The Tenant House / Museum

 On the farmstead site is a white building, part brick and part wood frame.  The wood frame portion was built around 1850 to house the farm help. Since Rueben Strassburger was more a merchant than a farmer, he needed someone to handle the farm chores. This building initially was the wood frame section. The first floor consisted of the kitchen and a large hearth fireplace, while the second floor was the bedroom. There was an open sleeping porch connected to the upstairs room. It has since been closed in. Upstairs and downstairs are connected with a winding staircase. 

   Some confusing real estate transactions occurred in the 1860s, separating the property. The tenant house was then under the ownership of Thomas Proctor, a farmer. The land then passed to Christopher Proctor, a blacksmith. Do you see stone ruins along Keystone Drive? That was once Proctor’s blacksmith shop. He had a thriving business, catering to the travelers on the Bethlehem Pike. At some point, possibly in the 1860s, a brick addition was added to the original framed portion. It has a nice porch fronting Keystone Drive, similar in style to the porch on the Homestead building.  

 Recently, this building was converted into a Hilltown history museum, containing items of old Hilltown and the rural agricultural way of life of  the 19th century. Come see our representation of a one-room schoolhouse classroom, a display of old ironwork, a series of images “then and now” showing how this area has changed in the past 100+ years! Maybe you could reminisce about some of the old Hilltown area businesses. 

​Remnants of the 1730s Thomas log barn are displayed from one of the oldest building in our township. View images of the construction of Lake Nockamixon, and some of the long-gone buildings that were sacrificed. The Old Bethlehem Road, once a main thoroughfare from Bethlehem to Philadelphia is now interrupted by this lake.