them, but my memory of the event is extremely fuzzy. I have much clearer memories of going there with friends as an adult. There are a couple of ways to get to the farm; the one we chose was by hiking on the Ironton Rail Trail, which includes the property as one of its points of interest.

In the late 1730s, John Peter Troxell and Peter Steckel each left their homes in Switzerland to seek a new life in William Penn's land of religious tolerance. There's no indication that they knew each other before moving; they left at different times, but both arrived at the port of Philadelphia and both settled in the area today known as Egypt, which is a subset of Whitehall Township. Both were part of the congregation of what today is the Egypt Community Church. Both were also acquainted with my own family - several of my Kern relatives were members of the same church, and the three families occasionally served as sponsors for one another's children at various baptisms.

After having lived in Egypt for several years, Troxell laid out plans for a beautiful new farmhouse for his family. He purchased a plot of land adjacent to an excellent spring, and in 1756, his work was completed. It's a two-and-a-half story stone house in the German medieval style of architecture; it's made from local fieldstone and timber, measuring 48 feet long and 35 feet wide. A stone inset on the second story confirms the date of construction and, in elegantly scripted German, asks for God's blessing on the house forever after. It also gives the original occupants' names as Johan Peter Trochsel und Maria Magdala - John Peter Troxell and his wife, Mary Magdalena.

This marker stands in the parking lot of the Egypt
Community Church, on South Church Street

For whatever reason, the Troxells only occupied the home for twelve years. In 1768, they sold the farm to Peter Steckel, who moved his own family into the house and stayed there for the better part of the next two centuries. Sometime in the late 19th century the Steckels added a large red barn, which today is adorned with Pennsylvania hex signs; this and the stone spring house are the only outbuildings of the farm. The property remained in the Steckel family's possession until 1904. I can't find any clear record of what happened at that point - either it was sold, or Peter Steckel no longer had any surviving descendants to take up occupancy. But we do know that whoever owned it after the Steckels left turned it over to the Lehigh County Historical Society in 1942.

It seems that the historical society then spent thirty years doing a detailed restoration of the farm. It was cleaned and refurbished, the grounds maintained, and fitted out as a museum of pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania. In June of 1972, they held a two-day celebration in which it was formally dedicated as the Troxell-Steckel House, as it's still known today, and the entire Lehigh Valley was invited to come and tour the interior. In 1980 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It's considered one of the finest surviving examples of early colonial German-Swiss or Pennsylvania Dutch architecture.

Today, the Troxell-Steckel House's official address is 4229 Reliance Street, Whitehall. The farm is always open during daylight hours for visitors to walk around, view the buildings and informational signage, and take pictures. From May through October, the historical society does provide tours lasting an hour and a half, allowing up to fifty visitors at a time to tour the interior of the house and barn; both buildings are kitted out with furniture, art, and tools from the time period of the farm's establishment. To arrange a tour, call 610-435-1074 to get current pricing and availability.

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Sources and Further Reading:

The Troxell-Steckel House at the official website of Lehigh County

Troxell-Steckel House at Discover Lehigh Valley

Author unknown. "1,200 Attend Dedication of  Troxell-Steckel House." The Allentown Morning Call, June 4, 1972.

Roberts, Charles R., and Rev. Jacob D. Schindel. History of Egypt Church. Lehigh County Historical Society, 1908.

Troxell-Steckel House and Troxell-Steckel House at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.