The 2009 photo below was taken by Mike McKenzie. Older local residents Mr. & Mrs. Lester Bittner remember this building being used as a store. This building is built on a stone foundation, and is located near the site of the former Kennell's mill (That is not meant to suggest that store was operating contemporaneously with Kennell's mill; we don't really know much about the store at this point).
The same building is shown on page 96 of the 2005 Vol. 1 of the Huffman's book "A Walk Through Southampton Township, Pennsylvania The Way It Used to Be!". In that photo, the building does not have the wheelchair ramp and large porch that is shown in the above photo. The book's photo caption is This is the election house in Kennellsmill. The property is owned by Allen Bittner. The house is still used today by voters in Southampton Township.". That use explains the wheelchair ramp in the photo above.
The following excerpt from the Southampton Township map in the 1876 Beers atlas of Somerset County makes me wonder if the election house may have originated as a union church.
L. Dietle
September 2009
Revised November 2023
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