Arts & Culture
Culture and History
The area is filled with living history, heavily influenced by a Pennsylvania German Heritage. This richness is actively preserved by two institutions open to the public: Goschenhoppen Historians and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center.The Goschenhoppen Historians boast a folk life museum, hold monthly meetings and are responsible for the annual, 18th-century themed, Goschenhoppen Folk Festival. Since 1966, this historical event is informative and entertaining, serious and humorous, in dialect and English.
Meanwhile, the Schwenkfelder Library and Museum, is a research library filled with archives that attract people from throughout the world to perform genealogical research and visit their museum and gift shop exhibits.
Elsewhere, our streets are filled with delightfully decorated historic homes and stately churches of 18th, 19th and even 20th century construction.
Schoolhouses can still be seen throughout the Valley: their days as centers of education long past, some serving now as private homes. Examples can be seen in Sumneytown, Huff's Church, Hereford and in Perkiomen Heights.
Mills thrived throughout the region in the 18th and 19th century. Still standing are the Comly Mill along the Perkiomen Creek across from Knoll, Inc. and Kriebel Mill in Hereford.
The churches of the Upper Perkiomen Valley reflect a strong cross section of the German immigrants' sacred traditions. The Reformed and Lutheran sects cohabited with Schwenkfelder, Mennonite and Roman Catholic groups in their midst. Two mid-19th Century Schwenkfelder Meetinghouses still stand a solemn sentinel in Hosensack and Kraussdale.
The "Goschenhoppen Region" is steeped in history and culture. From the first local newspaper, Bauern Freund (Farmer's Friend) Print Shop, in Sumneytown to the Church School, known as Bullfrog Academy (due to the frog infested swamp area behind the building), in Upper Hanover Township, we find a plentiful and generous past in every neighborhood, enriching the lives of everyone who visits and resides.
More Historical Information
Please visit these sites for more historical information as detailed by our boroughs and towns:East Greenville
Red Hill
Marlborough Township
Pennsburg Borough