More than 75 members of the Weisenberg Lowhill Township Historical Society gathered at the Seipstown Grange recently to enjoy an evening of feasting and fellowship for the group's annual banquet.

The speaker for the evening was Gregory D. Huber of Past Perspectives House Histories, Macungie.

Huber specializes in many facets of house and barn histories, such as family histories, architectural analysis, dates of construction, structural house reports, chain of title deed searches, as well as barn, monument and site histories.

He spoke about the local barns in Weisenberg and Lowhill townships and his survey on 1,655 such barns.

Huber became interested in barns as he was interested in trees (especially oak trees) and woods.

He traveled for 46 days in Lehigh County to research 11 types of barns. Huber explained there are 156 barns in Weisenberg and 54 barns in Lowhill .

Weisenberg Township rates third in the number of barns in Lehigh County.

His PowerPoint presentation showed mostly 19th century Sweitzer-style, stone, log, bank, ground and modern barns.

A Sweitzer-log barn built in 1825 is located along Stagecoach Road, he explained.

The largest barn in the township is along George Road.

Each barn in the area is unique asd some have newer additions, or have stone half-way or up to the gables.

Some have slate roofs or brick sides or forebays; others have unusual frame structure and other distinctive features.

Huber spoke about barn stars and said that the barn stars located on the end of a row of barn stars match while the center one(s) are different.

He said it is most unusual to see an Elbedritsche painted on a gable.

Huber can be contacted at 610-967-5808, 610-966-7988 or email info@ past-perspectives.com.