I have loved the historic village of Yellow Springs down Art School Road in Chester Springs for years and years. I was first introduced to the village by my late father. He loved the art show and the antique show the village no longer hosts in the fall (but should.)
We would come out to the village, attend the art show or antique show and have lunch at the now closed Yellow Springs Inn. At first the restaurant was in the building known today as “The Washington”, then it moved to the Jenny Lind House.
I don’t remember who exactly was in the Jenny Lind House before the Yellow Springs Inn went to live there. But I knew a little bit of the history and that it was a boarding house. Run (and built) by a woman named Margaret Holman.
Truthfully the history of Yellow Springs Village is so very interesting. As a related aside, Margaret Holman is but one of many women who played important and pivotal roles in this village over time and throughout its history. Now we add my friend Meg Veno to that list of historically important ladies. With her renovation of the Jenny Lind house and the amazing adaptive reuse that still nods to the past in process, she is bringing new life and a fresh set of ideas to Yellow Springs Village.
Restoring Jenny Lind is so positive for this magical village. And I was so glad to see people out enjoying the art show and picking up their box lunches from at the Jenny Lind today!
The restoration is not complete there are still at least a couple more months of solid work ahead of them. But today I had the privilege and honor to see the progress and how the renovation was coming along. I was literally almost reduced to tears. I had no idea that once upon a time at a Life’s Patina Barn Sale when Meg mentioned to me that she was looking for another project, and I happened to tell her that the Jenny Lind house was in bank foreclosure and the restaurant gone, that this would happen.
I was thinking today when you mention to people that a great historic asset is for sale you never know if anything will ever happen. A lot of times it doesn’t. And this time it has. And the transformation is as magical as it has been watching Loch Aerie come back to life. Completely different periods of history and styles of architecture but both have these spots in my heart.
Oh and the lunches sold are a preview of what we can expect in the cafe to be? Amazing! And it was all environmentally friendly packaging down to the disposable wooden utensils.
I am including photos I took a few years ago of the Jenny Lind when it was the restaurant so you can fully appreciate the remarkable and painstakingly gorgeous restoration. The Victorian decor of the former Yellow Springs Inn was never right for the structure although for years the restaurant was quite good.
Life’s Patina Mercantile & Cafe at the Jenny Lind House is going to be perfection.
Read more about it on Meg’s blog:
The Jenny Lind House Renovation ~ She is Finding Her Voice Again
Behind the Scenes at Life’s Patina
Design Inspiration for the New Life’s Patina Mercantile & Cafe
Carla – my father was born and raised in Chester Springs, at the intersection of Yellow Springs Road and route 113. As a child we attended movies in Yellow Springs by Good News Enterprises including Exodus, Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments.
Carla, my cousin Elwood J. Rittenbaugh had auto dealership just off 113 and Yellow Spring Road.
Carla- as a child and young girl we would drive thru Yellow Springs quite often- “art school” etc. Only about 3 years ago did I rind that my 4th or 5th great grandparents were very involved in “Yellow Springs”. Zachariah Rice of Clover Mill along Pickering Creek helped build the hospital for the Revolutionary Soldiers (only remnants of the stone walls exist today) and Abigail Hartmann Rice, his wife, is recognized for her role in providing food and nursing care to the soldiers. History is so fascinating in that area- so glad that I grew up near by and am very familiar with that part of Chester Co.