This two-story side-gabled house is one of several fieldstone dwellings scattered along the roads in the Town of Herman. The German immigrants who settled this area found large cobbles strewn across the land, left behind by retreating glaciers. Germany also was glaciated, and glacial rubble had long been used for building purposes there. Builders typically raised walls without using wooden forms, selecting stones of various sizes and shapes and fitting them together in a thick matrix of mortar. The technique resulted in solid walls with colorful, richly textured surfaces. The Berndts’ builder added a charming decorative touch: segmental-arched drip moldings, studded with dentils, atop the windows. He also tied the corners with dressed-stone quoins and trimmed the tops of the walls with a wide cornice, lending an air of formality to this vernacular structure. Later, a one-story porch was added across the front of the house, supported by chamfered posts and foliated brackets.
Another fieldstone dwelling (the Fred and Sila Falkenstein House) survives on the adjacent farm to the east, and more examples are located to the south on County Road S and to the north along County Road P.