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William Shoaff, who had purchased a log cabin with the gristmill, was sufficiently prosperous to build his family a new house in 1861. Emblematic of the survival of vernacular design in the hinterlands, the two-and-one-half-story Federal Revival brick house was erected on a fieldstone foundation with chimneys on the gable ends and a boxed cornice. A front porch signals the main entrance; the side porch fronting the rear wing is characteristic of central Pennsylvania.