Peter Wentz Farmstead welcomes visitors to tour a headquarters of the Revolution
A farm first owned by a family of German immigrants that served as a headquarters for the Revolutionary War is still a working farm today and a site to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
"Washington really did sleep here," said Meg Bleecker Blades, site supervisor for the Peter Wentz Farmstead in Lansdale. "He stayed here two separate times in October of 1777."
At the farmstead, she said, visitors can find real letters from the iconic Revolutionary War general.
"The signature line is 'Your most obedient servant,' and there's that wonderful 'George Washington' signature that we all recognize," Bleecker Blades said.
Bleecker Blades said one of the two kitchens fed the war effort.
"They would take piles of coals, and create a burner, and put either the spider, one of the three-legged pans, or put a trivet over it, and then the pot on top of it," Bleecker Blades said.
Bleecker Blades explained there were repeated attempts on Washington's life. So, one of the general's slaves guarded his food from being poisoned.
"Hannah Till, she was an enslaved lady who served as cook to the general, traveled with him," Bleecker Blades said. "When she was in this kitchen — the story that is told to us — is the doors were locked."
After dinner came the time to sleep. Bleecker Blades showed that the upstairs bedroom furniture may be replicas.
"Certainly, with the Wentzes, it would have been a feather bed," Bleecker Blades said. "So, it would have been pretty comfortable."
However, so much in the room is authentic.
"This sort of scarlet-red color here is the original 18th century paint," Bleecker Blades said, pointing to the inside of a built-in closet. "So, that's the paint that when Washington hung his coats up in this closet, that's the paint those clothes touched."
The story of the Peter Wentz Farmstead — which still has cows, chickens and sheep — started long before Washington arrived. First, it was a gift from the elder Peter Wentz, a German immigrant, to his child.
"About 1740," Bleecker Blades said. "He gave to his son, Peter, this then 300-acre piece of land to start farming, establish a farmstead here."
Robert Pratt, who recently came from Bryn Mawr to visit the place where George Washington once received war updates, was impressed.
"So, you can imagine him sitting in this very room receiving that news," Pratt said. "And that's the kind of thing that I like to come to these buildings for."
The Peter Wentz Farmstead is open to visitors every day except Mondays and holidays.