Home Care In Zionsville, PA

LOWER MILFORD TWP., Pa. - The 231 acres in sleepy Zionsville sit 10 miles south of Allentown, on land granted by the sons of Pennsylvania founder William Penn in 1730.

The owners said it is among the oldest homesteads in the Lehigh County area.

Nestled next to Blue Mountain, the property holds a native trout stream, raspberry gardens and wildlife — and golden eagles swoop down to visit as they migrate across the country.

Owners Jeff and Deb Dershem are selling the property off Kings Highway, which has been on the market for less than a year. Their asking price is $5.1 million.But the couple is not looking to sell to just anyone.

They want a buyer who will get from the land what they said it has given them – a deep respect for nature, an appreciation of the property’s history and a pledge to keep it as open and uninterrupted by development as it is now.

Ideally, the Dershems want the property to go to someone who appreciates the lifestyle that the bucolic setting evokes.

“This is very emotional for us. This is very hard,” Deb said. “We’re not looking at it as selling property. We are looking at it as passing the torch for someone.

“We’re not looking at it as selling property. We are looking at it as passing the torch for someone."

Deb Dershem, one of the property owners

"It’s very important for us to find the right person — somebody that’s going to appreciate it the way we do and enjoy it and yet take care of it and fix what we have not and where we’re at with some of these buildings.”

The property has not one but three homes, including portions of the original home built not long after William Penn’s sons granted the deed. It also has an original ice-packing house used to store ice for sale in Philadelphia in the summer, and a carriage house that could be renovated into a home.

The Dershems have lived there since 2006 but said it is time to adjust to a place that is easier to care for as they get up in years.

Living off the land

The Dershems manage the forest surrounding the property.

“When there’s trees that are dying, they need to uncover the sun so that certain trees will grow, and the trees that aren’t growing get taken down,” Deb said.

The Dershems have also had to make stream improvements to manage floods, and they practice their own brand of wildlife management.

Deb said they hunt on the property but Jeff prefers fishing and birding. The Dershems do not allow other hunters on the land because they want to protect foxes, deer and even wolves in their natural habitat. Jeff assesses every year how many deer can be taken — no more than just a few — depending on how many are out there.

“Out of respect for the animal, we do not harvest for the sake of harvesting,” Jeff said. “They’re harvested to provide nourishment, which we eat all year long.”

On the property, you can see a bit of the circle of life.

The Dershems have allowed feral cats to live on the property because they take care of mice that carry ticks. The Dershems have both gotten Lyme disease. The mice get ticks from deer, and if the mice are not taken care of, they spread the ticks to other animals like dogs. However, raccoons, as Jeff said, have an affinity for kittens.

“It can be gruesome,” Jeff said.

Restoring and expanding an old home

The Dershems try to live in moderation to keep the land, streams and animals as they are.

The land is registered as a preservation property. It is restricted from any major land development. The preserved status does allow for one additional house to be built. The Dershems never attempted to have their existing home deemed historical, so they could add and make improvements to it over the years.

When they bought the property about 20 years ago, the homes on it, including theirs, needed severe rehabilitation.

“It took five-and-a-half years to build,” Jeff said. “We repurposed as we had to take certain buildings down. If there were floorboards or ceiling boards or roof boards or porch boards or siding boards that we could repurpose, we did that.”

“Out of respect for the animal, we do not harvest for the sake of harvesting.”

Jeff Dershem, one of the property owners

For the front porch, the Dershems sourced wood from bleachers formerly used at J. Birney Crum Stadium. The school replaced the old wooden bleachers with metal. It turns out the original wooden stands were made out of old-growth Douglas fir dating back centuries, the Dershems said. The wood is also used in the office because they liked it so much.

All the stone in the home has come from the fields and streams on the property.

The main home where Deb and Jeff live was modeled to look old despite being mostly new.

“We started in 2001. We started taking it apart, and we finished in 2006, and we were here for about 18 months, and we had a catastrophic fire,” Jeff said. “It was Easter Sunday, and we were going to do a deep-fried turkey. I have done 30 of them. I went out and lit the fire, but I didn't even get the turkey in the fire yet. The regulator on the propane tank failed and blew the oil inside the container all over the house. It was 5 o'clock on Easter Sunday. Where do you think all the firemen were? Eatin’ dinner.”

The Dershems lost the roof and had to rebuild their kitchen all over again.

The house is wood-heated — the Dershems chop wood to heat a 1,757-gallon water tank that pipes hot water through the flooring to warm the basement, the first and second floors. In the winter, they wake up warm with no heating bill.

They cook in a gigantic fireplace — Deb said their grandkids love making hamburgers and hot dogs — and the house flows with an open-concept design.

“We didn't want it to look like you had a house added on to a house added on to a house," Deb said. "That’s what normal farmhouses do. What we did is when we brought the masons in – when we replaced the windows – you can’t tell that they made them bigger or smaller or put in a window or door instead.”

The main house appears to mix both old and new. Jeff likes a traditional look, so the front of the house has a historical perspective. Deb likes a contemporary look, so the back of the house has large, clear windows and A-pitch roofing. There are skylights in the kitchen, with a natural stone wood-fired oven and wooden cabinets sourced from the land. The sunken living room contains a large, open space for gathering around the fireplace.

Some of the games that the Dershems (mostly Deb) have hunted hang on the walls in the living room and office.

You can find many uses on 231 acres, and the Dershems have diversified. They train hunting dogs on the land and rent tracts to neighboring farmers to raise soybeans and sometimes corn. The couple also grows and pickles their own vegetables, makes maple syrup in the winter and jars sauces.

They have also held birthday parties, political fundraisers, baptisms and weddings in scenic settings.

Selling a property — and a lifestyle

Selling the property comes with a few challenges. For one, banks tend to want to provide housing loans for properties that have fewer than 10 acres – what Deb says you would find with a typical home. At more than 200 acres, banks want to categorize the property as farmland, which requires different types of loans.

Cliff Lewis works at Coldwell Banker Hearthside Realtors in Allentown and specializes in buying and selling historic homes in the Lehigh Valley. With a property like the Dershems', he said, banks want to value the home and not so much the land.

“So let's pretend you have a 1,200-square-foot Cape Cod on 50 acres, and you want $1 million dollars because of the land," Lewis said. "The bank is going to tell that buyer, 'Hey the house isn't worth a million dollars. The land might be but we don't lend money on the land. We lend money on the house.’”

Lewis said that typically when people buy historic homes, they tend to want to buy another. The Dershems fit that category.

They are looking to move to Virginia, where they might buy a beachfront home. They have visions of an old-world coastal roundhouse that will take less than a half hour to vacuum, as opposed to the three-hour floor cleaning they endure now.

In the meantime, they are selling the Zionsville home in the hopes that someone will want to fix the remaining properties they have not been able to get to.

The Dershems had a family looking to buy but were concerned about their older parents being unable to make certain steps in the living room.

Another buyer was interested and had the Dershems take the property off the market, but they said the deal fell through.

Mostly, the Dershems are looking for someone who appreciates the work that goes into maintaining and nurturing a place like the one they have.

“The difficulty and the beauty of selling the home [are] knowing what you have invested in it," Jeff said.

In a plan to keep rural post offices open and save money, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) intends to shorten the hours open of some, including the .

How do you feel about a reduction in hours at the Old Zionsville Post Office?

According to Ray Daiutolo, Sr., regional spokesperson, the postal service is responding to the needs and wants of the people. Feedback from rural postal customers indicates they would prefer a cut in hours rather than closing the post offices as a cost-cutting measure.

The USPS agreed with the strategy and is in the process of putting it into effect, Daiutolo said. It is hoped that the new hours will be implemented by 2014 following a study, which will include a public meeting to determine the needs and wants of the Old Zionsville community.

The Old Zionsville Post Office began on Jan. 28, 1886 in the Old Zionsville Store, moving to the Miller Hardware Store in 1898, and finally to its present location in 1971. There have been eight postmasters. The current, and ninth, postmaster is Kathy Gallagher, who has been at the location since 2004.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Kathy is the best post mistress,” said customer Mary Hanzlik. “She knows everyone and always chats a bit. I like coming here.”

Not only do the residents of Old Zionsville use the post office, but people come from Macungie and Emmaus to do business, according to Gallagher. They like the atmosphere and have a much shorter waiting time then at the other sites, she added.

The post office is a social point in the small community. Customers and Gallagher enjoy teasing each other, creating lots of laughter. It is a place where people can share their joys and sorrows with each other.

“This is the best post office,” said customer Brenda Harned. “There’s even toys for the kids while we do our business and chat.”

Old Zionsville Post Office has all the services of other post offices, except they have no home delivery and bulk mail. The two employees assist anywhere from 40 to 100 customers on any given day, with the Christmas season being more toward the 100 mark, said Gallagher.

“We even have curbside service,” chuckled Kathy as she was removing the mail from the curb mailbox and was handed some letters from a car.

In honor of EMS week, the Macungie Ambulance Corps and Upper Milford Fire Company, also known as , teamed up to show the community what is involved when saving a person’s life.

The Ambulance Corps offered a free CPR class, with all persons being certified by the end of the evening on May 19. Seven men, women and children were in the social quarters trying to “revive” the mannequins by pushing on their chests and breathing into their mouths at a steady pace. They also learned CPR techniques to use on infants, as well as the Heimlich maneuver.

“This is hard,” several of them said. But, as the students kept working at it and practicing, it began to get easier.

Years ago, CPR classes were conducted over a 6-8 week period, involving books and assignments and lots of practice. Now, a person can be certified in as little as two hours. “The more [people] we can train,” said Chris Greb, operations manager of Macungie Ambulance, “the more lives we save. So why make it a long, drawn-out process.” The classes held at the event are for the general public, he added, and emergency personnel take a more involved course.

While parents were busy with the CPR, some children were kept occupied coloring pictures and making various crafts.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The children also enjoyed sitting in the ambulances and fire trucks. The lights were flashing on the trucks, sirens blaring and horns were blowing as they sat at the steering wheel “driving” to the next fire.

One of the most popular events of the evening was the “rescue” of a person trapped in a Dodge Caravan. Firefighters literally cut the Caravan apart, first the windows were broken out, then the doors removed, and finally the front of the Caravan was pushed away from the body in order to extricate the person trapped under the steering wheel. Oohs and aahs were heard throughout the crowd as they watched the demonstration.

Firefighters involved in the “rescue” were: Curtis Knauss, Jeff Lehr, Dylan Schantz, Justin “Chippy” Kane, Chris Rickert, Ronald Fisher, Cody Raudenbush, Russ Siminski, Stanley Cupp and Mike Kline. Fire Chief Joe Kernick proudly watched from the sidelines as his men demonstrated how to safely remove a person from a vehicle.

Smokey the Bear even came for a brief visit. Children shook his paw, gave him hugs and waved “hi” as he walked through the crowd.

About an hour and a half into the event, Macungie Ambulance demonstrated to everyone just how busy they are. One of the three ambulances at the fire company turned on its lights and siren as it left to respond to a call.

“Dwarf trees were a blessing,” said Zionsville resident Abe Pennebacker to members of the Upper Milford Historical Society. “They were only six to eight feet high and a lot easier to take care of.”

He was the guest speaker at the historical society's April 28 meeting, describing to the nearly three dozen in attendance his life as the owner of Pennebacker Orchards.

The Zionsville orchards were located along Route 100, near the Berks County line. Zionsville Antique Mall is now located in what was once the packing house for the orchards.

Everything came in from the orchards, he said, and was placed into baskets. “There was no refrigeration in the packing house for cold storage,” he added, “until the 1950s.”

Employees worked seven days a week when the fruit was ripe. The 15 to 20 employees had to pick everything by hand, bring it into the packing house, sort it and put it into baskets to sell.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ray Mohr, historical society member, recalled when he worked at the orchards during his youth in the 1930s. “My arms got all itchy from the fuzz on the peaches,” he recalled. “I hated that.”

Pennebacker took over the family business around 1950 and ran it for 44 years before selling it, he said, growing apples, cherries, peaches and nectarines on the 135 acres. Several varieties of apples were grown in the orchard, such as Rome Beauty, Winesap, Stayman, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious.

“Trees had to be sprayed with special chemicals,” he said, “in order to control insect damage and diseases.”

Weather was also a big factor with how the fruit crop would turn out, according to Pennebacker. If the temperature dropped close to freezing in early spring, after the trees budded, usually all the buds would fall off – which meant no fruit. He also said hail was a disaster and could ruin a crop in seconds.

Cherries were the most difficult crop to grow, said Pennebacker. The birds would eat them before they were even ripe. Even turkeys would fly into the cherry trees and eat them.

Following his talk, several members of the audience who also worked at the orchards, chatted with Pennybacker about their various experiences.

The Upper Milford Township Historical Society continues to work on a book about the township; however, pictures are still needed. Contact Rose Parry at 610-966-4851 for information. The book is expected to be ready for sale sometime in 2012.

Esther Martin, member of the historical society, celebrated her 89th birthday with the group with pie ala mode.

Henry Beitler was a Boy Scout. And he loved it. He loved it so much that when he saw a need for a scout troop in Old Zionsville, he started one—Troop 31.

On Jan. 26 the Upper Milford Historical Society heard Beitler, 94, talk of his 50 years with Troop 31.

Several former members of the troop were on hand to reminisce with him: John Fegley; Wallace Stauffer; David Heintzelman; Larry Stahler, now a leader with Troop 31; Jason Heminitz; and Ron Miller, now an assistant leader with Troop 31.

Boy Scouts came to the United States from England and was incorporated on Feb. 8, 1910, according to Beitler.

In 1933, Beitler began scouting with a troop in Palm. After he turned 18, Beitler became a leader in the troop, taking six boys with him from the Old Zionsville area. But when a seventh boy wanted to go along, Beitler realized he had to do something, since he could only put six in his car.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On June 1, 1941, Boy Scout Troop 31 of Old Zionsville received its charter, meeting at the . However, just four days later, on June 5, Beitler was drafted into the Army, returning home to Old Zionsville in 1946. Fortunately, he said, there were qualified leaders able to run the troop until he came home.

In 1947, Beitler held a Court of Honor for the first Eagle Scout in Troop 31, with 55 more to follow in his 50 years as Scoutmaster. Heintzelman, Heminitz and Miller were three scouts present during Beitler's recent talk who became Eagles while under Beitler’s leadership.

Beitler was selected to be a leader in nine National Jamborees throughout the United States.

Beitler was also chosen to be a leader at the 1967 World Jamboree held in Idaho—the only time the event has been held in the United States. He recalled seeing prairie dogs around the camp and hoping the boys didn’t set up a tent on top of one of their holes. It was quite an experience, he said, meeting boys from other countries.

The Silver Beaver Award is a council-level distinguished service award and is given to leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth. Beitler received this award in 1964.

Then, in 1969, he earned the highest level of adult scout leader training, that of the Wood Badge. It is the premier course of scout leadership training, and entails grueling and intense training, forcing participants to work together.

Between his leadership in the troop, summer camps and jamborees, Beitler estimated he led and guided more than 1500 boys during his 50 years in scouting.

“We trained the boys to be leaders,” Beitler said. “That’s what scouting is all about.”