The Penrose Strawbridge House is a c1721 currently undergoing restoration by the Horsham Preservation and Historical Association (HPHA). Curt Kaller has been a member of HPHA’s Board of Directors since its founding, and CD Kaller has been involved with the restoration of the Penrose-Strawbridge House since the project started.
Some of the work done by CD Kaller includes:
- Painted the entire exterior above 1st floor
- Replaced the asphalt roof on the 1939 well building
- Replaced 2 doors on 1939 well building
- Repaired/replaced window sills and frames
- Repairing masonry and applying stucco to the entire exterior of the house
- Replaced sagging pent roof (c1850) on eastern facade with new cedar shake pent roof. The original pent roof had been removed in 1996.
- Repainting all window frames above the 1st floor
The center section of the Penrose Strawbridge House was originally a c1721 one-story, one-room pen plan cabin. This room and the basement of the building likely date to 1721 and may have been part of a brewery that Keith was to have built. Major additions were later made by the Penrose family beginning in 1810 with the erection of the 3-story front of the home, the addition of a 2nd floor above the original room in 1839, and a kitchen addition in 1858. Maintenance of the house appears to have diminished after the death of Mr. Strawbridge in 1968, and the building was in very poor shape when Mrs. Strawbridge passed in 1996.
Curt Kaller was the first corporate Board of Directors member of the Horsham Preservation and Historical Association. He has been a great asset to the organization, offering his advice and experience on our Penrose Strawbridge Property restoration project and on other historic properties we have consulted and worked on in the Horsham area.
Curt’s company, CD Kaller Inc., has also been a big part of the Penrose-Strawbridge property and did a great job on the restoration of another historic property, the Novotny House that our group saved from demolition. On the Penrose Strawbridge property, CD Kaller has done painting, replaced the roof on our well room, replaced our 2nd story windows with historically accurate replacement windows, replaced a missing pent roof, restored window sills and frames, and repaired masonry and stucco.
Curt – and CD Kaller Inc – have a great appreciation of older and historically significant buildings. This shows through in the work that they do. They repair what needs to be repaired and replace what needs to be replaced, without disturbing the character of what has been there for 200+ years.
We have another pent roof here at the property that needs replacing and other buildings on the property that will need cedar shake roofs as soon as we can raise the fund. Due to our ten years of dependable restoration and maintenance experience with Curt Kaller, I’m sure we’ll be working with him again.
Pete Choate, HPHA Executive Director