today we are visiting the Fort Hunter mansion and Park Fort Hunter mansion and park is right on the edge of the Susana River in Harrisburg PA the park grounds are actually open for anybody to visit and we did walk around them and then we did also pay for the tour of the Mansion which I'll get to in a little bit let's visit the grounds first [Music] the hecton church was built in 1885 on land donated by the Widow of the builder of the Fort Hunter Mansion this was a Methodist Church until 1990s and it was eventually moved to its current location in 2009 to avoid further flood damage [Music] [Music] next up in our tour of the grounds was the large 1876 Barn This Barn actually housed a milking business in the 19th century [Music] [Music] [Music] now across the street from the barn there is a Tavern and the Old Spring House the Spring House was actually built in 1880 and it may have at one time housed a Distillery but it was later used to cool the milk from the very large Dairy production [Music] right beside the Spring House is the tavern house it was actually called the Practical farmer and it was built about 1800 and it was built to sell the owners brandies and whiskies and to accommodate overnight Travelers that came through the community later it was home to the dairy's milking crew and the farm hands and it was restored to the period of about 1870 and right now apparently it is being used as offices for the park the property actually has a another barn or stable this is the stone stable it was built in about 1810 and it actually worked in conjunction with the tavern to house the horses of The Travelers the park even has a covered bridge this is the everheart covered bridge that was built about 1881 it was actually not built here and this was not its original location however the founder of this park and Mansion moved and bought the bridge to preserve it unfortunately when she bought it in 1941 it just was moved to the grounds and it was not present oberved in 1980 the bridge had deteriorated so far that they dismantled it and placed it into storage and it wasn't until very recently that they were able to pull it out of storage and use as much of the structural parts of it as they could to reconstruct this bridge part of what made this property so successful in business was the fact that it was right along the Pennsylvania canal and right here we are walking on the toe path of the canal it made it very easy for them to transport their goods and their products around this is the Fort Hunter gas station and it was built as I said in 1929 and it sold several brands of gasoline at one time this station also included a restaurant tourist cabins miniature golf and a beer garden behind the building the property also has a very small Dairy that that was very close to the house and gorgeous Garden [Music] and nestled amidst the gardens is the ice [Music] house but let's get back to the mansion this Mansion was built in three different sections the original cabin was built in 1786 the front was built in 1814 and the rear portion was built in 1870 this house is old you can actually take a tour of the house that is the only part of this park that you will have to pay anything for and I would highly recommend it this park is actually really neat and the tour is amazing let's go ahead and I'll show you some pictures from the tour and as a little teaszer maybe even a little bit of a [Music] dollhouse this house is especially unique not just for its historic significance but the fact that everything you see in the house is original to this house it was preserved in the late 30s give or take and everything was still here [Music] [Music] [Music] and now the dollhouse [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this park is a unique find in the city of Harrisburg I would highly recommend visiting even if you just want to visit the outdoor area it's fabulous but definitely go in and visit and tour the Mansion there is something to interest everybody