ABOUT THE SOCIETY

The  Swatara Ferry House, also known as "Old Fort," located on South Union St,  is a historic home located at Middletown Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.   It is a 1 1/2-story log building with a full stone foundation and cellar, built in two sections, each section having a separate entrance, chimney, and a basically German floor plan.   It is believed to date to about 1820. The architectural significance of this building is all the more impressive because it represents a type of structure that has not survived in any great numbers in the state.  The Swatara Ferry House is the sole known survivor in Dauphin County. The Ferry House served as a Ferry House for ferry traffic on the Swatara Creek on their way to, or from, the Susquehanna River. The Ferry House was acquired by the Middletown Area Historical Society on January 2, 1981 for $3,200.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 27, 1976.  Visit the Middletown Area Historical Society Museum for more information about this historic structure.

The "Grosh House" is a 2 1/2 story structure of log and frame construction.  It is so-named the Grosh House after the last private owner, Dr Thomas B. Grosh III, who had a dental practice in it from 1983 to 2013 when he retired. The lot #81 shows on a Deed of George Fisher's dated March 1761 and indicates that a log structure was built on this lot around 1755 by a Jonas Metzger.  Mr. Fishers books show payments on this property up to 1776, the property is re-entered in the books in 1782.  From 1776 to 1782 the records show the property as vacant, which makes sense as it was the time of the Revolutionary War. 

 The log structure was partially replaced with a frame structure in 1800.  Through the years many renovations were done. In the main room downstairs you can see cuts in the floor where corner fireplaces were located, an opening on either side of a dividing wall.  There was a central flue, with the chimney breastwork supporting a floating "summer beam" that ran across the ceiling.  The ceiling framing that skirted both fireplaces is still in place but the fireplaces had long since been removed.  It could have been a boarding house at sometime as dividers formed additional rooms upstairs.  

The Grosh's did extensive renovation work and kept everything as original as possible.  The original wooden ceilings still exist in most of the rooms as well as the wooden boards of the floors. 

In October 2013, two trustees of the Middletown Area Historical Society went to the public auction of the home and negotiated the purchase price of $90,000 from the Grosh's to us as their museum and display society artifacts.  Visit the Museum to find out more and view the "Grosh House"