Copy of Mouns Jones House Print

Gray scale copy, possibly of a previous copy with the following in pencil on verso: "Mouns Jones House built 1716 by Mouns Jones + Ingabo Yocum Jones. [The penciled "Yocum" is crossed out and replaced with penned "Leicon"… Datestone stolen{n}, will be replaced. This is a copy of an oil painting - painted by Miles Dechant" (an artist and architect born in Reading, PA in 1890). There is no indication of date or origin of this photograph; however, Miles Dechant died in 1942, so this drawing was probably executed in the 1930s. Image #2 shows the verso with sketch of the date-stone. Note the covered bridge [1832-1952] behind the house. FOOTNOTE {n} The date-stone was not in fact stolen. When Dr. Ackerman, a local dentist and relief sculptor, had noticed in the 1950s that the date-stone had fallen from its niche as the building deteriorated, he took possession of it, fearing that it would be damaged or stolen. He had planned to make a plaster cast and entrust the original to a museum or historic preservation organization. When he learned that the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County had acquired the site and begun restoration of the house in the 1960s, he returned the precious artifact to the Trust and it was re-installed in its original niche in the wall. It was again removed in 2014 during re-construction of the river-facing long wall and was re-set above the re-centered doorway on completion of the re-laying of the compromised wall ranges in 2018. Laurence Ward, June, 2018 and May 2023