Two hundred years ago, a man who had come to Western Pennsylvania from Germany built the first house in what was later to be named Zelienople.

Although it was not as elegant as the other founding family's house, it was serviceable enough for Christian Buhl and his bride, Fredericka Dorothea Goehring, to raise 11 children there.

The 10-room, three-story house on a tributary of Connoquenessing Creek was built to last. Its walls are constructed of brick three layers thick. Although the back of the barn-style roof has sagged over the years, the supporting timbers -- logs with the bark still on them -- stand strong. To celebrate the 200th birthday of Buhl House, visitors are invited to tour the home and the nearby Passavant House during a free open house from 2 to 4 p.m. today, sponsored by the Zelienople Historical Society.

Zelie Basse Passavant, for whom the town is named, and her husband, Philipp Louis Passavant, built their house between 1808 and 1810.

The adjoining property of the Buhl and Passavant families occupied an entire block. According to Mary Cameron, president of the board of trustees of the Zelienople Historical Society, Mr. Buhl was "very much a leader of the community."

He was the town's hatter and furrier, using pelts from animals in the region, such as otter, fox, beaver and mink. Most of the hats he sold were made of felt produced from the fibers of animal furs, which was placed wet on a form and then stitched after it dried. The Buhl children were sent off to sell the family's hats for men, as well as women's coats and stoles.

As the children grew, they met other prominent families in Pittsburgh and Detroit, and as Joyce Bessor, executive director of the Zelienople Historical Society, said, "they married well" into such families as the Strohs, of the brewing company, and the Hudsons, of the department store, both in Detroit. One of Mr. Buhl's sons, C. Frederick Buhl, became mayor of Detroit in 1848, and subsequent generations later forged ties with Henry Ford's family.

In 1869, Russell H. Boggs and Henry Buhl Jr. opened Boggs & Buhl Department Store on Federal Street in Allegheny City, now the North Side. In 1939, the Buhl Foundation donated Buhl Planetarium to the City of Pittsburgh, one of the first planetariums in the country.

Although Christian Buhl later went on to become an associate judge of Butler County, he spoke only German when he came to America. "He taught himself English by reading newspapers," Ms. Bessor said.

The house was heated by burning wood or coal in the kitchen, which no longer exists, and in fireplaces in the large rooms on the north wall.

Candles and lanterns provided light. Electricity and natural gas were not installed until the 1890s.

"They didn't get electricity until the trolley line came in," Ms. Bessor said.

After the Buhls, several families came and went, including the Mollards, who sold antiques. They made two notable changes to the house: a one-story extension onto the back where they moved the kitchen, and a room addition. The Mollards also built rooms on the third floor, which had been one large open space where children of the previous family roller-skated.

A member of the historical society bought the house in 1991 and donated it to the society the next year. Since 1992, the society has given tours and shown items from its historical collection, such as photographs of Buhl family members and town buildings, and other artifacts, including clothing, a form for making felt hats and a miniature model of a fur hat that the Buhl family used as a sales sample.

The Zelienople Historical Society will display the artifacts during the open house. The tours last about 90 minutes, at a cost of $5. Costumed actors will portray historical characters in the parlor and in a classroom upstairs.

The society will hold a silent auction of some antiques and art objects. Cider and cookies will be served for free, but donations will be accepted.