Monthly Archives: June 2022

utterly classless: radnor’s lisa borowski wants to use garrett hill july 4th parade for politicking for pa 168th? really?

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Next to the Ocean City, NJ July 4th parade I remember decorating my bike for as a little girl, one of my favorite July 4th parades ever, ever, ever is Garrett Hill’s in Radnor Township. It’s awesome, old fashioned, about kids, and community.

Or it was.

Apparently….Commissioner Lisa Borowski wants to politick at this event. You see this political desperate Dora who spends most of her time looking like a perky muppet with her bangs in her face is trying to run for State Rep in the 168th. The lines for this district were recently redrawn. She’s as bad as Elaine Paul Sing Song voice, err Schaefer. Now Elaine had a failed run for State Rep in 2016 I think it was, now she sits on Delaware County Council doing who knows what other than shameless self-promotion, but I digress. (Bet she shows up for her gurrrl Lisa, right?)

I have a very strong dislike of politicians who use community and non-profit events for campaign gain. Years ago I yelled at now Mrs. Septa Leslie Richards when she used First Friday Main Line as a politicking event. That did not make me a fan favorite with some local Democrats back then, but I have no regrets, it sucked and was wrong.

What Lisa Borowski is attempting to do is also classless, tacky, and wrong. That she would use a beloved tradition for personal gain like this is despicable AND shows you what kind of a State Rep she would be. She has already proven herself fairly useless as a Radnor Commissioner.

Radnor Democrats should be ashamed of her and stop this.

If she goes through with having her campaign walk in a parade designed for kids and families, keep it simple: BOO LOUDLY and videotape/ record it. This parade is NOT ABOUT HER CAMPAIGN!

Email your displeasure to: lborowski@radnor.org AND CC info@lisaforpa168.com

This is utterly unacceptable and selfish and tacky and classless. Sorry not sorry for being repetitive here about this.

Say NO to Lisa Borowski July 4th in Garrett Hill and November when you vote.

gail newman sees straight white people only?

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All Hail Gail, she sees straight white peoples apparently?

What, don’t believe me? See below and I also included screenshots. Oh and her campaign page deletes comments which campaign pages are not supposed to do, are they?

Please Donate!
Dear Friends,
Just to let you know, I will fight for us. My opponent, and the current incumbent of the State House of Representatives for District 167, is Kristine Howard. Kristine voted no on the bill that requires school districts to post all their curriculum on its publicly accessible website and update the information each time a new or revised curriculum is used by the school entity. Kristine also voted no on a bill that prohibits transgender female students from competing in women’s sports. Please know that I will totally support PA parents if elected. But I could use fundraising help. We need to work as a team in order to win. We can do it. If you are able to contribute ANY amount, it is greatly appreciated. Please go to my website to donate http://www.gailnewman.com

~ Gail Newman Candidate Facebook Page June 16, 2022

This woman is pretty much everything phobic. She always seems to be running for something. She’s kind of like a slightly better put together Sallie Campbell who ran for school board. That is not saying much. In 2019 she was a Mrs. Malaprop of facts:

2019
  1. I was not a HUGE Bill Clinton fan but Monica Lewinsky was about 22 when she worked as an intern in the White House NOT 18. Clinton was 49.
  2. Was she personally participating in the White House orgies when Kennedy was President? We have heard MANY things about those years but nothing that was such an outright fantasy or lie.

Harrisburg has enough problems already.

Her political Facebook page often reads like a highschooler is running it for her. I hope a highschooler isn’t running it for her.

Where is she on Roe vs. Wade? Mastriano? Next is where the Chester County Republicans are on the issues, and she’s one of them correct? They are endorsing her, aren’t they? Yes a rhetorical question because yes they are. However, it was a question back in 2019, wasn’t it?

Then we take a little way back look to 2019. June 28, 2019 to be precise. It is just coincidence that today is June 28, 2022

Back then I posted about Gail Newman’s premature candidacy announcement for state rep. THEN. She bothered every person who was a moderator or admin on wherever it was I commented (all they have to do is look in filtered messages.)

Then she literally kept trying to call me via Facebook Messenger to the point that I had to set her to IGNORE on messenger after she attempted multiple calls via Facebook Messenger rapid fire.

That is NOT normal behavior and any opinions pro or con on her very crazily premature candidacy back then are allowed AND now that she is a candidate for public office again. Just like anyone can comment about her now because she is once again a political candidate for this same seat.

I saved screenshots, and this whole thing is quite possibly still lodged in my messenger archive I haven’t checked.

2019
Pre-2020, maybe 2019?

Also I did hang onto this other thing she posted in the past. So you judge for yourself is this who you want representing you in Harrisburg? I don’t.

wow! those old tricks sometimes work, the furniture edition.

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Once upon a time my mother had these mahogany nesting tables. Then one day on a whim, years ago, she got rid of them. She’s been lamenting their loss ever since. So imagine my delight, when a set just like the ones she sold showed up at a local estate sale.

Yes, these are literally the same tables. Not hers, but the same design and same mid century North Carolina manufacturer. So I bought them. At $48 for three in really great condition, it was a steal.

The tables were probably somewhere in this home “nested”, only taken apart when needed. That’s what my mother used to do. So the top table in this set had some condition issues, mainly from plant saucers or wet things leaving rings or marks. At this point today, a lot of people see “brown wood” and think “oh we’ll just paint the tables.”

But seriously, you shouldn’t destroy beautiful tables like this with chalk paint and other kinds of wood paint. This wood is spectacular and meant to be enjoyed. So what did I do? I dragged out my father’s old home remedy: a paste made of mayonnaise and wood ash or cigar ash or cigarette ash left on the tables overnight.

It really works. We have no smokers in the house so I had to use wood ash from the bottom of the wood stove. The crucial thing is it’s just ASH you use, you don’t want any charred bits or you will scratch whatever furniture you’re trying to renew.

So I did the first coat and left it on overnight. The next morning I removed what was left and took a look at the tables. There were still some pieces of rings left. What I did next was try furniture oil to see if that would just absorb the mark. I like orange oil. It helped renew the tables in general, as I did all three with orange oil, but it did not take up what was left of the rings on the largest table. So I did another layer of the mayonnaise and wood ash overnight.

This morning when I took the mixture off that top table once again, it was like magic and pretty much everything was gone. Next I moisturized and polished them with this stuff I discovered that I love. It’s from a company called Therapy Clean. It’s wood and cabinet cleaner and polish. I found it on Amazon.

The tables look fabulous I think now. And they didn’t require refinishing. Just a little elbow grease and patience. People always used to look at my father like he was nuts when he said that mayonnaise and ash took out rings and a lot of stains. But it’s an old-fashioned remedy that really does work. And again if you’re using wood ash, make sure there are no charred bits or it will scratch.

I hope my mother loves her tables and I just wanted to share this little tip with you. Because while painted furniture can be pretty, it’s not for everyone. I really am not a painted furniture person. I am a natural beauty of real hardwoods kind of person.

Thanks for stopping by.

“adults” and social media

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The more I learn about the way people behave, the more I realize there are a lot of messy people in this world.

Lessons learned this weekend from “adults” and the log book of kiss kiss and bless your hearts, haters:

You can’t say Nancy Fuller from Food Network is “annoying AF”, because it’s “unkind.” Please note she’s not some neighbor’s mom or grandmother, she’s on TELEVISION, and she’s not Julia Child and is even more annoying than Martha Stewart or Paula Deen can be. I will occasionally share the woman’s recipes, I just can’t watch her live either on a Facebook video or some show she’s in because she grates on me. It’s kind of like people whose music you like but you don’t want see them perform in person. Above all else? It’s just one opinion.

Yes that really happened. Up pops this woman in a Facebook cooking group I run. This woman couldn’t just say that she disagreed with how I felt about a Food Network TV personality, no she had to be extra. This person had to say how terrible a person I was, my pizzas were repetitive, no one likes me or my cooking group. (I am still trying to understand how pizza entered the conversation because we were not talking about pizza.)

All of this because I said I thought a television personality was annoying A.F.?

But wait, there’s more. Next this woman private messages me. She has to make the extra point to tell me that I am a horrible person and everybody hates me and everybody makes fun of me.

Oh yes, the invisibles/nameless shamers and finger pointers in life. I thought I left them behind after high school. Apparently not. People you don’t know, don’t know actually exist, who want to define you. (A perennial favorite with me, can’t you tell?)

Seriously, like we’re young teenagers. Also, this is someone I literally don’t know, I have never met nor had a conversation with. Quite literally a stranger who happens to be in two of my Facebook groups. And she did a similar thing with me in my Facebook gardening group a while back which I let slide.

Allow me to circle back and make sure I have this correct: according to her, I am a terribly horrible person who apparently knows nothing about anything, yet she stays in my groups for years? How is this a normal person?

Alrighty then. I am a shameless hussy. Next?

Maybe it’s yet another Facebook phenomenon in the category of Stupid Human Tricks. Facebook is as we all know, fun to be on with friends, but often a really weird place ruled by inconsistent algorithms and full of super messy people. There are people you meet who are completely different in person, versus on a social media platform. Then there are people who pretend to be other people even though you know who they really are. And that’s their business and their story to tell, I just don’t understand it at times.

Sometimes the way purported adults behave on social media leaves you with a case of the why, why, whys. Another example? People you don’t hear from very often who won’t be Facebook friends with you in case “certain” people see who message you only when information seeking. That always cracks me up. But that’s their comfort level.

Facebook, however, is not the real world, and neither is Instagram. Some people use both platforms to post about their world. but for others it is just a playground for narcissistic behavior. I use both platforms to stay connected to friends. I post a lot about gardening and cooking, because those are two of my passions. I share what I write. Once in a while I post a selfie, as opposed to some people who all they do is post selfies or photos others have taken of them, professional or otherwise. Yes, I really find it amusing when people constantly have professional head shots and other photos taken for their Facebook profile photo and other posts. That is “Look at me, I am Sandra Dee” syndrome.

It’s all fairly ordinary. Until it isn’t when you encounter one of these virtual human land mines like I did…in a cooking group over a less than important TV personality. Encountering people like this is something that just makes you world weary at times. It makes you sit back and wonder why you bother to try to do anything. But then it comes back to what my Pennsylvania German grandmother always used to say: “consider the source.”

So I am considering the source, but I just find it puzzling and bizarre behavior. It makes you almost feel sorry for this woman, except it doesn’t.

I will never ever say “why can’t we all get along?” I am a realist, and I don’t think it’s possible. But what I don’t understand about these mostly women on social media platforms, is if they have such an intense dislike for someone on social media, why be in their groups?

What did I do in the end with this woman? I removed her from my groups. She doesn’t have to be my best friend, but life is too short for attack rats.

Thanks for stopping by.

women losing rights all over, and how about mailing crop tops to winnfield, louisiana?

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WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 01: Activists with The Center for Popular Democracy Action hold photos of U.S. Supreme Court justices as they block an intersection during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. With the addition of conservative justices to the court by former President Donald Trump, experts believe this could be the most important abortion case in decades and could undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

I was 9 years old when I was given the right to choose what to do with my body. I am 58 today. Today the United States Supreme Court behaved like a political entity and terminated my rights and the rights of women everywhere.

I have almost no words on the topic it’s so horrible.

And the argument over a woman’s right to choose is pretty damn simple:

All women, no matter what their particular choice is, deserve the right to make said choice. It is as simple as that.

It is not for anyone to tell any woman anywhere what is best for her. This means victims of rape, incest, or whom are carrying dead fetuses have lost their rights.

Whether you are a teen, tween, of child bearing age, menopausal, post menopausal, and so on, you have lost your rights because the courts which are supposed to protect all of us equally got political.

But hey, Clarence Thomas and frat boy Kavanaugh made it onto the US Supreme Court in the first place. Wiggle wiggle.

Say does anyone know how many woman got abortions because of being involved with people like Donald Trump? Now that would be a fun statistic.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who should never have been born in the first place is praising God for this decision. God has nothing to do with it. Just politicians. Stick with your own uterus Congresswoman Skank.

LIVE UPDATES
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
By Adrienne Vogt, Aditi Sangal, Elise Hammond, Meg Wagner and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 2:24 p.m. ET, June 24, 2022

Yes I am angry. Well at least they aren’t telling me what I can plant in my garden…yet. Meanwhile in a town called Winnfield, Louisiana, a woman has been fined and charged with indecent exposure for wearing a crop top in 90 degree weather and 80% humidity at an outside music festival. Oh and it’s a felony charge.

Now all who know me know I am NOT a fan of Daisy Dukes and crop tops. Even when I could wear something like that a century ago (or the 1980s), I didn’t. Not my jam. Don’t like either. But to cite someone at a music concert outside with all her lady bits covered? Wow just wow now they are telling women what they can and can’t wear in the podunk town?

Woman fined in Louisiana for indecent exposure — after wearing crop top
By Imogen Braddick, The Sun

I think people need to mail the newly elected Mayor Gerald “Scooter” Hamms some CROP TOPS:

Mayor’s Office,

City of Winnfield, LA

Physical Address 120 E Main St
Winnfield
LA 71483-3265
USA

Mailing Address P O Box 509
Winnfield
LA 71483-0509
USA

If you want to call the Mayor’s Office: (318) 628-3939

And I do not ever speak ill of the police, but this is a little police department that blows my mind. All you have to do is google and all sorts of things pop up, even Department of Justice stuff.

So as of today, Friday, June 24, 2022, women literally have no choice over their bodies on several fronts.

POLITICS
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of federal abortion rights
PUBLISHED FRI, JUN 24 2022
Dan Mangan
@_DANMANGAN
Kevin Breuninger
@KEVINWILLIAMB

We live no longer in the land of the free apparently. We are but chattel.

#resigntheresa and other tales from west whiteland

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It looks like Hollywood Squares for municipalities doesn’t it? At least West Whiteland is recording the meetings, however. Last evening’s meeting was a bang your head on the wall kind of experience.

So there is the new assisted living facility planned for Boot Road and Ship Rd. It has to be close to West Goshen I guess. It’s 930-936 E. Boot Road, West Chester. The road is pretty narrow back there and it’s close to that odd little strip mall that once upon a time had a pizza place that never seemed to have many customers.

So about this site. Only a couple of hundred feet from Mariner East, so what happens in an emergency if this thing gets built? A crafty cottage style warehouse for often immobile senior citizens?

Apparently Bossette Tweed is an expert of what you cannot do, always from her phone screen, and never seemingly prepared ahead of time? Shall we call her Saint Theresa of No-No? Yes Supervisor Saint Theresa Hogan Santalucia, I am referring to you. And yes I can have the continued opinion that you are an unpleasant, sometimes foul mouthed, obstreperous, and useless git of a politician. The First Amendment allows it.

You are the font of NO. And you don’t really know what you are talking about, have incredibly poor speaking skills, and if you actually did your damn job you would realize that although local elected officials have to say no at times because they are hampered by bad advice and crap zoning, there are those lovely state and federally elected officials you kowtow too and pose for photos with who CAN help sometimes with sticky wickets.

Like State Reps and State Senators. Now we all know State Rep Kristine Howard is another useless git of a politician, but she is up for re-election. So Saint Theresa of No-No, Bossette Tweed, have you bothered to figured out the last time the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of PA was comprehensively updated? Try late 1960s early 1970s. HAVE YOU EVER PRESSED THESE STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO ENACT AN ACT OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO UPDATE THIS BEFORE EVERY AREA IN PA IS DESTROYED BY OUTDATED AND OUTMODED ZONING? Instead of sitting like a blob at meetings with your nasal no-no tone, have you ever actually done what you were elected to do? Or are you still confusing West Whiteland with Upper Darby of the bad old days?

Yes, it’s not a great recording and No No Nannette mumbles and tries to hide from the camera BUT you can’t hear Supervisor Raj really either, since he often talks away from the microphone. Why did this application have to get approved preliminarily last night? Why couldn’t they have postponed a decision for a month or so? Why not TABLE for a little bit? Even until the next meeting?

It is not always an easy thing to say NO to a project as an elected official. But there are things you can do like TABLE something for a specified duration, even if just until the next meeting. Which should have been done here, somehow. But nooooo they rolled over except for Brian Dunn who just does what is right, even if not politically popular because he GETS that he was elected to serve the plurality, not special interests. I expected Theresa to be Theresa because she’s always just Theresa, but Rajesh Kumbhardare, the Chair of the Supervisors seriously disappointed residents last evening. He was hard to hear and just rolled over like a good boy. Hope they scratched his ears and gave him a cookie?

West Whiteland is still to me a huge, hot mess. This senior living facility being built deep in the blast zone of Mariner getting approved is just the latest example. If West Whiteland is SO concerned about residential safety, why not table it if you don’t have the municipal balls to say no thank you?

Now allow me to quote West Whiteland Residents for Public Safety:

How is this business owner and our township EMC, neither of whom have a background in developing emergency plans for HVL pipelines, to accomplish this when Chester County Department of Emergency Services and others have not? How can they possibly develop a plan to quickly evacuate 80 residents who cannot travel a half mile upwind on foot unassisted?

In addition to this condition, the applicant stated in the conditional use hearing on 05/25/22 that the Emergency Plan must be approved by the Township before the facility can get a license. To hear that, go to 1:17:55 at (previously recorded West Whiteland Township Meeting)

When this emergency plan is submitted by the applicant how will the WWT Supervisors possibly be able to approve it? Here is Tom Boyce, Delaware County’s Director of Emergency Services in 2019 testifying about the inability to evacuate those who cannot “get up and walk away” when Mariner East leaks. Theresa Santalucia was at the hearing and yet she, along with Rajesh Kumbhadare voted to approve this conditional use last might.

~West Whiteland Residents for public safety 6/23/22

Here also is a written form of comment by West Whiteland resident Ginny Kerslake:

This Decision and Order before you tonight contains a reference to a public comment I made at a previous meeting. It gets a couple things from my comment and about Mariner East wrong. These are significant so I emailed them to you last night and wish to repeat them now publicly.

Mariner East 2 and Mariner East 2X are NOT natural gas pipelines. They are natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines. This is a critical point. NGLs are denser than air so in the event of a leak they do not dissipate upward like natural gas but rather form a low-lying vapor cloud. They are more explosive and have a larger blast radius. And in the case of Mariner East, they do not have an odorant added. All of this, in addition to their size, makes Mariner East uniquely more dangerous than the other pipelines we have in West Whiteland Township.

Secondly, I did not “inquire about the applicant’s evacuation strategy” but rather spoke to the impossibility of a credible strategy to evacuate these residents who cannot quickly walk or run a half mile upwind, unassisted as is required for a leak on Mariner East.

You have included in this conditional use approval a condition #9 that states: “The Applicant shall work with the Township’s Emergency Management Coordinator to develop a satisfactory strategy in the event of a pipeline-related emergency”

How will this applicant, a senior care facility developer and our township’s Emergency Manager Coordinator possibly be able to come up with a credible plan to protect these 80 residents incapable of self-evacuation when our county and other counties, our township and other townships have failed to come up with an Emergency Plan for Mariner East even for the general public, because it is an impossible plan?

Last night Edgmont Township voted NO on building another school in the blast zone of Mariner East. This was the right thing to do. I ask you again tonight to use your authority and honor your duty to ensure public safety and vote NO on granting conditional use approval for an assisted living facility at this location

~ginny kerslake

West Whiteland likes to pretend they don’t see what is in front of them. It’s wrong. I think a lot of things would have the room to grow and change however if Supervisor Theresa Hogan Santalucia RESIGNED.

#RESIGN THERESA

On right is proposed site of the granny and grand pop go BOOM senior living facility .

now open: sycamore & stone

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So yesterday I did a thing. I went and checked out the new Sycamore & Stone on 401!

Jeff Devlin‘s new property is one I am familiar with, because I used to patronize the antique store that was once in this barn. I love this property and was sad when it went up for sale because I was afraid some developers would snatch up the property and the beautiful barns and house would disappear. However when Jeff announced he had purchased this property I was totally psyched because I knew it was going to be saved, preserved, and wonderful!

Along with the barn which has the store there will be other things available to do on this property including the house becoming a fabulous Airbnb.

This is the kind of preservation in real time and adaptive reuse that Chester County needs more of! I will note that I first came to know Jeff and his fiancée Janelle, through our mutual friend Meg Veno, proprietress of Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm and the soon to be opened Mechantile at the Jenny Lind House in Historic Yellow Springs Village.

I will note that both the Mercantile/Jenny Lind and Jeff’s Sycamore & Stone are both located in West Pikeland Township. West Pikeland is a treasure trove of amazing historic properties. I hope that Township realizes how fortunate and blessed they are that they have people willing to come in and do these amazing adaptive resources that are viable on historic properties.

Jeff’s store is a feast for the eyes and there is all sorts of fun stuff! It has a great Americana country vibe. It’s a lovely space and shoppers feel relaxed in it. It is almost like welcoming someone into a great big farmhouse and not just a hands down super amazing barn. I gravitate to places that are warm and welcoming. And their staff is equally warm and welcoming!

One of the things I liked best are the reproduction hog scraper candlesticks he has available for sale. I collect the actual vintage/antique variety, so these are a real favorite with me! If Jeff Devlin had a wish list for customers mine would be to carry hand dipped taper candles that fit into hog scrapers because that is the right shape for them!

I look forward to this property further coming back to life and it is such a joy to see the work occurring on it every time I drive by. Jeff is a quality craftsman, and such a nice guy so I am glad he found his spot here on this property. My only lament is I don’t have a super old farmhouse for him to help me restore!

Anyway Sycamore & Stone is yet another reason to shop local! Enjoy the photos!

Sycamore & Stone is located at 1251 Conestoga Road, Chester Springs, PA. Right now the hours are WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY 12PM-7PM, SATURDAY 10AM-7PM, SUNDAY 10AM-4PM.

I will note that I have not been compensated in any way, shape, or form to write this post. I’m merely visited the store and I am now a happy customer: I like to shop local and support the businesses of people I know.

#shoplocal #shopsmall #stonehouserevival #schoolhousewoodworking #home

the beauty of historic preservation: back to odessa, delaware.

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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.

contrasts.

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Odessa, Delaware is one of my favorite places. It is literally a jewel of a historic town, almost frozen in time.

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.

I will be posting a separate post of just photos I took today in Odessa, but would also interested me separately is a study in contrasts.

When you’re coming into historic Odessa, on the edge of the town, there is literally this house that has been falling apart for years. It is a clear example of demolition by neglect or abandonment, take your pick. We see examples of this in Chester County all the time. I realized today that the house that used to be right on the corner of Boot Road and Greenhill across from Hershey’s Mill and the fire house is so overgrown I can’t wonder if it has met or is meeting a similar fate? The deterioration of this old house reminds me a lot of the deterioration of the historic farm house in Malvern along route 30 that is part of the Clews and Strawbridge boat property in East Whiteland.

But then as you get into town and around the corner from Cantwell’s historic Tavern is a house that obviously suffered a fire that is being rebuilt. So that is your contrast. You have letting a historic structure rot versus someone painstakingly rebuilding a structure after a devastating loss.

This post is not a dig at Odessa, Delaware because the historic preservation is remarkable. It’s just sort of food for thought of the whole historic preservation of it all. The next post shows how pretty Odessa is.

the old hershey’s mill is looking just glorious!

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Two years ago I wrote about the old Hershey’s Mill starting to get a rehab facelift. Last November I posted photos from the rehab in progress. Well today we drove by on our way home, (and sorry I didn’t get the best photos but I got a couple of photos) and I am so happy to see that beautiful old structure with new life.

The new owners have taken great care with her restoration and she looks glorious! I really hope East Goshen historical commission gives them some kind of an award, they deserve it!

I hope the family will be really happy there and now let’s hope East Goshen Township gets a move on with making a park or whatever they are doing with what was the old pond and other things next-door. Because I have to tell you if I had spent all that money on that rehab of that beautiful old structure, it’s a little jarring to look at the undoneness of next door which is the township’s responsibility.

And speaking of East Goshen have they taken eminent domain off of the table for the Hicks Farm? I’m still wondering how I can take so long to unravel an eminent domain taking.

Anyway, bravo to the restoration minded owners of the old Hershey’s Mill. In an age where everyone tears down rather than restores, this is the most wondrous site!

Happy Father’s Day!