Submitted by Brett Snyder, Historical Society of Salisbury Township

In 1932, during the Depression, a group of 64 Amish residents of Lancaster County got together in Gordonville to discuss a mutual problem: the low prices they were getting for their milk - just 60 cents for 100 pounds. Their solution? Make Swiss cheese! Forming a co-op, they obtained ground; erected a bespoke building in Gordonville; and imported a Swiss cheesemaker, Carl Laderach, to manage the operation.

The Lancaster County Swiss Cheese Company was a success and was soon making five 160-pound cheeses daily, netting $1.35 per hundred pounds of milk. By 1939, business had increased 300%, producing 30,000 pounds of cheese and 5,000 pounds of high-grade creamery butter weekly. Incidentally, the factory they built exists today as the home of Phillips Lancaster County Cheese Company.

In 1937, Laderach designed a Swiss chalet to be built on the north side of Route 30 in Kinzers between White Chimneys and Rough & Tumble. Built on land that was once part of W.U. Hensel's summer estate, the chalet's purpose was to be the retail outlet for Lancaster County Swiss Cheese. It offered "a lunchroom, retailing of gasoline, oil and cheese." The building became a local landmark. In 1945, Laderach registered the name, Laderach's Cheese House.

Another building of note in the area was the home of William Uhler Hensel, who was a Pennsylvania State Attorney General from 1891 to 1895; lawyer, co-owner and newspaper editor of the Lancaster Intelligencer; and local historian and author of several historical volumes, including one on the Christiana Riot of 1851.

His 24-room mansion was built in 1879 by the prior owner, a dentist from St. Louis. Hensel named the gothic structure Bleak House, and it would become the location of legendary annual parties, with distinguished guests arriving on Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) trains on a special PRR spur line extended to his home and on the Conestoga Traction Company (CTC) trolley that stopped in front of his home. Greatly respected, Hensel's 1915 Lancaster funeral was attended by four Pennsylvania governors, the entire state Supreme Court and the complete faculty of Franklin & Marshall College.

The Gap VFW purchased the property in 1950; its current building was constructed after Bleak House was torn down in 1962.

Back across the highway, another Swiss cheesemaker, Arthur Lengacher, and his wife, Martha, took over the Laderach's cheesemaking operations in 1955. Expanding the building on both ends, the family moved into an apartment over the shop of the newly christened Lengacher's Cheese House. In 1966, they built a separate home for themselves next door.

Meanwhile, Laderach opened Roamer's Retreat Campground on the western portion of the property in 1963. In 1966, the Lengachers officially purchased the cheese operation portion of the property from Laderach. After 41 years of operation, Lengacher and his wife closed the business and retired in 1996, and the property was sold at public auction.

In July, the central original part of the 1937 Swiss chalet became available and will shortly become the first home for the Historical Society of Salisbury Township, successfully ending the society's 20-year quest.

Society members are excited to have this opportunity to develop a museum to share Salisbury Township's past and to allow access to its vast archives for research.

Monthly member presentations will continue to be held at the Salisbury Township building in White Horse.

Society members also intend to further research the property's Swiss cheese past, to fill in any "holes."