Kitchen at Daniel Boone Homestead

The kitchen has long been called – especially by architects, interior designers, and shelter magazines – “the heart of the home.” At the Daniel Boone Homestead, Birdsboro, Berks County, the birthplace and childhood home of the legendary frontiersman, the kitchen was the warmest and busiest room in the house. The kitchen was known to English settlers, such as the Boone family, as the hall; to later Pennsylvania German inhabitants, it was known as Kuche. Early occupants cooked food using a variety of iron implements over several small fires in the large hearth. Today, the kitchen houses a collection of historic items, including hand-forged utensils, kettles, spider skillets, Dutch ovens, and spikes (on which meat was roasted). Visitors to the Daniel Boone Homestead can experience firsthand what life was like in Pennsylvania’s picturesque Oley Valley more than two centuries ago. The historic site, one of two dozen along the Pennsylvania Trails of History administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), will present special programs during 2012 to underscore PHMC’s annual theme, “The Land of Penn and Plenty: Bringing History to the Table.”