Blessing stones: Discover the timeless messages carved on some Lancaster County homes
If home is where the heart is, it may be beneficial to have a blessing carved in stone on the front.
While date stones featuring the year a home was constructed — and often the inhabitants' names — were fairly common practice, many homes built in the 1700s and 1800s also added a blessing stone to the facade of a home or barn. It is largely a Pennsylvania German tradition.
Blessing stones reflect a deep spirituality and a sensitivity to the passage of time — the "notion that time is a measure of a person's life," says Patrick Donmoyer, director of Kutztown University's Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, in a YouTube video titled "House Blessing Stones: A Pennsylvania Dutch Tradition of Establishment."
The heritage center is "dedicated to preserving and celebrating Pennsylvania German folk culture, history and language," and that includes blessing stones.
In the presentation, Donmoyer explains the wide range of meaningful inscriptions and stylized design in old German or Latin script in blessing stones from the Lebanon to the Lehigh valleys.
Blessing stones are typically installed in the peak of a roof or between second-floor windows on homes, barns and churches. Sometimes plaster or wood was used instead of stone. Occasionally, paints were used to increase visibility of the message.
Donmoyer says the type of stones used reflects the local geology. Sandstone and limestone were more commonly used in central Pennsylvania, while slate stones in York County and shale stones in Montgomery and Bucks counties are prevalent, he says.
Blessing stones can be easily overlooked, as they are generally flush with the building and on the second story. The typeface may be decorative, making it difficult to decipher. The stones may have historical or biblical significance.
Donmoyer says the stones are often "lofty, rhyming and religious."
While blessing stones are not unique to Pennsylvania — the tradition reaches across numerous cultural, religious and ideological boundaries — the use of the German language on many of the state's house and barn blessings is what makes them distinct from the rest of the country.
Wooden stone
Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum has a blessing stone carved in wood that is in remarkably good condition and dated 1740. The piece was rescued from a log house in East Petersburg that was being torn down.
Jennifer Royer, museum curator, says the museum acquired it in 1941, according to notes from Henry Landis, one of the brothers who founded the museum. The wooden blessing stone will be showcased in the visitor center next March in celebration of the museum's 100th anniversary, she says.
Museum volunteers translated the blessing, which is based on Proverbs 17:1 and reflects the sanctity of a peaceful life.
"I go out or in so death stands and waits for me. Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife."
Life is short
Sometimes, Donmoyer says, the blessing in stone on the outside of the building is a truncated version of a blessing document inside the home. He says that blessings may be dark and often conveyed a "morbid fascination that life is short."
One blessing stone he translated read: "As often as the door turneth upon the hinge, O mortal, consider thine end."
A blessing stone on a home on Pierson Road in Lititz is next to a date stone from 1813. The blessing stone, as translated by Mark Louden, a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reads:
"Every worldly pleasure is only dung,
Be faithful until death.
One thing continues to stand firm:
God will never pass away."
Other blessing stones offer protection or inspiration.
One blessing stone in Lehigh County noted by Donmoyer states, "God protect our house from all danger, and lead our souls into the halls of heaven."
The blessings are often written in Pennsylvania Dutch — which Donmoyer is fluent in — and include ampersands, curlicues, squiggles, stylized loops and random punctuation. The Pennsylvania Dutch stones often included both the husband and wife's names, Donmoyer says.
"Some symbols are still a mystery," Donmoyer says, adding that some designs with hearts and stars remain enigmatic and "we may never know what the carver meant."
One blessing stone says, "The shadow moves, the work remains," conveying the importance of hard work. It is a poetic way to communicate with future generations, he says.
The Germanic style of stones are sometimes found inside the home on lintels or over a cellar door. While Germanic script is ornate, it can make lettering difficult to interpret, Donmoyer says. As English became the language of the land and architectural styles changed, house blessings became more popular inside the home as wall hangings, he says.
Some blessing stones name the tradesmen who worked on the structure, representing a "cross pollination of culture and design," Donmoyer says. Since each stonemason had their own "carving style," some blessing stones may correspond with gravestones in their lettering and embellishments, he says.
Blessing stones may illustrate a "cosmological interest in time," Donmoyer says, noting the use of six-point stars adorning the stones — another good reason to look up.
