RESTORATION OF THE FRENTZEL HOUSE MOVES INSIDE

This is how the house looked before the retoration began.

This is a picture of the occupants of the house around 1912. Amelia Frentzel stands with the Paul Hopfers family.

C.E. "Jim" Frentzel, Quentin Klaus and descendants of Charles Frentzel are restoring the family homestead in Uniontown.

The homestead was purchased by Charles Augustus Frentzel in 1853. Frentzel left Germany for the United States when he was 15 and purchased the homestead a few years later.

The house has two distinct parts. There is an older structure that is now the back of the house. The restorers are looking into when this part of the house as well as the newer front side were built.

There is a rock arch cellar below the oldest part of the house and the house has other interesting rooms and features as well.

Jim Frentzel said that the restoration was going on to preserve the family heritage.

Frentzel said that the history of the house is important to his family and it is important to the history of Uniontown.

Charles Frentzel was the first postmaster in Uniontown, but when he came to Uniontown it was named Platzdorf. During the American Civil War, Frentzel was instrumental in the changing of the town name in honor of the union.

The house has never left the family and Klaus and Frentzel got together to buy the house from Esther Telle, a descendant of the Frentzels. They did so to keep the house in the hands of the family for good.

They formed a non-profit corporation in 1992 and began restoring the house.

"They tear down so many buildings now days. It's for everybody in the family and the people of Uniontown," Frentzel said.

When the house is restored the plan is to place the family and town history inside the house. There aren't any plans to furnish the home with period pieces.

The outside has been painted and the next project for Klaus, Frentzel and company will be to restore the parlor and then they will move onto the oldest part of the house.

"We are going to try to get done as fast as we can," Frentzel said.

"We don't want to disturb the original look," he added.

The house has no plumbing and the restoration plans will have an outhouse built with modern fixtures, but the house will be left undisturbed.

Frentzel is unsure of when the project will be complete. Besides the restoration of the house there is still a lot of family history and local history that has to be collected to go into the house.