Springhouse Farm, also known as the Eric Knight Farm, is a historic home and farm located at Springfield Township,

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

. The house is a Georgian style stone farm house built about 1808, with an addition built about 1941. Other contributing buildings and structures are a stone and frame bank barn (c. 1810) with

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...

addition (c. 1890), stone

spring house A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing str ...

(c. 1810), stone root cellar (c. 1810),

corn crib A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It may also be known as a cornhouse or corn house. Overview After the harvest and while still on the cob, corn is placed in the crib either with or without the husk. T ...

(c. 1895), man made pond (c. 1940), outdoor oven (c. 1940), and privy (c. 1900). The property also includes the burial site for Toots, the dog that inspired the story "''

Lassie Come-Home ''Lassie Come-Home'' is a novel written by Eric Knight about a rough collie's trek over many miles to be reunited with the boy she loves. Author Eric Knight introduced the reading public to the canine character of Lassie in a magazine story publi ...

''." Toots died in 1945, and the burial site marker was added about 1970. Its author

Eric Knight Eric Mowbray Knight (10 April 1897 – 15 January 1943) was an English novelist and screenwriter, who is mainly known for his 1940 novel '' Lassie Come-Home'', which introduced the fictional collie Lassie. He took American citizenship in 1942 s ...

(1897-1943) resided at Springhouse Farm from 1939 to 1943. ''Note:'' This includes It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 2007.

References

Lassie Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Georgian architecture in Pennsylvania Houses in Bucks County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Bucks County, Pennsylvania {{BucksCountyPA-NRHP-stub