West Whiteland Township officials must wear blinders going in and out of their township building!

This is that historic farm house right as in directly across the street from them that is on the mall property at Main Street in Exton.

Wasn’t this the property that if that mall got built those structures would be saved and restored?

I actually had my husband turn around so I could take photos because we were so shocked at the dilapidated deteriorated appearance of these structures. And one side has graffiti on it as well.

The only caretakers of the property are the Canadian geese!

Chester County, we have to stop allowing elected officials and others from paying only lip service to historic preservation. It needs to mean something. We deserve better in our communities.

Oh, and now we can see shrink wrapping structures is NOT historic preservation, right?

Sign me appalled.

In 2002 The Daily Local News wrote:

Protecting history

At the Main Street at Exton site, formerly known as the Indian Run Farm, some of the county’s most historical treasures will stand beside some of the county’s largest new stores.

A case of the old meeting the new, part of the Main Street project includes the adaptive re-use of several historical buildings, one of which may be nearly 300 years old.

“It’s kind of remarkable that historical structures like this can co-exist with this type of development,” said West Whiteland Historical Commission Chairman Bruce Flannery. “I think there is an opportunity there for a something really fruitful between the township, developer and community, but that remains to be seen. We know the resources will stay. The question is how they will remain…….”Historically, the crossroads has been where some of the county’s first settlers, given land through the 1684 William Penn grant, designated by the king of England, chose to call home. Penn gave 40,000 acres of land to Welsh Quakers fleeing persecution in England.

At that time Route 100 was most likely an Indian trail, said Flannery.

The land where Main Street at Exton is being constructed was initially given to Richard Thomas, a Quaker who fled Wales with his family. The Thomas family complex was centered around the area where routes 30 and 100 now intersect.

Operating a gentleman’s farm, Richard Ashbridge, a direct descendant of Thomas, built the 1843 house, renovated in 1912, that stands at the site. Both the house and the woodcutter’s cottage, where a stone dates the building back to 1707, are class one historical structures.

“The resources on the Indian Run Farm are some of the most historical in the township,” said Flannery. “The site itself and the complex are extremely important and unique.”…..The land where the former Thomas homestead and the current Ashbridge house stand is “sacrosanct,” said Flannery. “It certainly was one of the first settlements,” he said. “It’s a really wonderful farmstead, really beautiful.”

So this is the respect for the past that the developer here has shown and West Whiteland has allowed? 16 years of demolition by neglect for what they said is one of the first settlements in the township and of paramount historical importance?!

In the spring of 2017, apparently the developer had this idea of apartments there. You can read the article in The Daily Local, and here is an excerpt:

Main Street at Exton builder Wolfson Group, plans to build a 410-unit apartment complex near Commerce Drive and next to the Exton Square Mall. The 26-room mansion is slated to become a community center .

The township has not awarded final approval for the apartment project. The property is zoned TC or Town Center.

Shoppers at Main Street at Exton have watched the historic building decay since long before it was wrapped with protective tarps in 2002. Much of the 1843 era house is now exposed to the elements as tattered tarps blow in the wind….

So….how many years does a developer have to let something stand and rot before they file for demolition permits in West Whiteland?

There is also an Abandoned Steve video on this which is quite interesting. CLICK HERE TO VIEW.