Handwerk House Victorian Bed & Breakfast welcomes visitors to area rich in Lumbering History

This is an excerpt from an article in the Pennsylvania Magazine where Handwerk House Victorian Bed & Breakfast was featured.

Taken from an article in the April/May issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine
by Linda C. Feltman (who has been actively involved with the bed and breakfast industry in Pennsylvania since 1982.)

Authors Note: This past summer, we traveled through some of the most rural of all of Pennsylvanias rural counties. Eventually, we came to dub our trip the tree trip"; it seemed that everywhere we went we were either entering or exiting a state park or forest while traveling along narrow, winding two-lane roads with little or no traffic. It was a wonderful change of pace. In the Jan./Feb. issue I reported on a bed and breakfast in Forest County; in Mar./Apr. we traveled to Cameron County; and this issue we go to Potter County.

As we traveled along Route 6 between Kane and Wellsboro in Pennsylvanias Northern Tier, we found so many interesting sites beckoning us to pull over and explore that we lost track of time and drove past our destination, ending up at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. So what a relief it was, after finally reaching the Handwerk House Bed and Breakfast in Galeton, Potter County, to find an understanding note and refreshments waiting for us in the kitchen. Co-owner Teri Batterson was out on an errand and had left the door unlocked for us.

When seemingly half of the towns people are relatives and the other half friends, why bother with locks on doors? Galeton is like that -- one of those places where everybody knows everyone else, and where they take pride in sharing the town and its colorful lumbering history with folks who have not been so lucky to grow up there.

Teris husband, Tim, was in the U.S. Air Force for 10 years. As a result, they lived in Greece, Colorado and Virginia, so it was no surprise that they would come home to Galeton when Tims stint in the military was finished. Teri opened and sold several businesses, including an antiques store, before she began a bed and breakfast, a business where she could display all of her antiques.

Besides providing the opportunity to stay at home with her teenage child, the bed and breakfast gives Teri a daily excuse to entertain guests, decorate, and collect even more antiques. And if a guest expresses an interest in a particular antique, Teri will gladly sell it to make room for another treasure. As a result, her returning guests expect a seasonal décor that changes with Teris latest finds.

Naming the bed and breakfast was easy; everyone in town already called it the Handwerk House after the family that bought it in 1899 from Galetons namesake William Gale. The house, which was originally built in 1897 for one of the supervisors of Gales tanneries, was owned by the Handwerk family for nearly 100 years before the Battersons bought it in 1999.

From Teris front porch Galetons Center Town Lake beckons visitors to boat, swim or fish. Guests can also stroll along the self-guided walking tour that skirts the perimeter of the lake. It features more than 50 points of interest related to the areas turn-of-the-century lumbering activities.