On Feb. 3, Benton Webber shared several photos and newspaper articles on the Uncharted Lancaster group on Facebook. The photos showed a beautiful building, originally a farmhouse, located at 2201 Oregon Pike in Manheim Township. Landis House has been a fixture in Lancaster County for nearly 200 years, and its history has included occupants ranging from farm children to insurance executives.

"It was originally built by Hans Snavely or Snabley," said Webber, who noted that spelling tends to be less fixed as one delves back into the history of a building. "It came into the Landis family by marriage." A date stone indicates the original house was constructed in 1728, which Webber pointed out is the same year that Lancaster County was formed. "At some point there was either a fire or the house had to be expanded," said Webber, noting that the house was rebuilt in the 1880s. How much of the present house is original is not clear.

Webber's Facebook post included a number of photos and news articles that traced the history of the building. A circa 1899 photo shows several members of the Landis family in the front yard of the home. A 1930 photo provided by Lewis Bechtold shows two children and a dog in the same location.

After the building served as a family home for several generations, one of the Landis family members turned the domicile into a family restaurant. "I found some newspaper articles about it, and it looked very charming," said Webber of the family restaurant that closed by 1978. A 1982 newspaper article states that Provident Mutual Life Insurance of Philadelphia would occupy the building. In recent years, the building has housed TriStarr Staffing. "It is not in the same shape and configuration and context ... but a lot of the historic architectural features were preserved," said Webber. "(TriStarr has) done a great job with the interior. They kept a lot of the historic ambiance while preserving the outside." Webber's post pointed out the replicated roof, and the preserved hand pump, walkways, and porch.

Webber, a Lancaster County native who graduated from Manheim Township High School in 1979, first became interested in local history when attending a meeting about a Bridgeport intersection as a civil engineer. "I asked where the name Bridgeport came from, and nobody knew," recalled Webber, who eventually learned from an East Lampeter Township supervisor that there had once been a steamship paddle wheel boat called the Lady Gay traversing the Conestoga River. "That blew my mind," recalled Webber, who said the experience changed his life. "I have loved researching about the Conestoga River (since then)," said Webber. "The neat thing is trying to imagine what this area was like in the 1700s and 1800s, with woods as far as the eye could see," Eventually, Manheim Township's rich soil gave way to agricultural development and farms like the Landis House. "It's neat how this tells part of that story," said Webber.

For more stories about local history, search for "Uncharted Lancaster" on Facebook.