About the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center offers visitors of all ages ways to learn about life in this area and about the history of the Schwenkfelders. Schwenkfelders were a Protestant group heavily persecuted in Europe that immigrated here in the early 1700s seeking religious freedom. 

In our museum, visitors will see looms and lathes, paintings and plows, chests and cider presses—all various household furnishings and farm tools from the 1700s through the early 1900s. 

Researchers in the library can trace their genealogy, and scholars will be amazed by 16th century religious manuscripts and printed materials in the collection. The museum and library are open without admission fees. 

Besides exhibits, programs range from Brown Bag Lectures on local and Schwenkfelder history to group tours and school trips, with the ever-popular spring Penn Dry Goods focusing on textiles. 

Our History

For many years there was a concern within the Schwenkfelder community that prized books and manuscripts brought from Europe by the immigrant Schwenkfelders in the 1730s would be lost if a permanent home were not established. Therefore, in 1885, the Schwenkfelder Church Board of Publication founded the Schwenkfelder Library.

To learn more about who the Schwenkfelders were, see An Immigration Story.

A more permanent home was established in 1907 when the holdings were moved to a room on the first floor of the Perkiomen Seminary Gymnasium building. They remained there until the completion of the Carnegie Library in 1913 on the Perkiomen Seminary campus. During the period from 1913 into the 1940s, the collection of books, manuscripts, and artifacts increased dramatically. The holdings by then included 12 tons of Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum research material shipped from Germany that was used to create 19 volumes of letters and books by Caspar Schwenckfeld (1489–1561).

In 1947, as a first step to providing needed space, the Schwenkfelder Library was incorporated as a separate entity. In 1951, a new building was completed to house the library materials. Only the museum artifacts remained in the Carnegie facility.

A significant addition to the Library in the spring of 2001 permitted bringing together the museum and library holdings under one roof. The Library was officially renamed the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center to carry out the joint mission.

On November 11, 2018, ground was broken for another expansion. On the Schwenkfelder Day of Remembrance, September 24, 2020, the Kriebel Rural Entrepreneurship Gallery and the Schultz Rural Life Galley opened to the public along with the reconstructed 1826 Seipt Family Bank Barn. The building campaign was awarded the Montgomery award from the County Planning Commission that fall for its community relevance and sensitive design.

Community Partners

Board of Directors