‘Difficult to leave’: Unique Linden home a melting pot of personal, regional heritage

Aug 1, 2023

High in the mountains of Linden sits a labor of love.

“This was a field when we bought it,” said owner Steve Eck, “and it’s a barn that we tore down from Montgomery piece by piece and brought it up here and put it back up” to construct the home as a whole.

“I always wanted to live in a barn, and for 10 years, we looked for a barn and they were always too close to the road or in really bad shape, or we never really found one that could be converted to a house,” Steve said, “so we found one in the paper that had some wind damage, and the farmer put it up for sale.”

Though the house was built in 1994, the barn was constructed in 1864 in Montgomery behind Kidron, formerly Grumman’s, where the silo still stands.

The barn was moved to Linden, where it received a refinish from top to bottom.

“It’s a Pennsylvania bank barn,” Steve said, “so the tractors came up above, and then there was an opening down below the overhang, where the stables were. The timbers that hold up the house are 42 feet long.”

The property, at 541 Sunset Drive in Linden, is an expansive 22-acre, four-bedroom home that hearkens back to the past, featuring hanging hallways and 10-foot antique Loyalsock Fire Company doors.

“My dad was a fireman,” Sandy Eck said, “and they replaced the old fold-in doors with modern ones that rise, so he saved them and had them in my family barn for decades.”

As a matter of fact, from start to finish, this was a family affair.

“After we found the barn in Montgomery, we had a timber framer come up from Reading to lead the takedown of it,” Sandy said. “And then all of our brothers and friends were the workers, so it wasn’t like a big company, they took it down themselves.”

“My father had a crane service, so he came over during the deconstruction and we picked it apart, and numbered all of the pieces so we knew where they went and put it up exactly like it came down,” Steve added.

“After the architect did the plans,” Sandy said, “Steve mocked it up with cardboard pieces and wood, as he was trying to see how to light it. He would shine a flashlight through to see the sun coming through. So, you can actually look through one side of the house out the other side.”

“The floors are originally from the barn. It’s Ponderosa Pine from Washington State,” Eck said of the all-wooden floors.

The residence also sports a number of modern amenities, including central air, a security gate with camera and voice control, and a sauna. With an eye towards safety, the house includes a 5,500-gallon stainless steel water tank with an additional UV light and fiber filter, and a Radon mitigation system.

Heating costs for the home are alleviated by a wood fireplace, assisted by a pulley system on the back porch to make lifting the wood easier, as well as an additional wood/pellet stove hookup in the basement with a separate chimney, five 150-foot geothermal wells to transfer heat.

“It’s really a geothermal furnace, and that’s where it gets its heat, from storing,” Sandy said.

The interior boasts wide plank Brazilian cherry floors, travertine kitchen counters and custom triple pane windows.

“They’re essentially like French doors or French windows, and then there’s a regular modern pane of glass on the outside,” Steve said. “They’re basically French doors, backed by double panes of glass.”

“I collect stained glass windows and I also make stained glass windows, so there’s a lot of stained glass in the house,” Steve said, with a hint of pride. “There’s five levels in the house. It’s 30 feet tall, and even the kitchen has 15-foot ceilings.”

To save space, the upper floors use what Eck referred to as Lapeyre stairs, explaining, “they put them in submarines and the monks used to use them in the 1700s.”

Outside of the home is as gorgeous as the inside, with views of the Appalachian mountains, and the river that snakes through Lycoming and Clinton counties.

“The upper floor has a good view of the Susquehanna River and the whole mountain from Lock Haven to Muncy,” Steve said.

A flagstone patio with a gazebo-like structure made from reclaimed barn wood provides a focal point, complete with original sidewalks from the couple’s hometown.

“We came from Muncy, and these are Muncy sidewalks that we brought along. So it makes a nice outdoor space,” Steve said.

Along with a multi-purpose court that can be used for tennis, pickleball or archery, mowed paths line the property, including an expansive flower bed and stone walls, as well as a pond area dug out and ready for pool installation, should the owners decide to do so.

The exterior also contains an outdoor shower, with an extra sink directly inside that drains outside, as well as a rainwater collection system and two currently unused wells.

A special feature Steve hand-built is a wishing tipi.

“I cut down trees and made poles out of the wood, and it has a little brass ring hanging from the top down into the space of the tipi and you go in there and make a wish,” Steve explained.

The land also includes a Geodetic Marker from the National Geodetic Survey, commemorating the year when the elevation was determined to be 850 feet above sea level.

The land itself is also historically significant.

“During the Ice Age, there was a lake here called Lake Leslie, formed by what was called the Wisconsin finger that came around and blocked this whole valley through Muncy,” Steve said. “So, it all filled up with water, and these were actually the shores of the lake.”

An oversized attached two-car garage and oak-lined trailer is included with the house.

The property has recently been listed for sale with SWC Realty.

“It’s difficult to leave of course, because we’re very happy here,” Steve says of their decision to sell the property they have loved for 26 years. “We only live here four months out of the year. We’re in Florida for seven or eight months, and we come up to get away from the heat.”

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