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Located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Antrim Road and Route 287 in Delmar Township, Tioga County, PA, a rooming house was built between 1876-1879 and converted to a residential duplex in the late 1880s. The property in the farthest southeast corner of Delmar Township included land on both sides of Sand Run, a small creek that empties into Wilson Creek after passing under Route 287. The building was commonly referred to as Sand Run in tribute to the mountain stream that ran through the property. The halfway house operated during the days of the stagecoach, but the advent of rail transportation in Tioga County ended the need for traveler’s lodging in this isolated valley. The property had various owners from the 1870s through the early 1900s, with a number of families who lived and raised their children at Sand Run. A brother in Antrim, PA, and sister in Rochester, NY, whose parents had immigrated from Switzerland, bought the house in September 1911. The brother, Eugene Bertsche, was a cabinetmaker by trade and carpenter, electrician for the nearby Antrim and Anna S. (Sullivan Magee/Mitchell) coal mines, and he made many improvements to the building. Different family members lived in Lydia's north side of the house, including Lydia herself for a several years, but mostly their brother Arnold Bertsche, wife Bessie Sullivan, and their children lived there. After Lydia died in 1952, she willed her ownership half to her widowed sister Elizabeth Bertsche Boynton, who lived there until 1959. In 1962 Elizabeth sold her inherited half to Eugene's daughters Louise and May, whom Eugene had willed his half to nine years earlier, once again leaving ownership of Sand Run house in the hands of two siblings.

The building originally was heated with a coal furnace and lit with kerosene lamps. Restroom facilities were an outhouse, and fresh water came from a well. In the late 1920’s, largely credited to Eugene, electricity and indoor plumbing transformed the house into a modern home.

Eugene lived at Sand Run almost all his adult life with his family. In his later years, his daughters Louise and May and May’s husband Harry E. (Jack) Willard took care of him. After May and Jack’s daughter Kathryn was born in 1954, Eugene liked to rock the baby on his lap until his death a year later. Once Kathryn was old enough to enter Kindergarten, the family bought a house in Wellsboro and continued to use Sand Run as their summer residence.

Extended family guests often made extended visits and stayed overnight at Sand Run, sometimes to the surprise of the home’s owners. Visitors, guests of Elizabeth "Pete" Bertsche, sometimes would leave with luggage heavier than when they arrived, and the owners would later find linens, Christmas ornaments, and items missing. These losses were offset by the wonderful time the family had with the many gracious relatives and dear friends who frequented the home. One of May Bertsche’s older nieces, Donna Marie Patt, was raised at Sand Run from an early age, with her mother Betty Bertsche Patt visiting from Elmira, NY, at least once a week. Other nieces and nephews close to Kathryn’s age made extended stays during the summer, which was fun for children and adults alike.

On Good Friday, 31 March, 1972, Sand Run was burned through an act of arson. The State of Pennsylvania had been negotiating to move the house to the north side of Sand Run creek to make way for a straightening and widening of Route 287, but the fire damaged the south side of the house sufficiently to make it impossible to salvage the house. Regretfully, May and Jack Willard had the house torn down. Between the expansion of Route 287 and a later widening of Antrim Road, which ran behind the house, the area where Sand Run House comfortably sat has been reduced in size to an area that barely could accommodate a small shed.