Pennsylvania

Trostle House and Summer Kitchen, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (39.801685, -77.242180)

Primary House Felling Date: Winter 1786/7, Winter 1785/6

Secondary House Felling Date: Winter 1879/80

Summer Kitchen Felling Date: Summer 1778

Site Master 1636-1786 (white oak) THPAx1 (t = 7.94 MONOCACY; 7.91 ATMx1; 7.65 SHVAx1). Individual sample 1801-1879 (white oak) thpa11 (t = 7.25 BBPAx1; 5.52 eapenn; 5.48 TBM).

The Trostle House and Summer Kitchen are located within the confines of Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Trostle House is a two-story gabled, hall-and-parlor style farmhouse typical of German settlers in Pennsylvania. The original house, a two-bay structure at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, has a two-story integral porch form at the southeast. A one bay, two-room-deep addition that post-dates the Battle of Gettysburg extends the original house to the north. The Summer Kitchen is a one-and-one-half story brick structure on a stone foundation located to the east of the Trostle House. The interior is a simple one bay wide by one bay long space, accessed through one of two doors, found on the east and west faces. (Building descriptions courtesy of the National Park Service.)

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that the primary house was constructed from timbers that provided felling dates of the winter of 1785/6 and the winter of 1786/7; a timber used in the secondary phase of construction provided a felling date of the winter of 1879/80. Timbers used to construct the Summer Kitchen provided felling dates of the summer of 1778.

Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2023 "The Tree-Ring Dating of the Trostle House and Summer Kitchen, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ", unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2023/06

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