The origins of the house at 435 Main Street date to March 1901, when S. B. Costenbader secured a building permit to erect a house on this lot in front of the first Slatington High School building on Kuntz Street. The house was built in a colonial revival style.
In 1908 Costenbader sold the property between Main and Kuntz Streets to Ray Bowman.
How did the house get connected to the Muschlitz family?
The first Muschlitz ancestor to reach America was Johann Heinrich Gottfridt Muschlitz (1718-1778) aka Gottlieb Muschlitz who arrived in Philadelphia in 1753 from Switzerland. He married first, in 1745, Maria Schreiber (1709-1754), and then about 1767 he married Maria Catharina Strohl (1718-?). She had four children, one of which was Jacob John Muschlitz.
Jacob John Muschlitz (1768-1815) was a cooper by trade. In about 1804, Jacob John Muschlitz married Elizabeth Gann (1771-1828). The 1850 census places them in Lower Towamensing Township, Carbon County. There were seven children in the family, one of which was Jacob Muschlitz.
Jacob Muschlitz (1794-1852) married Salome Zellner (1804-1894). The 1860 census places them in Parryville, Carbon County. Again, there were seven children in the family, one of which was Robert Muschlitz.
Robert Muschlitz (1826-1903) wasa cooper by trade, but n his early life he was a boatman on the Lehigh Canal (1860 and 1870 US censuses). By the 1880 census, his occupation was listed as a farmer. In 1853 he married Lovina (aka Sarah Lavina or Levina) Boyer (1833-1893). There were ten children in the family, one of which was Robert Franklin Muschlitz.
Robert Franklin Muschlitz (1853-1910) was a partner in a store operating in Slatington as Kuntz & Muschlitz for eighteen years and then a store operating as Muschlitz, Peter and Co. (aka the Globe Store). Robert Franklin Muschlitz was also an organizer, director and vice president of the Citizens Bank, and he was an investor in several slate quarrying enterprises. In 1881, he married Amanda Mendsen (1855-1926), and they had three sons, one of which was Dr. Charles Henry Muschlitz.
Dr. Charles Henry Muschlitz (1881-1947) was an 1896 graduate of Slatington High School and a 1904 graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, with a specialty in orthopedics. In June 1908, he married Minnie Roper (1882-1937), the daughter of David (D. D.) Roper (1839-1904), the wealthy and prominent Slatington lawyer and slate entrepreneur. The following year Muschlitz moved into the house on Main Street, right in front of the high school, where he established a large general medical practice. The Muschlitz family included a daughter and a son.
Charles Henry Muschlitz, picture from the 1904 Jefferson Medical College yearbook
In 1938 after the death of his first wife, Dr. Charles Muschlitz married Myrtle Ellen Kreitz (1909-1991). She was a nurse and quite a bit younger than her husband. They had one son.
Dr. Charles Muschlitz was the founder and then head of the orthopedic department of the Allentown Hospital (now part of Lehigh Valley Health Network). He died unexpectedly in 1947.
Dr. Charles Muschlitz was also related to Henry A. Muschlitz (1877-1923), the owner of the Crystal Knitting mill, who was a brother of Robert Franklin Muschlitz, the father of Dr. Charles Muschlitz. That made Dr. Charles Muschlitz the nephew of Henry.
Robert Roper Muschlitz (1910-1963) was the son of Dr. Charles Muschlitz and Minnie Roper. He was a graduate of Slatington High School, Princeton University and then Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia (like his father). He practiced as an ophthalmologist until his death in 1962. In 1936 he married Eunice Paige (1911-1947) in Scranton, PA. After her death in 1947, he married Doris Frantz in 1951.
Robert Roper Muschlitz, picture from the 1937 Jefferson Medical College yearbook
In 1939, Robert Muschlitz opened his eye practice in the medical office with his father at 435 Main Street. He was also on the medical staffs at Allentown Hospital and Sacred Heart Hospital (now part of St. Luke’s hospital). He died unexpectedly in 1963. One daughter survived him.
As a child back in the 1960s and 1970s, I remember visiting various doctors who would have succeeded the practice of Dr. Muschlitz in and around Slatington: Dr. William Haines (1906-1967) on East Washington St., Dr. Harry Kern (1888-1972) on Main Street, and Dr Ray Pickel (1910-1973) on Cherry St. in Walnutport. These visits usually were the result of some accident, like a massive gash across my knee, that happened while I was playing somewhere in my neighborhood
But there was some past family history with Dr. Charles Muschlitz that I've discovered. My great grandmother underwent some sort of throat procedure in 1915, which was performed by Dr. Muschlitz. And just the year before, Dr. Muschlitz dressed the bullet wound in the hand of my great uncle when he accidentally shot himself with a revolver. Dr. Muschlitz was also the attending physician during my great grandfather’s fatal illness in 1927.
The Muschlitz house was in a weird location, hardly noticed as it was tucked between the massive presence of the two former Slatington schools (one behind and one to the west). And I always wondered later how it got built tucked into that space. Now, with the schools and the Slatington News building gone, the house occupies a more prominent place on Main Street.
A current view of the Muschlitz House, 2023