Verda & Richard Hockensmith
CORNER TOLLGATE RIDGE RD & 4492 TIMBER RIDGE RD
17212
Municipality: Thompson Township
Structure: 3800
GPS: 39.769529 -78.122594
The name of this barn quilt square is State Capitol Harrisburg. It was taken from a Sampler Quilt hand-quilted by Verda Culler Schue in the early 1980’s. The interest in quilting came from a collection of handmade quilts done by my ancestors of the Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Mellott Family, my grandparents. I can still remember helping my mother, Maude Ellen Mellott Culler, take the heavy wooden lid off the handmade box to “shake out” the quilts, fold them neatly, put them back, along with moth balls and cigars to preserve them from the moth. This barn quilt square was installed on a barn built to replace the original that was blown down during a storm. Everything was built, except for putting on the roof. The new one was built on the same foundation, on a farm purchased by my grandparents in 1913.
The barn was built during the time when Gov. Gifford Pinchot was building macadamized roads in PA (1923-1927). In exchange for my Grandfather Mellott giving a free right-of-way he requested that his son-in-law, C. Hykes Culler, my father, be given a job working on the road that bordered part of the farm, Also, it is believed that the Gambril roof style of this barn was the first in the area. Written by: Verda Culler Schue Hockensmith 8/7/15
High school students from Forbes Road High School
painted the block.
