Visiting the Peter Stuhr House

One of the original houses in Hall County has now been restored for the public to enjoy.

We are talking about the Peter Stuhr house. "It's one of the original cabins when the settlers came out here in 1857," Hall County Historical Society President Fred Roeser said. "This is actually two of those cabins pushed together." For decades, the house was located where the JBS Swift meat packing plant is today. It was the childhood home of Leo Stuhr, who was a founder of the present day Stuhr Museum. The house survived for many years near it's original location.

"Leo Stuhr passed away in 1960, but the family still took care of the land, and they kept the house up and the farmstead up," Hall County Historical Society member and Stuhr Museum board member Don Dietemeyer said. "They always kept it shingled, and had vinyl siding over the original wood, so that was preserved."

But there came a point when progress required change. "JBS swift needed more room for the parking lot for their employees, so the house then had to be moved. That's when the Hall County Historical Society got involved. They took the house and stored it for three years on a piece of land owned by the city. During that time, the society was able to raise $50,000 dollars through donations and a sale of a barn for an endowment. With that endowment and many volunteers, the house was moved, and it now sits proudly on the Stuhr museum grounds.

"By bringing this house on here, and deconstructing the modern, we were able to actually look at the original structure, the original framing, the original adobe and all of the original components and document them, so that we can use this for future educational programming," Stuhr Museum's Director of Interpretive Resources Kay Cynova said. "It will also be used in our "heritage activities for today's students" program, for our winter on the plains class, and also pioneer living. There is also a chance in the future that we will use it for a summer adventures class."

This is the first new house added to Railroad Town in more than 20 years.. and generous donations.. along with a dream to preserve history made it all happen. A free reception is offered to the public on Saturday, June 16th, 2018 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to celebrate the Peter Stuhr house.