southeast perspective views

Digital image of perspective from the southeast of DeTurk House from original photographic print. Brick Oculus, currently "blind", was possibly originally a vent for the "granary" [ dry storage attic ]. Gabled hood framing is presumed to be original. Other details include: horizontal timber plate-ties at eaves line, outlooker remnants and masonry pockets indicate supports for pent roofs and possibly a loading-door platform. White paneld entry door replaced original Dutch door {a}. {a} Image #2 is a 1953 halftone from a photograph accompanying a one-page essay by Olive G. Zehner entitled "Down Oley Way", as published in The Pennsylvania Dutchman" periodical, Vol. V, No. 5, p. 16. The essay laments the structural jeopardy facing the DeTurk Houe and the loss of the original "Dutch Door' which had been "sold to some one outside the state" {b}. The author predicts the eventual disintegration of the house into a "few stones", and indeed the 1958 HABS photo [Image #1] does show losses of the gable pents and their outlookers, and visible deterioration of the roof slates. Fortunately, within 15 years a few visionary Berks County "amateur" preservationists would rescue the structure and stabilize and restore it in several critical and urgent campaigns over the subsequent half century. {b} See DTHPH1 for photo of original door from the first floor entry into the south gable end, returned to the Trust in 2009 in excellent condition, and for photos of the original door hardware, also returned to the Trust by a generous gift from the 20th-century owner's family. The door and its hardware will be preserved, interpreted, and exhibited by the Trust as historic artifacts. Original HABS caption for this image is as follows: "Historic American Buildings Survey, Cervin Robinson, Photographer August 1958 SOUTHWEST (FRONT) AND PART OF SOUTHEAST ELEVATIONS." L.Ward, 2009, updated October, 2021