History of the Whitehurst Guest House

Whitehurst was originally constructed in 1822, as a modest home for the Quaker founder of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, Josiah White. After becoming the second manager, Edwin Douglas, doubled the square footage of the house by adding a parlor and a wrap-around porch. The third manager, John Leisenring, renovated the house in Italianate styling similar to the Asa Packer Mansion. In 1885, the house was dismantled and rebuilt into three attached dwellings at its current location on the east side of the Lehigh River.

One of these dwellings was completely renovated in 2004 into a five bedroom guest house with individual climate control and private baths (three rooms with spas.) Common areas are decorated with period furniture and displayed with artifacts and images memorializing the lives of the three managers. Most rooms have a private porch and spectacular views of the town and surrounding mountains.

In 1885, the Parkhurst Mansion of John Leisenring was disassembled from its foundations on Packer Hill overlooking the Old Mauch Chunk Historic District and moved, piece-by-piece across the Lehigh River to East Mauch Chunk, where it was reassembled into three row homes.

Whitehurst served as the home for the first three managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, Josiah White, Edwin Douglas, and John Leisenring.

The Manager's home was originally built in 1822 for LC&N cofounder Josiah White. The home, which he called Whitehall, was built as a half house in the Federal style, with white clapboard siding, flat window lintels, a low-pitched gable roof, and rectangular paneled doors.

Whitehall - Built for Josiah White in 1822

In 1840, the second manager, Edwin Douglas, doubled the size of the house by adding a parlor. Exterior to the home, he added a wrap around porch.

John Leisenring, the third manager and resident of the Manager's Home, worked as an engineer under Douglas. He became manager following the death of Douglas in 1860.

Parkhurst - Rebuilt by John Leisenring in 1860

Leisenring remade the Manager’s home into a Victorian mansion following the lead of his neighbor, Asa Packer. The gable roof was removed to add a third story, and Italianate decorations were applied to the eaves. Leisenring renamed the residence, Parkhurst.

When Leisenring died in 1884, the house was disassembled and moved to East Mauch Chunk in 1885. Leisenring’s son in-law, Dr. Wentz - a non-practicing physician, built a brick mansion on the site in 1886. It survived until the 1960s when it served as the Moose Hall. The Carbon County Courthouse Annex parking lot currently occupies the site.

Whitehurst is a contraction of Whitehall and Parkhurst.