The first house is red brick on a stone foundation. It has white paint, dark louvered shutters, slate rooflines and multi-pane sash windows, and a bank barn stands nearby. The Schoenebergers bought the property at Fairview Farm in 2013 and set out to update what the house needed while keeping as much of its original character as they could. In 2025 the couple added a new living room and two primary suites for a multigenerational household. They took hardwood flooring out of the attic and reused it in the addition, so one continuous floor runs from the original house into the new rooms.
The Schoeneberger House is one of five private homes on the Governor Wolf Historical Society's 44th Annual Christmas House Tour on Saturday, December 5. The Home News is profiling one of those homes each week until the tour. Over 44 years the tour has shown more than 325 historic homes, and the houses change every December. The organizer stays put, on a campus of three historic buildings at 6600 Jacksonville Road that hosts its own festival on tour weekend.
A Tour Run From Bath, Staged Across the Region
The 2026 tour covers nine historic buildings, including five private homes and two museums. It is self-guided. Your ticket is a booklet with sketches and descriptions of all nine buildings, plus a map and written directions.
The homes come from across the area. In 2025 the five private homes were in Lower Nazareth Township and Bethlehem, and all were more than 120 years old. That group ranged from a house that started as an abandoned shell in a cornfield to a converted 1700s stone barn. Each year's houses come from the homeowners who agree to open their doors, and the Society's August 2026 newsletter asked the public to suggest old houses for this year's tour.
That means the booklet's map takes you on a drive through some of the area's oldest houses, with the Jacksonville Road campus as the one fixed stop on the weekend. The campus is in East Allen Township but has a Bath mailing address. It includes Wolf Academy, built around 1785, the Ralston-McKeen House from around 1795, and the Monocacy School from around 1907. The Society is named for George Wolf, Pennsylvania's seventh governor, who served from 1829 to 1835.
Five Counters, Four Towns
Booklets go on sale Saturday, November 14. They cost $30 in advance and $35 on tour day. You can buy them at these five shops:
- Bath Drug, Walnut Street, Bath
- S. Seem Antiques & Artisans, Chestnut Street, Bath
- Miller Supply ACE Hardware, Route 329, Northampton
- Mycalyn Florals, Main Street, Nazareth
- Snow Goose Gallery, Main Street, Bethlehem
The shops are spread across the same area the tour covers, from two Bath storefronts to a Bethlehem gallery. Last year the Society asked buyers at these shops to pay with exact cash or a check as a courtesy to the merchants. The same habit is a good idea this year.
The Booklet Is Also a Two-Day Pass
The booklet also gets you into the Society's Holiday History Fest at no extra charge, on both days. The Fest runs Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Fest fills all three historic buildings with demonstrators. The Society's event listing describes bobbin lace making that visitors can try for themselves, spinning, weaving and needlework, hearth cooking, a basket weaver, a blacksmith and woodworkers. Vendors sell paintings, herbal soaps, walking sticks, birdhouses, wooden toys, charcuterie boards, holiday décor, and local cheeses, jellies, jams and pastries. Craft stations are open to both children and adults all day. The Society's "1800s ladies" hand out free Christmas treats from their era. On Sunday the program adds early firearms, 1800s antiques and a Civil War encampment.
The Fest hours shape the day. It opens an hour before the house tour on Saturday, and Sunday is shorter, so a Saturday ticket holder can see the campus at 9, drive the route from 10 to 4, and come back Sunday for whatever they missed.
Friday Night, by Candlelight
The weekend starts the night before. On Friday, December 4, at 5:30 p.m., the Society is bringing back an old tradition: a candlelight tour of the houses. It is a private showing for homeowners, volunteers, decorators and patrons, for anyone who can't make Saturday or would rather see the rooms at night.
The evening starts and ends at the Ralston-McKeen House. Patrons meet there, visit the tour homes by candlelight, and come back for charcuterie, music and a colonial shrub. Tickets are $50 for Society members and $60 for nonmembers. Call Carol at 610-390-0555 to buy one or to volunteer.
Why "Stars and Stripes" Fits This Year
Each tour has a theme, and florists, garden clubs and designers decorate the homes around it. Last year's theme was "O Tannenbaum." This year's is "Stars and Stripes."
The theme fits Bath's year. In September, borough officials, veterans and community groups met at 1737 Park to dedicate and break ground on the America 250 Trailhead and Founders Monument. The Bath Fire Department carried the cornerstone to the park in a procession. According to The Home News, Council President Frank Hesch thanked the Governor Wolf Historical Society among the event's partners. The paper also reported that the borough was established in 1737, 39 years before the Declaration of Independence.
The trailhead will have engraved bricks around the Founders Monument. It is planned as the main entrance to a borough park trail system that will eventually connect to the Nor-Bath Trail. Northampton County plans to bring that trail into Bath near the Monocacy Creek, and visitors will then follow Mill Street east to 1737 Park. "Bath has been around for every page, of every chapter, in the story that is America," Hesch said at the groundbreaking, as quoted by The Home News. The house tour's red-white-and-blue theme closes a year in which the borough has been marking that history in brick.
The Rest of December Runs Through the Same Campus
The house tour weekend is the busiest stretch, but the Society has events at 6600 Jacksonville Road almost every week between now and mid-December.
| Date | Event | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Tour booklets on sale at five shops | Store hours | $30 advance |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Crafts Social, Monocacy School | 10 a.m. to noon | $5 donation requested |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Museum and campus open, free guided tours | 1 to 3 p.m. | Free |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Christmas Wreath Workshops | 9 a.m. to noon; 1 to 4 p.m. | $40 |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Christmas Wreath Workshop | 9 a.m. to noon | $40 |
| Thu., Dec. 3 | Crafts Social | 10 a.m. to noon | $5 donation requested |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Candlelight Patron Tour | 5:30 p.m. | $50 members, $60 nonmembers |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | 44th Christmas House Tour; Holiday History Fest | Tour 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Fest 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | $35 day-of, Fest included |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Holiday History Fest | 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Included with booklet |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | Candlelight Concert, Wolf Academy | 7 p.m. | $15 members, $20 nonmembers |
| Thu., Dec. 17 | Crafts Social | 10 a.m. to noon | $5 donation requested |
A few of these events help with the main weekend. The November 21 open house is the last of the Society's free third-Saturday tours, which run April through November. Guides take visitors through the three historic buildings and the museum, and no reservation is needed, so it's a good way to see the campus before the December crowds.
The wreath workshops fall on Thanksgiving weekend. The Society supplies mixed greens, forms, florist bows to choose from, and cones and other decorations, along with coffee, tea and soft drinks. Bring any decorations of your own, and snacks or wine if you're coming with a group.
Concert tickets go on sale at the campus during Holiday History Fest. You can also reserve by emailing [email protected] or calling 610-737-3000. If you're at the Fest that weekend, buy them there.
The Home News has four more homes to profile before December 5. All nine will be in the booklet that goes on sale at Bath Drug and the other four shops on November 14.
At Addison Wolfe Real Estate, we spend much of our time with historic houses like the Schoeneberger farmhouse, where an addition was built from boards saved in the attic. If you own an older home in the Lehigh Valley and are thinking about its future, or simply want to talk about one, we would be glad to hear from you. Contact Us.
