Skip to main content

Rock Ford Plantation

Rock Ford Plantation

Hand's Georgian brick mansion stands on the banks of the Conestoga River and is surrounded by over 32 acres of land. After the war, Hand retired to the mansion and lived out his days in the scenic Pennsylvania countryside. Edward Hand purchased the "plantation tract of land" in two transactions: 160 acres in 1785, and 17 additional acres in 1792. The old term for a farm under cultivation was "plantation". Built circa 1794, the Georgian style brick mansion remains remarkably preserved and essentially unchanged architecturally. Rock Ford's spacious four floors conform to the same plan -- a center hall and four corner rooms -- typical of the period. Visitors walk the original 18th century floors and see original rails, shutters, doors, cupboards, paneling, and windowpanes.

The house was opened to the public in 1960, and the restoration of the wooden piazzas was completed in 1964. Today, Rock Ford is one of the most important examples of Georgian domestic architecture surviving in Pennsylvania and the most intact building predating 1800 in Lancaster County. The living-history programming of the museum includes hands-on activities for children and open-hearth cooking demonstrations in addition to regular guided tours.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Featured Articles

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.