Ancient and modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill . avenue now divides that old front about equally. Kurtz, a German,owned it. There was an orchard with excellent apples. Kurtz usually woresmall clothes and a cocked hat, which gave him somewhat of a military dogs attended him on his walks. He had a large collection of militarybooks. He bequeathed them to a church in Germantown, but their where-abouts is not now known. His house, situated on the Main street, was long,low, and with pent-house and porch. Back of it there stood one of the ancienthouses of Germantown. No stone ap
Ancient and modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill . avenue now divides that old front about equally. Kurtz, a German,owned it. There was an orchard with excellent apples. Kurtz usually woresmall clothes and a cocked hat, which gave him somewhat of a military dogs attended him on his walks. He had a large collection of militarybooks. He bequeathed them to a church in Germantown, but their where-abouts is not now known. His house, situated on the Main street, was long,low, and with pent-house and porch. Back of it there stood one of the ancienthouses of Germantown. No stone appeared in the structure. It was twostories in height, and was built of staves and clay. Another building, per-haps a tool-house, was where, at one time, Miss Rooker had her school. Thesebuildings were removed when Chelten avenue was opened. There is a plateof the house in the Magazine, which Ward acknowledges to be made from asketch by Mr. Charles J. Wister, who has done very much to rescue from oblivionthe picturesque views of the olden time of GERMANTOWN. 109 Kurtz delighted in horticulture and botany. He had rare trees and plantsand shrubs, but in 1864, a writer says, only a huge English horse-chestnutremained on the sidewalk. His plants were set without order, and so it wasdifficult to find their owner, who daily worked among them. He was gen-erous and never sold plants, but gave them freely. He died in 1816. He hadmany friends, among whom was Mathias Kin or Keen, who used to visit Thomas Meehan notices this man in the Qardeners Monthly, September,1864. Some German horticulturists emploj^ed him to collect seeds. Fromthe trees collected by him, which were decaying in 1864, Mr. Meehan thoughthim contemporary with William Bartram and Marshall, possibly even withJohn Bartram. Germantown had many trees collected by him. There wasa Virgilia lutea probably seven feet in circumference, and a large Magnoliaacumiyiata, nine feet in circumference, and perhaps eigh
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