LCP: Frederick DeBourg Richards, Mennonite Church, 1859 (photograph dated 1859 shows Keyser house to the left and old tenements behind).

The two and a half story stone and stucco house was probably built by Paul Engle in about 1750 and figured in some of the fiercest fighting in the Battle of Germantown. After the death of Jacob Engle the property in 1806 was sold to Jacob Kulp, then Sebastian Zimmerman and Charles Harvey, and in 1810 to Jacob Keyser, who in turn sold to his son Samuel in 1828.

In this house Samuel Keyser (1783-1868) raised six sons and employed about thirty men in the manufacture of shoes. The property was also notable for its fruit trees and for a cart road running along the north side of the house to the tenement houses known as Keysers court.

Samuel Keyser's heirs held the property until it was sold in 1870 to Washington Pastorius, who tore down the old buildings and erected two other houses on the site and opened up Pastorius Street.

Additional Sources:

• GHS: (L1-11) Keyser, N.H. Germantown Scrapbook, pp. 16- 17 (newsclippings on the Mennonite Church and Keyser homestead) and pp. 63-72 (newsclippings on early Keyser settlers and their descendants).

• GHS: Keyser, Naaman. Manuscript Notes for v. 2 (north of Chelten), History of Old Germantown, pp. 56-57 (unpublished typewritten notes).

• GHS: Photo Box 11, envelope 5, Richards' Sketchbook, p. 23 (image).
• HSP: Campbell Collection, vol. 33, pp. 205-209: Mennonite Church (various images of the Mennonite Church over time. Neighboring buildings include first the Keyser House and then a Victorian house to the left as well as different buildings behind the Meeting House. Includes images by artist John Richards and photographer L. Sowden).

• HSP: Perkins Collection, vol. 61D, p. 72: Mennonite Meeting House (manuscript text and two woodcuts, one with Samuel Keyser's house).

• HSP: Richards, John. Old Landmarks in Germantown and Vicinity, 31a: "Keyser's Yard and Mennonite Church 1770" (wash and ink drawing).

• HSP: Shoemaker Collection, folio 21: Mennonite Church and Keyser's House (four images and two pages of manuscript text).

• Quaint Old Germantown: Sixty Views of Ancient Landmarks Drawn on Zinc by John Richard 1863-1888 and Collated by Julius Friedrich Sachse. Philadelphia, 1913, plate XVI (zinc lithograph of Keyser house and Mennonite Church; available at both GHS and HSP).