When Tadd Geis bought a 70-year-old house in Harmony three years ago, his first goal was to make it livable, not historical.
But his restoration work earned him a Heritage Award from Historic Harmony, a group that celebrates the past of the borough, the former home of Johann Georg Rapp, a German weaver and vine tender turned prophet. Rapp and his followers broke away from the Lutheran Church at the beginning of the 19th century, settled in Harmony in 1804 and established the Harmony Society, an early example of communal living.
Geis said his 1929 two-story brick house on Main Street in Harmony's historic district "was pretty rundown" when he bought it.
"I took it, refreshed it and brought it back to its glory," he said.
The work included new paint, windows, hardwood floors and an updated kitchen. Exterior work included redoing sidewalks, painting, acid washing the brick and adding a mahogany back porch to match the original look of the home.
In addition to honoring Geis, Historic Harmony presented Heritage Awards Feb. 15 for the restoration of a century-old oil well hidden for decades under the brush and woods of Moraine State Park and for a total historic restoration of an 1850 house along Main Street in Zelienople.
"We originated the awards as a way to recognize outstanding examples of preservation and restoration activities, as well as activities of people who encourage knowledge and appreciation for local history," said John Ruch, president of Historic Harmony, which has more than 200 members.
When Moraine State Park opened in the mid-1960s, 242 oil wells on the property were closed and one was left to be restored in the future as a historic site, said Charles Wert, a volunteer on the well restoration project. The well was forgotten and "left to rot in the woods for years until someone stumbled across it," said Wert, of Lancaster Township.
The Moraine, McConnell's Mill, Jennings Commission, a nonprofit organization, and park volunteers worked to restore the well to educate the public on how the field of wells operated more than 100 years ago. The well left on the site is 1,000 feet deep, and the gas engine to pump the oil was built in 1899, Wert said.
The restoration of the site includes a museum depicting the history of oil fields in the area. The site is open to the public several times a month from May to October.
The other Heritage Award went to Thomas Murray Jr. of Harmony, who purchased an 1850 house along Main Street in Zelienople a year ago.
"I tried to bring the property back to its original materials and architectural features," Murray said. The restoration project included replacing the siding, restoring the front and rear porches and refinishing the chestnut floors throughout the house.
"I grew up in Harmony and back in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, it was pretty bleak," Murray said. "Since then, Harmony's had a nice turnaround due to the general enthusiasm of the people who live and work here."
Patrick Murray, Thomas Murray's son, did a little physical labor on the project but mainly coordinated the subcontractors and selected the building materials.
"The Heritage Awards encourage people to do more historic renovations instead of just updating their properties and losing the historical significance," he said.
Karen and Russ Ottney of Harmony received a Heritage Commendation for renovating an 1830 house at 610 Wood St. that they purchased last year.
Since the 1991 inception of the Heritage Awards celebrating the Harmony area's history, 81 Heritage Awards and six Heritage Commendations have been presented.
