The Schifferstadt Architectural Museum is a 1756 German farm house in Frederick, Maryland, with two-and-a-half-foot-thick stone walls on a bedrock foundation, and a later brick addition. From the museum's literature: "The inclination [of German colonials] was to overbuild to reduce the expectations of the materials and prolong their endurance. It is difficult to find fault with an approach that produced a structure now entering its third century."

I took pictures. Of course.

Posted photos include a clever & simple stone window-sill/sink in the kitchen which drains to the outside... a large vaulted root cellar/basement (made of plastered stone) under the kitchen... a quick look at "paling" (which I've also seen described as "Dutch biscuits", which is basically straw-clay wrapped around sticks or boards and placed in a wall or between ceiling joists)... a surprising arched hallway on the second floor formed by fireplace chimneys on either side merging into one flue... and a "squirrel-tail" brick oven - the likes of which I've never seen - set in the back of a large open hearth.