Kauffman Farm

Most of the valley's farms have architectural integrity and interest, but few can rival the extraordinary completeness of the Kauffman farm's complex of buildings. It includes two remarkable houses, two great barns—one from the eighteenth century, the other, larger, to fit the scale of nineteenth-century agriculture—and a spring house, corn crib, stables, and other structures. They are unified as much by their south-facing design that aims houses and barns for maximum solar efficiency as by their handsome carefully cut stonework with long and short work anchoring the corners. Each building bespeaks a permanence that is further ratified by the continuity of building practice. Just to the south at Spangsford Road off Covered Bridge Road is another spectacular German barn with a stone plaque stating, “Built by S. DeTurk / A. DeTurk / 1880.”