Following up on the Savvy Main Line article which set the Main Line on fire, it seems our shopkeeper without a store has seen the end of her bankruptcy case? What does this mean for her creditors? Time will tell….will she stay or will she go now?
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 / BY CAROLINE O’HALLORAN / 43 COMMENTS /
Hillary White Jean wafted into Wayne on a cloud of luxury perfume, designer heels, extravagant cars and personal charm.
Sixteen months later, her splashy store, JWH Boutique, departed in the December darkness, leaving a string of angry landlords, fashion vendors and small business owners in her wake.
Court and police records show that Jean:
has declared bankruptcy five times in three states since 2011, most recently on Jan. 30 of this year.
has been repeatedly sued for alleged nonpayment of bills and has had at least four court judgments entered against her since 2021.
has been arrested three times since arriving in Wayne: twice last summer for passing fraudulent checks and once three weeks ago for witness intimidation, harassment and other charges at her preliminary criminal hearing before Radnor District Judge Leon Hunter. The Delaware County DA and Radnor and Newtown police have all confirmed ongoing investigations of Jean.
To the public, she was a smart businesswoman, a former hairdresser from Haiti with a sharp eye for style and a winning personality who worked hard for the designer clothes she wore and the Range Rover she drove.
Jean marketed herself as both “the first black business owner in Wayne” and a fashion pioneer who was upping the Main Line’s style game. “We’re bringing Rodeo Drive to the Main Line,” she once told SAVVY with a 100-watt smile.
Everyone and everything in Jean’s orbit looked the part. Her clothes were chic, her stores were sleek, her website polished.
And the media lapped it up.
She ran prominent ads for a year in Philadelphia Style, including a pricey full-page spotlight as a “Dynamic Woman” of 2022.
She made the rounds of TV news shows and newsmagazines.
And she threw showy shindigs, most notably last fall’s “Cocktails and Fabulosity” party to celebrate the opening of her second Wayne location. The e-vite asked guests to “dress to impress;” she hired a “Real Housewife of NYC” to up the glam factor….….But court and police records and our interviews with multiple sources reveal a woman who repeatedly changed names, addresses and businesses and stiffed people and companies whose fashions she sold, whose space she rented, and whose services she engaged.
In the last two years, Hillary White Jean has opened and closed three stores: Lady M Boutique (M was for millionaire) in Glen Mills, HJ Boutique at 106 E. Lancaster Ave. in Wayne (now the home of Wheelhouse Cards) and JWH Boutique at 209 E. Lancaster Ave. at the former Mattress Factory/Tehrani Rug Co. building, also in Wayne.
At 3,700 sq. ft., JWH Boutique was her most largest and most exalted emporium yet. Like the others, it lasted mere months until, faced with a court-ordered repossession by her landlords, Reuben, Benjamin and Youdi Tehrani, she quietly moved out on New Year’s Eve…..According to her own handwritten bankruptcy filing, Jean owes nearly $1.4 million to 27 different entities. While the bankruptcy claim is pending, creditors must stop collection efforts. If the bankruptcy goes through, Jean’s debts will be wiped out.
Among her listed creditors in addition to her two Wayne landlords: $44,189.85 to the fashion label Camilla Australia (a top vendor), $46,000 for a Land Rover car loan, $40,000 to Modern Luxury (owner of Philadelphia Style), $7,210.96 to PR agent Sarah Doheny of YUB PR, and a total of roughly $10,000 to the party planner, florist, and photo/video team she hired for “Cocktails and Fabulosity.”
In her bankruptcy filing, Jean claimed these were all personal – not business – debts. She filed under the last name “Jean Joseph.” On every other court and police record we reviewed, she is named “Hillary White Jean.”…On June 10, 2022, Jean was arrested, charged with four counts of passing bad checks and one count of deceptive business practices. According to court records, she was confined to Delaware County Prison briefly on July 18 until she was able to post $10,000 bail.
On August 15, Radnor Police arrested Jean a second time and charged her with passing bad checks and “theft by unlawful taking”…She did, however, attend her Feb. 9 preliminary hearing on criminal misdemeanor charges in Delaware County District Court. The hearing never happened because witnesses saw Jean moving closer to and pointing her iPad at alleged victim Volpe Beringer in the waiting area, presumably to take photos in violation of posted PA law, according to Reuben Tehrani, Volpe Beringer and a third alleged victim who wishes to remain anonymous.
Jean was also overheard repeatedly saying “bitch” as she spoke to a companion “in a foreign language,” according to the Newtown Township police report.
At Judge Leon Hunter’s direction, Jean was arrested. Police charged her with witness intimidation (a felony), harassment, disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a recording device in court, the report states.
If convicted, she could be fined, put on house arrest or jailed.
So once we all got over oh le shock because of all the schools for scandal which have popped up on the Main Line, this one is a true doozy position, yes? So this morning, this is what popped up on Instagram:
I thought wow, she’s playing a card I didn’t see coming. Maybe I should have. We’ll start with the obvious: explain the “lies”? One of the folks she is in dispute with has shared this which was posted on social media:
So….there was also NYC. Found this video, which if it ends up like other social media will disappear, but for now there is also “in the beginning“:
So obviously this is an extraordinarily bright and resourceful woman, yes? So why did it all lead to this? And how? And her post today, which I am today was maybe not the only one? Is she someone who has literally been caught doing not such nice things and her response is to play the race card?
Yes there ARE two sides to every story BUT #alsharpton #protest #blackmainline REALLY? Is she saying this happened to her because she is black? Is she trying to get a civil rights thing going to cover up what was reported or distract from it? That just sat funny with me. So I called black friends to ask them their opinions. After all, I am a white middle aged woman and I don’t know what it is to be anything other me.
I spoke with black and bi-racial friends. I sent them the article from Savvy and the screen shot above. I asked them their thoughts. These friends are from various areas, including the Main Line (and not from living there as of five minutes ago.) They all said they found what she implied distasteful and one friend in particular said that it is wrong and just bad form to cry wolf after getting caught doing something potentially terrible and saying it’s a racial issue. A black female friend said black women have to work twice as hard as other women so why do something that may be classified as God don’t like ugly?
I marvel at this whole sad tale, and it is sad. Again, obviously a bright woman, so what happened? What is the disconnect? There is a lot wrong with the Main Line, no one can ever deny that. But to imply if she was white this wouldn’t happen? Nope sorry. If anything, I think she actually didn’t research the area she was coming into enough. And underestimated what would happen when she went from a smaller stage in Glen Mills and Delaware prior to that to a larger stage in Wayne, PA. And she started in New York, right? Huge city, blink and people are onto something else. But the Main Line? Over priced fishbowl. You could be a pink pussycat, it would still happen.
And let’s talk about that whole coming to Wayne. She got lots of press. She had a publicist who placed it well. That put a giant spotlight on her. Television and magazine and more. I have to wonder if the designer Caycee Black from Project Runway really hit her DMs up on Instagram?
The Main Line is a funny place. Always has been. However, even though it is more nouveau Main Line these days, you still have to watch how hard you try to climb. People keep book. It’s true. I actually have warned some others in the past who didn’t pay attention to that. While they didn’t have the scandal factor, it still didn’t work out how they planned. But this lady? Check her debtors list for the bankruptcy, it’s quite the who’s who. And seems like most aren’t talking. Why?
One thing I do not get is how did this all get so far? It’s genuinely a head scratcher for sure. Maybe we will never know. Maybe she will move away and the scandal will be forgotten. Except this happened in Radnor Township. Tongues wag there as fast and furious as in Lower Merion….and well when you pose for faux society photos….and I did have to laugh that these were still posted on the photog’s website of “society” because face it, Main Line “society” as it were doesn’t really exist anymore anyway.
Is this a story that will grow legs, or die on the Main Line and off? Too early to tell but I have to ask, are they opening a store in the Hamptons? If she thinks the Main Line is a tough crowd, oy wait until the bloom falls off the rose up there, right? Is she still pals with her housewives?
I know I’m being repetitive, but there are just some people that you meet over the course of your life who are really special. Irénée du Pont Jr. was one of those people.
Over 20 years ago I was on the Main Line Delaware Committee for The Philadelphia Orchestra. At the time I was younger than all but a handful of the women by at least 20 or 30 years. There were three of us who were the youngest and they referred to us as the “working girls”. Yes, truly. They had no idea what they were actually saying when they said that – what they meant is that we worked. The majority of the rest of the members did not work. A few were high powered executives, but the majority of the ladies did not have to work.
So they planned this car rally fundraiser for the Orchestra that ended at Granogue, home and estate of Irénée du Pont, Jr.
When we were doing the walk through of the event, the event committee met at Granogue. Mr. du Pont was fascinating to meet and so nice to us. He showed us his home, his greenhouses, his collection of cars, and the water tower on the estate which has hands down the best view of the Brandywine Valley.
He took me up to the top of the water tower with a couple of the committee members. And he saw me looking over at the amazing greenhouses on the estate next to the mansion house that afternoon where he had banana trees. He then gave me permission back on that day to wander through his greenhouses. That’s where I first fell in love with the look of banana trees, even in a pot. (I have two banana trees of my own today overwintering in my family room.)
I never forgot meeting him or climbing to the top of the water tower. (And I said back at the time if I ever had the chance to go up to the top of the water tower again, I would bring a camera!)
Flash forward a couple of decades and I get go to another couple of events on Granogue. The last time was 2016. This time I climbed the water tower with a camera and I had the rare repeat opportunity to meet Mr. DuPont again. At this point he was well into his 90s.
In 2016, Mr. du Pont his wife Barbara had been married over 70 years when I saw him for the last time. He was an old school gentleman with a love of family, nature, people, and cars.
His beloved wife Barbara Batchelder du Pont died at 96 years of age in 2021. I remember thinking when she passed, that they had had such a love story that I wondered how he would go on without her. I saw a friend at an event this past fall who told me that Mr. du Pont was rather frail.
Irénée du Pont Jr died at 103 years old on January 16, 2023. I am legitimately sad. I think he was a really amazing man. Very humble and so bright, yet utterly down to earth. It was such a great experience to have the opportunity to meet him on different occasions. I still have the CD of the organ at Granogue he gave me so many years ago. I will freely admit organ music is not my jam but he was so proud of that Aeolian pipe organ!
A friend of mine once lived in one of the tenant properties as well. Mr. du Pont’s home, Granogue, was a truly beautiful place. It is a working farm and the beauty of his estate is naturalistic and magnificent. At one time, he also had his own train stop outside the boundaries of the estate. I am also pretty sure he had in his garage every car he had ever owned, and he had an amazing collection.
They don’t make men like him anymore. May he rest in eternal peace and happiness with his beloved wife.
I hope his estate remains intact. It is the most beautiful swath of land.
As I said in the post prior to this, Odessa, Delaware is one of my favorite places. It is literally a jewel of a historic town, almost frozen in time.
I have written about Odessa, Delaware before. I really hadn’t been down there much since Covid, and I realized today how much I missed visiting this gem of a small town.
Located in New Castle County, Delaware, Odessa was founded in the 18th century as Cantwell’s Bridge, her name was changed in the 19th century after the Ukrainian port city of the same name.
Odessa is a National Registry District, home to a National Historic Landmark as well as two National Parks Service Network to Freedom sites.
Odessa like Lewes was settled initially by the Dutch in the 1600s. (Lewes is another favorite place of mine, and it’s a bit larger and busier than Odessa.)
When Odessa was a first settled by the Dutch in the 1660’s (to be more precise), they adopted the Indian name for the area, “Apequinemy”. The Dutch settled here in Odessa because it’s proximity to the Appoquinimink River which flows to Delaware Bay, making it ideal to them for trading. I have been told this was once the shortest route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Chesapeake Bay before the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
This was an area inhabited by Lenni Lenape Native Americans before European settlement. The Dutch weren’t actually in this area for very long before the English assumed control of the area. Then land was granted to a Captain Edmund Cantwell, the first Sheriff of New Castle County, under the government of a person we are familiar with, William Penn. By the 1730s there was a town and Edmund’s son, Sir Richard Cantwell, built a toll bridge and toll house and the town of “Cantwell’s Bridge” was born.
For the next century plus, this was a thriving little port town shipping grain and other things (like peaches.) It was a bustling small town…until 1855 and the arrival of the railroad around Middletown, and bypassed Odessa. Like many other towns that thrived on rivers and canals (think Frick’s Lock in East Coventry Township, Chester County), the railroad did a number on the economy of “Cantwell’s Bridge.”
Cantwell’s Bridge was name changed to Odessa around 1855. It had something to do with hoping that the name change would remind people of the flourishing port of Odessa in the Ukraine and the same thing would happen in Odessa, Delaware.
Now the Odessa area was also known historically for the nearby peach orchards. Odessa remained historically a very active port until the late 19th century when a peach blight ruined crops, one of their larger exports. My research indicates that between the peach virus blight and the railroads Odessa almost died as a town.
However, where a lot of similar little towns have died, Odessa has lived on. It is a great collection of houses and architecture spending 200 years, truthfully. Colonial, mid-Georgian, Federal and Victorian architecture. Another fun fact about Odessa, is there used to be a steamboat that operated out of it from the latter part of the 19th century, up until the early parts of the 20th century, ending I think somewhere around World War I.
A lot of people wouldn’t like Odessa because it’s literally a sleepy historic town. That’s why I personally think it’s so wonderful.
There are different things that go on in Odessa throughout the year. A historic Odessa Brewfest in September (this year September 10th) , lovely Christmas holiday events, tours for all seasons. July 15 – 17th features an event I am interested in called Christmas in July. It’s a special holiday sale in the Christmas Resale Shop in the Collins-Sharp House.
We belong to the Historic Odessa Foundation , and anyone can belong. It’s a remarkable little town and makes a fun little day trip. There are also little bed-and-breakfasts in the area so it also makes a nice we can get away. But if you’re looking for lots of bells and whistles, this isn’t it. Unless of course historic preservation is one of your favorite bells and whistles. This isn’t Disney or Six Flags (thank goodness.)
Enjoy the photos from my ramble and thanks for stopping by.
We were in Delaware over the weekend. We met people at Cantwell’s for an early dinner one night. I love Cantwell’s. It’s historic and the food is good.
And Odessa, DE? Odessa is one of my favorite little towns, ever. It’s quaint and historic and they take their history and preservation seriously. Awesome historical society with wonderful events. (Check out Historic Odessa Foundation.) Communities like Odessa, DE should be an example to other communities. They show you preservation IS possible and communities will embrace it.
Odessa and the surrounding small towns aren’t perfect. There are houses that you see that are distinctly unloved. But these communities are trying and it is SO nice to see farm and fields and water and a distinct lack of townhouses and ugly apartments. And there are some little bed & breakfast inns tucked here and there.
Because of the Sunday Delaware beach traffic, we took some windy and twisty back roads coming home. I saw some cool little crossroads towns and hamlets, all chock full of historic houses. Including in Port Penn, where I saw a fabulous but boarded up house owned by the State of Delaware. Another Linden Hall, AKA the Cleaver House.
“The Cleaver family dominated Port Penn throughout the nineteenth century. Joseph built this Federal-style brick house, which included an office and store at right, divided from the residence by a firewall. The whole resembles two urban town houses. Cleaver maintained the adjacent wharf, practiced law, founded an insurance company, served on the board of a bank, and was local postmaster. The contents of the house are known by a room-by-room probate inventory undertaken after his death in 1858. In 1977 a new owner altered the interior for rental units and redesigned the roof of the wing, which caused the front wall of that section to collapse. In 1994 the State of Delaware bought it.”
The State of Delaware hasn’t done much with it. It’s a beautiful structure even in decay. It was built around 1814. Thanks to the Port Penn Historical Society, I learned a little more about the property and found some old photos (mixed in with photos I took):
Yep, I can find old structures to be obsessed over everywhere. Also flew by the Augustine Inn…too fast to get photos so I looked them up. Also found the place written up in Delaware Today. And a piece on Augustine Beach too.
The Augustine Inn was on Ghost Detectives once upon a time:
Port Penn was kind of cute. Did not realize until I looked the area up that a lot of the houses were moved from Reedy Island. This is all on the Delaware River, which you take for granted exactly HOW wide it is until you see it again. The Augustine Wildlife Area is here. There are beaches too. Saw lots of folks fishing.
Delaware has a lot of cool little nooks and crannies. It was fun exploring them a little bit again. Just like Route 9 in NJ leads to some fun meandering, so does Route 9 (and other roads) in Delaware.
Waiting in line to be “triaged” at Antiques Roadshow
It only took about 15 years, but I finally got tickets to Antiques Roadshow! Tickets are a lottery process – you apply and hope you get tickets. But 2019 was my year, and in February I got the magic email that said I had won tickets for filming at Winterthur, which was today.
The drive to Winterthur once you get off the highway is magical. My friend Amy went with me as my Antiques Roadshow plus one.
We arrived and wound our way through Winterthur and the Antiques Roadshow checkpoints along the way.
We parked in one of the lots and meandered down a shady path to a building where we checked in with our tickets.
When we reached the check-in building, we then had our tickets checked again and we got in a longer line to queue up for shuttle buses.
The shuttle buses took us further into Winterthur where we assembled in yet another line and waited to be “triaged”.
Being “triaged” means they preview the two items that each Antiques Roadshow ticket holder can bring with them. We then get our tickets that list the categories our items fall into. I bought a book and a little Chinese porcelain box I picked out of a barn. My friend Amy bought some other decorative arts category items to be appraised.
It was waiting in this line that Amy and I encountered our first few grumpy old women ticket holders.
I had taken a photo of the “triage” that we were waiting for and the Winterthur building rising beyond it that we would eventually go into and this super cranky old woman with her two cranky wing women had to point out the sign a good ways up ahead where we would be in a cell phone free zone. With filming and other things they wanted our phones off, which was understandable.
But honestly this group of three cranky old women with their fearless leader of multiple comments was a bit much. I smiled and said we hadn’t reached the point of turning off our phones yet and I was taking a picture of the line leading to the building because I was writing about my Antiques Roadshow experience afterwards. She mumbled some final huffy comment and they shuffled off to their “triage” x 3.
First stop post “triage” was having my book looked at. It was a 1950s Modern Library edition of Robert Frost poetry that Robert Frost had signed up at St. Paul’s School when he was visiting as part of I think their Conroy Distinguished Visitors Program.
I love Robert Frost poetry. I had picked up this volume out of a box of books marked 25 cents at the Christmas Bazaar at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr at some point in the 1990s.
After I had given the book room volunteer their quarter, I flipped it open to check the table of contents so I could read The Road Not Taken. What I discovered next was Robert Frost had signed the book to a student. And then the book was stamped Waverly Heights Library (as in the senior living community in Gladwyne.)
I had always wanted to have this book looked at to see what it was worth. Not because I expected it to be priceless but out of curiosity.
So I stood in the book line until it was my turn. Ken Gloss of Brattle Book Shop in Boston appraised it. Mr. Gloss was kind of antiseptic about my book. He had to point out it was a student edition so the book wasn’t worth much. He didn’t love my book as I love my book. He valued it at $100 because of the poet’s signature.
Next stop was Asian Art. My appraiser was Robert Waterhouse. He and Lark Mason were doing appraisals in a courtyard in front of the Chinese Pavilion Folly. It’s actually part of a current garden art installation. He appraised a green and white Chinese porcelain box I have.
Mr. Waterhouse was very nice and my box which cost me the princely sum of $2 is a modern 20th century Chinese box worth about $20. So while my box might not be the next great artifact, it’s still a treasure to me! And Mr. Waterhouse took the time to explain to me what to look for if I ever found another box.
My friend Amy had her items appraised and was verbally accosted by yet another grumpy old lady. This one was concerned about her umbrella which was neatly folded up and not accosting anyone.
The Antiques Roadshow made for amazing people watching. And it was fun seeing everyone’s treasures while we were waiting in line. There was a couple ahead of me in the book appraisal line with a really unusual box who got whisked away by producers and there was a man to my left that show producers were talking to who had this crazy cool Civil War porcelain pitcher and some other Civil War memorabilia item that was a textile of some kind.
It was really interesting watching them do the show. We learned that for the folks they filmed although we will only see a couple of quick minutes when the Winterthur shows air, they actually take a lot of time with people. We certainly didn’t feel rushed. I didn’t get the warm and fuzzies from the book appraiser that was for sure, but he wasn’t as bad as all of the cranky old women.
Seriously – for all the excited happy people like us who were having a ball being at the one and only Antiques Roadshow, there were literally these legions of cranky old women. It was bizarre to watch. I am not a patient person and hate waiting in lines and I loved every minute! And the Antiques Roadshow staff? They were all so nice! It was amazing!
On our way into the gift shop and ladies room we met the current Ms. Maryland! She was my first beauty queen and couldn’t have been nicer!
We somehow missed the famous feedback booth and then were on our way back to the car. We both thought it was over too soon. It totally lived up to our expectations.
On our way home we were going to go to Buckley’s Tavern for dinner, but we ended up at Brandywine Prime.
Why?
Because when we pulled into the parking lot of Buckley’s walking into the front door was the first gaggle of cranky old women we encountered standing in the “triage” line! We looked at each other and burst out laughing and said with our luck we would get seated next to them and be under their disapproving stare for dinner.
We had a great dinner at Brandywine Prime and headed home. Amusingly enough, the Philadelphia Inquirer was there covering the Roadshow:
I highly recommend that people fill out the application for the ticket lottery if Antiques Roadshow is ever coming to your neck of the woods. It was so much fun!
It was waiting in this line that Amy and I encountered our first few grumpy old women ticket holders.
The Antiques Roadshow made for amazing people watching. And it was fun seeing everyone’s treasures while we were waiting in line. There was a couple ahead of me in the book appraisal line with a really unusual box who got whisked away by producers and there was a man to my left that show producers were talking to who had this crazy cool Civil War porcelain pitcher and some other Civil War memorabilia item that was a textile of some kind.
