Couple turning a Pennsylvania ghost town into a destination

SHREWSBURY — In this day and age, it is peculiar to see a long-forgotten town being completely rebuilt and not bulldozed in favor of a new shopping center.

And yet, in a little corridor off Route 616, in a petite section of York County, a pair of Shrewsbury residents are in the middle of rebuilding the lost rail town of Seitzland Village.

The whole idea came from David Keller's affinity for a single building: The former site of the Seitzland Store, which was built in 1848. It's a building his partner Ellen Darby used to call “the butt ugly building at the corner of the road.”

“I've always done restoration (work). And when you're local you usually miss the obvious. And I saw this one little standalone thing with no interference,” said Keller. “You're not adding to it. You're using what is here and bringing it back to life.”

During the height of railroad commerce in the 19th century, Seitzland would see over 72 trains within a 24-hour span, approximately one every 18 minutes. However, as the use of commercial trains declined and other means of transportation became available, the town began deteriorating. In 1972, the Seitzland railroad was decommissioned and the town — like many rail towns before it — shared a similar fate.

It was a dilapidated building. The history left behind would ultimately spawn a revolution and put in motion a chain of events that have since made Keller and Darby rethink their original plans.

“Initially, the idea was we were going to live here, and I was going to have a gallery and a workshop,” said Keller. “But then they gave us all these uses and the wheels get spinning.”

Prior to purchasing the property in 2011, the former Seitzland Store building was in a state of decay and was being used as a multiple unit residency, according to Keller.

In 2012, a public sewer system was built and opened a new pathway for commercial zoning. The couple worked with Shrewsbury Township and obtained a zoning ordinance for a Historic Village Overlay District, which allows for adaptive reuse and renovation for historic buildings within the zone. Considering the close proximity of each structure within the Seitzland Village site, Keller and Darby began to realize that this could be a lot more than just a personal residence and gallery.

PAUL KUEHNEL/AP PHOTOS Ellen Darby, left, and David Keller stand with the restorations they have made to Seitzland Village, outside of Glen Rock, on March 18. The exterior of the store was restored with new porches, the store front rebuilt and a train station was added. The York County Heritage Rail Trail runs in the background.

A room and a fireplace are seen inside a stone building under renovation in Seitzland Village outside of Glen Rock on March 18.