In Memory of Tony Tafel
11/27/39-1/11/25
As told by his wife Ruth
Tony Tafel grew up in Narberth, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. His home life was typical of families in the surrounding towns…a mother who stayed home, and a father who took the train to his job in Philadelphia. His father was a manufacturing pharmacist of homeopathic medicine. During his middle teen years during school vacations, Tony would travel with his father to work in the pharmacy, and by age 15 earned enough money to purchase his first antique, a full sized bust of Tecumseh, which always did, and still does, have a place of distinction in the home.
By the end of his university years at Penn State in the ’60’s, he had begun quite a collection of Civil War items, all in his room at home. Later when he and I married and bought a house, one room was dedicated to the Civil War collection and housed such items as uniforms, saddles, guns, and items that a soldier would need, such as hardtack. (I remember when he bought 2 pieces of hardtack and paid $50. I nearly fell over!!!). When we purchased a 1790’s house in Old New Castle, DE, the house did not lend itself to displaying all those items, so Tony sold them all, and started over collecting Americana from 1750-1850.
We discovered in our new home a hidden fireplace and stairway, and spent time renovating the home. Outside Tony discovered the original well, and restored it, and found the crumbled outline of what might have been an outhouse or smoke house and, so, he built what he thought it might have looked like. The house was close to the Delaware River and at low tide Tony would go down and pull out old bricks, wash them off and then laid out a delightful 1700’s garden in the back. He was insulating the attic by pulling up floorboards and putting insulation in, when he found a mass of fabric, balled up, and quite dirty. When Tony and Ruth pulled it apart, it was a workman’s shirt with patches abounding, although it had originally been a 1790’s dress shirt, as authenticated by Winterthur Museum. Tony made a frame for it out of the floorboards and nails, and it has accompanied us to every home we have had.
Tony was quite artistic and an excellent woodworker. He conceived the idea of buying a piece of land, which we did in 1978, 5 acres in Lancaster County, PA. Construction began in 1980 by hiring an excavator to take out trees for a 400 ft driveway. A well was dug (with the use of a witching stick!), an old barn in DE was demolished with the help of some friends, beams and boards to be used to construct the home. Late fall an area was cleared for the house and over the winter, a 1/3 acre pond was dug at the bottom of the main hill on the property, with many trees needing to be felled, cut up and hauled up the hill by Tony and Guy, their son, before the excavator built a wall at the south end. The overflow pipe was installed and the pond began to fill from the springs.
By July of 1981 the boundary of the house was marked and the excavator dug the hole. With the help of friends, the footing was poured and Tony was laying the first course of block by mid-July. The footings were 24” wide, the front wall was 8” and the side walls were 10” so there was some filling in to be done after the wall was started. That fell to me and my trusty wheelbarrow. As there was no electricity on the property, the water to mix the cement for laying the block needed to be pumped from the hand pump 300’ up the drive. A hose was attached which ran down the drive and over the lip of the back of the basement wall, which itself was backed into the hill. For me, it was pump, pump, pump, go down the drive and around the lip of the back wall to the giant can that had received the water, bail it out, and take turns with Tony mixing the cement, by hand in a shallow pan just for that use, all for the approximately 1750 concrete blocks in the finished walls.
We parged the walls and added two coats of tar applied at the bottom. That tarring was done by a friend, Gene, who came away wearing some of the tar, said the tar “jumped.” Oak logs cut from the property were placed in the basement for support columns by Tony and Dave, another friend. By November 1980 floor joists were put down with sub floor next, and the perimeter was back filled by an excavator. As teachers we didn’t have several days running anymore to work on it, so we were done for the winter.
Over the winter the double doors to the basement opening were built by Tony and installed in the spring of 1982. By early July we were out of school and back at building and creating. The rough framing began, but still by hand with no electricity. I removed nails from barn beams that would be used in the construction as well as acting as “the other end” of whatever framing piece or beam Tony needed to have help getting into position. And then, finally, electricity! What an invention! Things became a bit easier! The frame was done and ready for a roof…but neither Tony nor Ruth could get up that high so a contractor was hired to put the rafters that Tony had cut, into place and finish the roof, complete with 2 sky lights in the kitchen area. Yeah! The gable ends were framed in and then 4 sides of the home were sheathed in. Windows came next, so Tony and another friend Dan put in 3 picture windows, having to install them from the inside, because we did not have scaffolding on the outside. To do that they had to use ropes to swing the windows out through the opening and ease them back into place. By winter of 1983 the house was framed, roofed and windowed…and from the outside it looked like a person could live in it. But no….
By early spring of 1983 a front door was installed and early summer trim work on the outside began. Our son, Guy, who had no fear of heights, painted the eves and all the high parts. Tony, Guy and I covered the sheathing with tar paper, then started on the cedar siding, which sure smelled good! The siding was done by fall, but meanwhile, Tony and Ruth went to a local Amish sawmill and bought 650 ft. of red oak floor boards that were green… very wet and heavy. The best place for them to dry over the winter was in the loft, so several boards at a time, with Tony on one end and me on the other end, up the front (Unfinished) step, then up to the loft with boards so heavy it was hard to get my knees unlocked to take the next step!
By Spring of 1984 the stairs to the loft were framed in. In June a newel post was made by Tony from some old oak barn timbers. Over the Summer the well platform 300’ up the drive was dismantled to get ready for the plumbing to the house. A water line dug; finally there is a storage tank in the basement for water. In November, Tony began working on the interior door frames and hanging the doors. By a happy circumstance, my sister and her husband had just finished replacing all their interior doors in their Wilmington, DE home, and we were the happy recipients of their old doors. Wonderful 20’s wooden doors, that we had stripped. Tony made each of the closet door frames to fit specific doors, then hung them. Fall saw Tony and Guy installing insulation in the ceiling of the loft. Tony was also planing the floor boards drying in the loft.
The year 1985 found us laying floor boards, building a deck, and enjoying the harvest of the orchard and garden we’d put in…potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, blueberries, peaches and apples! We found some time to attend local auctions, purchasing a 1930’s wooden table which we had stripped, and I painted.
In the Spring of 1986 Tony started work on electricity, drywall, lights, the kitchen, the living room, and the ceiling drywall. Then 2 coats of paint. We had made the decision to move in by August 1, so began moving furniture in. We got ahead of ourselves, and had to move all the furniture out to the deck so the wall to wall carpet could be installed!
Tony and I continued to work on various project over the next few years, ultimately including an addition and a double car garage with attached workshop. Guy and a friend of his helped Tony build portions of it, and when it was finished, Tony lined the walls of the shop with wide, planed boards butted together horizontally and finished with a light, gray-blue wash. On that he arranged tools that exemplified his forward in the photo book he kept:
1750 Life of the Common American 1850
Collection of Tony Tafel
This collection covers the tools and materials used by
The American man and women to live and survive the early Years in this country.
Many happy and productive hours were spent in that shop. In the winters Tony would get up and go to the shop to start a fire in the wood stove so it would be warm enough to spend those happy hours. Patience, the cat, followed him there, jumping on a chair Tony had placed just for this occasion, and then settled on the top of his glass showcase, that housed the most special of his collection. He arranged the collection so that starting at the left side of the wall that a person saw as they first walked in the door, the collected pieces, from ceiling to floor, were those that would have been needed to take a tree out of the woods, the next row to the right on that wall, were those tools that would have rough shaped the log to make the log cabin, the next row, for more finishing, and on around the room encompassing tools to make furniture, forge, and every other tool needed to make a home between 1750 to 1850 run well. Of course, he also collected finished products from that time period, all beautifully displayed on the walls and…eventually hung from the ceiling. During the time period 1990 to 2006, Tony happily “antiqued” and went to auctions, amassing a great collection which he shared with school children, friends, and Americana seekers.
In 2006, Tony and Ruth decided that it was time to move closer to family, friends, and friendly services, and so sold the house. It sold within 12 days to the person who was to become the publisher for Tony’s book about his collection. Tony sold most of his collection at an auction before moving, but as he had done before and was to do again later, kept the very best, and continued to build it by going to auctions and “antiquing.” His area of keen interest and expertise was a niche area and required many exciting explorations!
Tony and Ruth moved to Newark, DE where Tony wrote the book on his collection, “Everyday Artifacts, America 1750-1850” and continued to build the collection. In 2010 they bought a summer home outside of Lexington, VA, which had a log cabin on it. He started a collection there, while renovating both it and the home on the property. In 2014 Tony and Ruth moved to a CCRC, Continuing Care Retirement Community, Kendal, in Lexington. Again, Tony downsized his collection, keeping the best, and starting to build it again with “smaller” items. Ruth continued her weaving, her greatest encourager being Tony. Tony died January 11, 2025, with Ruth by his side, as they ever were.
Something About The Sky is a lovely book written by Rachel Carson and illustrated by Nikki McClure. The story began as a response to a letter from a child sent to the editors of Omnibus, a television program for children. Carson developed her response into a script for Omnibus to air on March 11, 1956.
Artist Nikki McClure adds visual dimension to Carson’s writing, employing a fluid ink work with her unique cut paper technique. This author and artist combination results in a stylistically lyrical book, worthy of any Sloane aficionado’s bookshelf. We think, had it been published in 1956, it would have been on Eric’s bookshelf, too.
To read more, see:
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