Family of Elric Johnston Endersby Donates Vernacular Architecture Archive of Celebrated Timber Frame Historian to Kutztown University

Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center Will Foster Access for Students and Researchers; Signing Ceremony Held at DeLight E. Breidegam Building

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The memory of Elric J. Endersby, celebrated timber framer and prolific historian of early American vernacular architecture, will be honored through the establishment of the Elric J. Endersby Archive as part of the permanent collection of the library and archives at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University.

The Endersby and Gwazda family, including Elric's sister, Debbie Endersby Gwazda, her husband, Ed and sons Farley, Henry and Chester, have agreed to honor Elric and his legacy by donating his extensive archives to the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, a leading center for the study of colonial and early American architecture in the Mid-Atlantic region. This donation is intended both to celebrate Elric’s contributions to architectural history and preservation, and to ensure that these unique materials will be organized, preserved and made available to the public.

Debbie Gwazda reflected on her brother’s legacy, “Elric understood the value of preserving a record of the way that people who settled this area in the 18th and 19th centuries approached construction through the cultural traditions of their home countries. He was a keen student of architectural history, so he understood better than most the contexts of framing and decorative styles. During his youth, he was fascinated by traditional architecture and throughout his life he recorded architectural details in precise pen and ink drawings. He and Alex Greenwood established the New Jersey Barn Company, where Elric developed unique skills in understanding 18th and 19th century frame barns and buildings.  It is fitting that we have chosen Kutztown University to sustain Elric’s archival legacy.”

Endersby grew up in Princeton, N.J., graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut and studied preservation architecture at the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta. As co-founder of the New Jersey Barn Company, Endersby restored historic homes and barns across the state and the Mid-Atlantic region for more than 40 years and produced comprehensive documentation for more than 700 historic structures. He was also a co-author of Barn: The Art of a Working Building, published in 1992, and Barn: Preservation and Adaptation, published in 2014.

Endersby also founded The Princeton Recollector, an oral history journal in 1975. The digitized archives of the journal and the voices it preserved are now available at the Historical Society of Princeton and the Princeton University Library.

Farley Gwazda, Elric’s nephew and an art legacy consultant, worked closely with him to organize and preserve his drawings, photographs and archival materials and has continued that work since his passing, stabilizing and preparing the collection for long-term preservation. He notes: “My uncle was a prolific documenter of timber-frame buildings through his work with the New Jersey Barn Company. His beautifully rendered, meticulously measured drawings of over 700 structures, many of which are no longer extant, constitute the most comprehensive record of barns in the Mid-Atlantic region, built over more than 50 years of fieldwork. In addition to this core collection, Elric’s Archives include a large collection of referenced drawings of architectural details including more than 1,000 fan light drawings, a compendium of documentary slides and photographs and a personal library comprising more than 3,100 volumes. The work we undertook together has helped ensure that these historically invaluable materials will be preserved and made accessible to practitioners and researchers, not just as a historical record, but as a living archive."

Students at Kutztown University will gain valuable professional experience through cataloguing and digitizing the collection as a unique experiential learning opportunity, enriching their studies in Pennsylvania German studies, anthropology, history, art history, library science and other disciplines.

Elric selected his brother-in-law Ed Gwazda as his executor, and Ed commented, “The challenge presented to the Estate by the importance, quality, and extent of Elric’s works and collections demanded that we identify a capable organization as a recipient of these archives. More importantly, the family wanted to ensure that these materials would not only be preserved, but would also be made available to the public in order to ensure that this would be a resource that would both inspire and assist those pursuing historical research into the future.  The Pennsylvania German Cultural and Heritage Center is an ideal organization to fulfill these preservation and educational goals.”

The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center established its new headquarters in the DeLight E. Breidegam Building in 2023, which houses the Heritage Center’s world-class research collections of books, manuscripts, photographs, documents and artifacts, as well as galleries featuring rotating exhibitions that highlight the Heritage Center’s extensive cultural collections. The state-of-the-art research library is open to students, faculty, visiting researchers and the public, allowing access to this unique collection documenting four centuries of the Pennsylvania German cultural presence in the Mid-Atlantic region. 

The Elric J. Endersby Archive will find an esteemed place among the work of fellow architectural scholars and practitioners, whose photography, field notes and surveys of historic barns and vernacular architecture form a central portion of the archive. These holdings include the Pennsylvania barn research collection of Kutztown University Professor Emeritus Robert F. Ensminger, whose documentation of barns throughout the United States and Europe inspired the creation of the Historic Barn and Farm Foundation of Pennsylvania, an affiliate and collaborator with the Heritage Center.

“Elric’s work resonates deeply with our mission at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, where vernacular architecture documentation plays a significant role in our approach to American folklife and Pennsylvania German studies,” said Patrick Donmoyer, director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. “We envision robust initiatives to make Elric’s work accessible to researchers, practitioners, students, faculty, and the general public through digitization, exhibition and experiential learning. Elric’s stunning drawings and unique documentation would bring an unparallelled level of depth to our architectural collections, which are located in Pennsylvania, but are inherently rooted in a regional, comparative and international approach.”   

The deed of gift was formally signed at a ceremony held at the DeLight E. Breidegam Building, Headquarters of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. Attendees included Matt Santos, Vice President of University Relations and Athletics, Dr. William Donner, Freyberger Professor of Pennsylvania German Studies, Jennifer Schlegel, Professor of Anthropology, Heritage Center director, Patrick Donmoyer, Archivist Melissa Geary, Heritage Center Registrar Sarah Edris, along with Edward Gwazda and Deborah Endersby Gwazda.

About the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University

The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center is an open-air folklife museum and research center dedicated to preserving and celebrating Pennsylvania German folk culture, history, and language in a unique educational setting at Kutztown University. Highlighting the robust and colorful folk culture of the region, the Heritage Center provides access to educational programming, community events, cultural exhibitions, and an extensive research library for historical, cultural, linguistic, and genealogical research. The Heritage Center also publishes the Annual Publication Series, showcasing premier research in Pennsylvania German Studies.