My wife's grandfather, John Jay Hackenberger, purchased the former Huling Hotel & Pack Horse Inn located in Amity Hall, Watts Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania in 1927. Hackenberger (who had an engineering degree from Dickinson College) sought to preserve the crumbling stone with plaster. He later removed some of the plaster to expose the date '1648' and old wall. The date was placed on the wall in memory of Marquis Lars Huling, the first white trader here. The purpose of this book is to tell the story of this old house and some of its inhabitants -- members of the Huling, Reutter, Cox, and Hackenberger families who called it their home for nearly 250 years (1735-1980).
