“Did you start another Ramblings blog?” was the text message I received.
“No!” I replied with a laughing 😂 emoji .
So I noodled around and found Rittenhouse Ramblings. It’s creator is much younger than I, and a native New Yorker with a background in marketing. Her name is Zohray.
I am still an OG blogger hailing from the bad old days of Philly Future (no longer exists except as a memory) and Save Ardmore Coalition (no longer exists except as a memory.) I am not a compensated blogger nor a lifestyle blogger, although sometimes lifestyle it is a topic.
Not all “Ramblings” are the same and we don’t have to be. My Chester County Ramblings originated circa 2012, Rittenhouse Ramblings originated circa 2023. While I write about whatever strikes my fancy, the other ramblings is about a specific area of the City of Philadelphia I am well acquainted with.
So like I said, not all ramblings are created equal. And that is fine.
So perhaps Faunbrook has a new owner? Apparently the winning bid was around $903,000. And it seems the bid accepted is the lady who owns The Bookhouse Hotel in Kennett Square which is a beautiful and cool place. If this is true, then sign me not just cautiously optimistic, but optimistic.
When Faunbrook went up for Sheriff Sale we all who love that place and Chester County History felt a pit in the bottom of our stomachs. I know people who were interested in the property who told me the sale had gotten too rich for their blood. I still don’t understand how it all happened and I was so sad for the deceased former owner who was beloved in the community.
I looked at Faunbrook for a wedding a bunch of years ago. It’s a magical place. So let us all think positive thoughts that the sale goes through. I would had to see an unscrupulous developer get their paws on this beauty.
Some other stuff I found on Faunbrook is linked below and have a good weekend.
The other day I wrote a post about Harriton House in Bryn Mawr, PA and the executive disaster, err director and essentially was the Harriton Association board awake and breathing? I wrote my post because I was appalled by the rando reenactors, not necessarily museum professionals (the two are hardly mutually exclusive, are they?) playing dress up and house a few days ago, and well were all over the antique furnishings that umm used to have ribbons down the middle and/or little signs on them that said things like “DO NOT SIT.”
I have been around and volunteering at Harriton House most of my life. From the time I was 12. I choose not to go back now except a drive up once in a blue moon because I believe current leadership of the board needs to retire and because I am of the opinion that the current executive director is wrong for this site. I am according to the United States Constitution of which Harriton’s most famous inhabitant Charles Thomson was intimately acquainted with, well within my rights to criticize.
I love the place, and it’s headed down a slippery slope. I think they need changes to survive and that includes a different executive director and a change in board leadership and probably some of the board as well. Many of the original board members I once knew or were familiar with are gone, some deceased. And that is a shame because THOSE were the people who helped make Harriton what it eventually became.
I received one comment from a regular reader about how they were confused by my post because I am generally speaking a huge advocate of historic preservation. To them I explained as I have to the rest of my readers, I get getting creative, but you have to be SMART about it. Reenactors lounging on the furniture isn’t smart. YES have reenactors in the house acting a part, or even giving tours but stay off the furniture. Do living history demonstrations in the education center. That is WHY there is one! And I was around when the money was raised to rejoin the parcels that were all oddly carved out of the Harriton property. I was among those who helped clear out the old stables building that became the education center. It had been inhabited by a very elderly lady who was a hoarder.
Then I received this other comment. From a woman in Troy, New York. Which was rather odd, so did someone send her? Here is what she said:
Here is what she said verbatim:
Museum professionals create education program collections that contain reproductions or common historical objects that are intended for hands on use in education programs. This is different than formally accessioned artifacts used for exhibition and research. The ED of Harrington House is a respected Museum professional. Laypeople like this blogger have not been trained in Museum practices and professional standards. Hands on programs like this one consistently are among the most popular types of Museum programs. This is well documented in numerous museum industry marketing studies. The blogger seems to have some kind of grudge going on
I replied to her:
Dear Starlyn,
I realize that you feel that I would have no concept of good practices. But not only do you not know who I might know nationally and internationally, you also do not know that I am actually fairly bright. And I researched this.
To have a grudge, I would have to know her, and she is not someone I choose to know. But I am very familiar with this property and have been since I was 12 years old.
Other things that have gone on here are people who are regular people like myself just being able to handle historical maps and documents without proper gloves on. That’s a fact not fiction.
Hands-on living history programs are fabulous. But that doesn’t include random reenactors lounging on antiques that in some cases could not be replaced, and they certainly can’t afford to repair them.
Common historical objects are fine to show demonstrations with. That is WHY Harriton House has an education center.
Now fly away back to whomever sent you. I mean you work in Troy, New York as a Director of Corporate, Government, and Foundation Relations for a small college, correct? And resigned your job at Hart Cluett Museum after a rather short duration?
TROY — The Hart Cluett Museum is looking for a new executive director after Starlyn D’Angelo resigned after leading the cultural institutional for 14 months, the museum board announced.
“We thank Star for stepping in during a difficult time for the museum during the pandemic, and for her many contributions leading the museum through reopening to the public,” Mark Shipley, president of the museum’s board of directors, said in a statement.
D’Angelo said she decided to leave the museum after her expectations for the executive director’s job and those of the board did not match. The position is considered to be a high-stress role with the executive director taking on the responsibilities for day-to-day management and fundraising to keep money flowing into the museum coffers. D’Angelo described the workload as untenable in the way the position is structured.
“This is an old story in the nonprofit world. I don’t believe nonprofits as a whole get a lot of support,” D’Angelo said Saturday….The Hart Cluett Museum received a boost when some of HBO’s “The Gilded Age” was filmed here. Troy served as the stand-in for late 19th century New York City where the series is set. The museum provided information and guidance to production designers who were seeking locations in Troy. The series returns to Troy in August to film for a second season.
It is indeed so difficult for smaller non-profits to survive. Especially after COVID. That is totally true. Just look at Van Cortlandt House where Harriton’s current Executive Director came from. It appears to have very limited hours now and they no longer have even a website. I checked today. They also have not done anything on their social media accounts since October, 2023. That’s sad. This place has been under the stewardship of The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York through a license agreement with the City of New York since like 1896 or 1897. But the Colonial Dames are devoted to their sites, so hopefully this is just a setback?
Anyway, back to Harriton House. I won’t apologize for being curious and FYI the The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America takes care of some amazing historic properties, including in our region. They are caretakers of Stenton in Philadelphia which is truly magnificent. Stenton is truly worth visiting if you never have. As Stenton’s website will tell you, “Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia.”
Here:
Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia. Completed in 1730 as a country-seat, plantation house for James Logan – Secretary to William Penn; merchant, politician, justice, scientist, and scholar – Stenton was home to six generations of the Logan family, as well as a diverse community of servants and enslaved Africans, including Dinah, who lived and labored at Stenton for over 50 years. Furnished with 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects, and remaining in little-altered condition, a visit to Stenton offers an unparalleled experience of early Pennsylvania.
The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have worked to “preserve and maintain Stenton as an historic object lesson” since 1899. Today, Stenton administers the award winning History Hunters Youth Reporter Program, which serves over 3,500 underserved Philadelphia schoolchildren each year. Additionally, Stenton’s Colonial Revival Garden was the founding site for the Garden Club of America in 1913, and the site was honored as the winner of the Garden Club of America’s Founders Fund Award in June, 2015. Through tours, educational programs and special events, Stenton continues to transport visitors to the 18th Century.
Stenton has a rather famous landscape. It was as stated above, the founding site for the Garden Club of America in 1913. I am a gardener and garden lover so that is particularly cool for me. Stenton, like Harriton House was once a plantation. Stenton had like 300 acres or better originally. It was lesser acreage than Harriton which originally was something crazy close to 700 acres when William Penn bequeathed the estate to Rowland Ellis in the 1680’s. That is of course when it was called Bryn Mawr (“High Hill” in Welsh.) Then, Ellis sold the property in the early 18th century to Richard Harrison. Upon the transfer of the property and the land under new stewardship, it became Harriton. Just THINK about how far the land for the original land spread and how far into areas we know today, probably not all what we know today as Bryn Mawr either, maybe?
Harriton today, as in the property, is 13 acres according to Lower Merion Township. I think it is actually a little larger. The Harriton Association is responsible for caring for the house and I believe owns the tenant properties BUT Lower Merion Township owns the historic house and Harriton’s parkland.
I was around and volunteering as the old Harriton Association and mainly the former executive director, Bruce Cooper Gill, raised money and worked tirelessly to assemble the Harriton property we know today because although Lower Merion owned the historic house and park, it was the Bruce Cooper Gill and the then Harriton Association who acquired the three now tenant properties which was crucially important because it preserved Harriton and kept developers OUT. And even back a bunch of years THAT was a concern. (One would have thought they would have fêted Bruce properly before they shoved him out the door, right?)
So yeah, I was around for all of those properties being acquired, cleaned up, and so on and so forth. I even donated an old blanket chest that may have been in the 2007 acquisition at one time. Have no clue what happened to it, probably it was later sold at a fair because it has a tenant now.
I love Harriton. I don’t love what is happening and it is my right to say so. I think two years is long enough to see that the current executive director is not the right person although she has the educational background. Running a site like Harriton is more than doing historical costumes and reenactor dress up. The place used to be open with an executive director on site pretty much all of the time (the animals were under his care as well as the site.) Now it seems open Wednesday through Saturday and how many days is this woman actually there physically? The reviews on their Facebook page only have two recent reviews one in 2023 from LMTV which is Lower Merion’s TV station and they probably filmed there and the one in 2024 is a spammer advertising Bitcoin that I just reported as spam.
Obviously I hit a nerve somewhere given the uppity comment of Ms. I-Know-Better-Than-You-Ordinary-Person from Troy, New York. Good. Maybe it wakes some people up. Harriton House is quite literally a national treasure. Educational programs based on history are a great idea. So are historical reenactors…but USE THE EDUCATION CENTER for things, not the antiques in the house. For F’s sake that is WHY the education center was conceived of in the first place.
Harriton needs help. The obviously need money, and they need better direction. I will not say sorry that I think they need a different head of the board of the Harriton Association as well as a better executive director for this site. Harriton has looked sad the last few times I have done a drive by. It’s like even the garden clubs are gone. Lower Merion Township needs to wake up.
Thanks for stopping by on a snowy day.
Harriton House circa 2005 from Montgomery County’s property records listing.
Well, it’s not spring yet. I dare say poor groundhog is back in his burrow under the covers.
This is Mother Nature’s way of telling us all to take a beat.
It’s funny, but the other day I was going to write a post about how people don’t appreciate either simplicity or simple things anymore. And this is a perfect example of something you can appreciate. It’s not fancy, it’s not expensive, it’s not about showing off to the neighbors or 11000 Facebook group followers, it’s just quiet and lovely.
Sometimes we all need to just hit pause and slow down for a few minutes.
I read an article the other day I think it was in the Philadelphia Business Journal or maybe The Philadelphia Inquirer about employees who having worked from home at least part of the time since COVID, being forced back in the office. This is where all of these employers should be grateful for the technology which now exists that their businesses can keep running without them playing Scrooge. Well maybe today some of these employers will stop and think about these decisions? Their decisions don’t affect me personally, I don’t work for any of them. Except with regard to their decisions, do they affect all of us as customers in some cases?
Anyway, it is snowy and it’s a nice quiet interlude from the rest of the angry world we live in at least for a little while.
First of all, I will observe that I do not think Historic Harriton House had a large visitor turnout for their “Harriton History Open House”. Mostly the only photos you see are adults playing dress up.
And about that dress up and ummm the fact that Harriton House is categorized as a Historic House Museum. One would HOPE that meant not playing house with precious antiques? Apparently not.
Look at the two photos immediately above. I do not even remember when I took above left. Please note photo on right which is a screenshot from a PUBLIC social media posted Sunday. If you zoom in on my photo (left), it says “DO NOT SIT”, nor are you supposed to monkey about with the petite antique side table. But photo on right, shows adults at the direction of Mrs. Puddle Duck the current executive disaster, err I mean director, frolicking on the antiques??? Are they even allowed to do that as far as their insurers are concerned?
But wait, there is more….
Below on left this time is a screenshot of a publicly posted social media photo posted Sunday as in yesterday. On the right is another one of years ago (I have taken hundreds of photos of Harriton and the fair, and notice the RED RIBBONS on the chairs? That means what class? Oh yes, DON’T SIT ON THE ANTIQUES IN THE HOUSE MUSEUM, correct? I mean can’t that person play their recorder or fife or whatever standing up?
Now then there is the kitchen. I was allowed to play with some dressed up kiddos circa 1976 or so, which although after 1973 when it went national, was an utterly different era. But today? Walter Staib uses the kitchen as a focal point in his PBS television A Taste of History series , but I bet he has some ultra bullet proof insurance to do so? But yesterday? It was dress up shlubs in the kitchen, so was there even special event insurance? Was Lower Merion Township ok with this after the executive disaster, err director’s first jam après the palace coup at Harriton replacing the man who literally made Harriton House what it became through 46 plus years of devotion, knowledge, and brutally hard work at times? As I heard it told there may have been a little fire in the colonial beehive oven because someone didn’t know how to use it and lumpy baking disasters? Below is a screenshot from January 2023 that shows the singed spot rather well doesn’t it? I mean I know that beehive door cover thingy had been rebuilt and was quite lovely before, right?
So yes, I did look up the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form from 1973. This house is locally, state, and federally recognized. It’s also in a category of a historic house museum which mean randos playing reenactment dress up kind of should not be lounging on the furniture, nor should the furniture be moved around a great deal. That is only preservation common sense, isn’t it? And doesn’t the 2022 IRS Form 990 value the antiques at over $500K? Also they probably kind of like shouldn’t touch historical documents up in the office area on the second floor unless you are wearing those museum grade cotton protective gloves either, right?
I would send you to the Harriton House website, but it has been pending a make over as per their words since 2023. I mean how hard is it to launch a website these days? Not very, but hey what do I know, right? I mean if you can’t launch a new website in colonial garb, Benjamin Franklin might be rolling in his grave or something, perhaps? Gosh am I being sarcastic? Sorry…but not really. It’s just how I feel about WHY they still don’t seem to have an updated website that functions well.
So what does the executive disaster, err director actually do all day? Does she come to Harriton every day? Look, I get as the now not so new girl (well it has been two years) she wants to make her own mark “storming the castle”, and I have no problem with living history days but Harriton House is like a giant ball of antiques, some probably close to irreplaceable, so if she only used her brain for more than dress up opportunities?
I have been struggling with how I now feel about Harriton House since they shoved the former executive director out not so long after his wife died. He was planning on retiring, but it’s always felt like some on that Harriton Association board just knee capped him and we can have that opinion, right? I mean how many days was he given to clear out 46+ years?
Part of the issues Harriton House faces is it’s definitely hard to be a small non-profit in the current environment. But it also means that the board of the Harriton Association has to be more hands on, and they need a change in leadership. The person at the helm should step down. I am also allowed that opinion. They have created the air of insular. With the former executive director there was more interaction and co-mingling with other non-profits. That is necessary for survival. The financials at the end of 2022 according to the IRS Form 990 don’t paint a pretty picture. What will 2023 say? I saw losses from beginning of year to end of year, increased expenses and salaries and for what? Also not to be petty, but 2020 was COVID right? They had HIGHER contributions than 2022 and line item 22 wasn’t showing a loss at end of year, either….so let’s see that means what exactly? That they can’t blame COVID or the former executive director?
I think Harriton House is continuing to slide down. And that is truly heart breaking and a goddamn waste of so many decades of honest hard work. And playing dress up and play acting on the literal antiques of a historic house museum is just bullshit. Also have they found a suitable tenant for the rental property attached to the historic house yet? That has been empty since when? September, 2023? That’s a significant amount of time to lose rent on the best rental property they have isn’t it?
At the very bottom, I will show you photos of the Harriton House I love. Hopefully it finds it’s way back there. But it won’t happen with the current executive disaster, err director and it won’t happen if the current chair of the Harriton Association doesn’t have the grace to step aside for other leadership.
Have a great week ahead. Avoid historic preservation disasters like randos playing dress up and frolicking among the antiques etc.
For the first time my blog’s header photo is from another photographer other than myself. Thank you Henry Alonzo Longabaugh
I want you to see how bad it has gotten at Lloyd Farm in Caln Township.
A new photographer friend, Henry Alonzo Longabaugh, sent in photos.
This is again, land that was part of an original Penn land grant. This farm existed before the USA was a country.
As residents of Chester County, Pennsylvania, we really need to start standing up for these properties and open space better. We are falling down on the job, quite literally.
This is yet another reason why I am saying that for election 2024, we need to make development, over development, lack of historic preservation, not enough open, space, preservation, and not enough agricultural conservation in Pennsylvania counties known for farming election issues.
Enjoy and learn from the photos.
And because of a greedy developer, and that is an opinion that we are allowed to have under the U.S. Constitution, this is not only demolition by neglect, but quite frankly historic destruction. And Caln Township is allowing it.
I don’t even know where to start with this Ship Road Couplet, other than so far all it’s doing is giving residents heart attacks because of all the people going the wrong way.
I am generally not a giant proponent of things designed by PennDOT, because so often it doesn’t necessarily fit the area they plunk stuff into.
In my opinion, right or wrong, the Ship Road Couplet is why the people who live near Route 352 and West King Rd. didn’t want PennDot to have their way with a traffic circle there a few years ago.
I have been on it once and I didn’t like it. And the reason I didn’t like it is because of people going the wrong way on it and that’s scary. So honestly, I have avoided it ever since.
As is the case with many things PennDot, they engineer things and that’s that. However, I do know that West Whiteland has additional signage and maybe some lights or something arriving soon but it’s just problematic. I know the supervisors there aren’t going to like my opinion on this, but it’s my opinion.
I think this whole couplet was designed solely to facilitate a developer and a development that residents in West Whiteland and elsewhere didn’t want there. It’s a crappy looking development and it’s all about adding more density to an area, bursting at the seams, and then a developer pockets the money and moves along to the next project. Of course, in this case, one of the projects is the land he bought at King Rd and Phoenixville Pike and possibly behind the homes on Old Phoenixville Pike, right?
I also have to ask did the developer kick in any money towards this intersection improvement? I remember when Conshohocken was being redeveloped, developers had to help facilitate road improvements and that included signals, road improvements and a new bridge at one point.
So to me, this was a traffic solution especially designed for a developer and development, but did it really need to be that? It’s kind of like zoning overlays that are designed for developers. I think those are a bad idea too, but you that’s another topic for another day.
Residents have pointed out flaws in the design, even on Route 30. On Route 30 it’s with the turning going straight, etc. and there’s this weird dip or maybe a pocket in the road. So wait until it gets icy if somebody’s going too fast right?
Below for illustrative purposes, are 4 photos that are on Google. Top left is what it looked like before the couplet went in. Top right is a review of the Wawa that’s really a review of the couplet. Lower left taken three weeks ago shows you how freaking unattractive the whole thing is from an aesthetic opinion along with how lame directional curb cuts are. Bottom right is just how big the Wawa is, basically.
Now I have looked at this Wawa, and they have sort of angled curb cuts, but quite frankly, not angled enough to keep people from going the wrong way. I think they need to be angled better, and I think there needs to be one of those little concrete bollard things to prohibit people from turning the wrong way. This is not the first Wawa that has had to revisit curb cuts. I seem to remember a Main Line one having to do it at one time and I think it was the one on Bryn Mawr Avenue and Haverford Road.
All people do is go to the wrong way on this. And I think part of it is all the map programs haven’t caught up with this road “improvement.” and I went on Google just today to see if they finally would have pictures of what the couplet looks like on Google and they do not. PennDOT did a typical pat themselves on the back but not much else.
So PennDOT? Tag you’re it. And I hope you like the photo a nice business was kind enough to share with me today. I think it sums the situation up perfectly: Happy New Year To All Except The Ship Road Engineer.
I spoke to a friend today that I had not spoken to in a couple of years. She lives pretty far away ,and life just gets in the way and you don’t connect as much as you should.
She had put up a post on her Facebook page that she had decided she was leaving social media, and if you wish to stay connected, to message her basically in the next few days and swap other methods of staying in touch. So I did.
She had never been a big social media person to begin with, and so it did not completely surprise me that she was leaving social media.
I received a message back today. In the message, she told me that she became a widow last year. And it literally took her a year before she could talk about it. She apologized for not letting people know, and I said you have nothing to apologize for. We know it’s true that grief has its own roadmap with each person who experiences it, don’t we?
So I decided the hell with it and I picked up the phone and called her. I just didn’t want to convey “I’m sorry” in a message.
I’m glad I did call. This is someone who had meant a lot to me growing up and still did as an adult. She was one of my teachers.
I could feel the grief through the phone and it was palatable. And there’s nothing I can do other than listen or say I’m sorry, and that really is a horrible feeling and feels oddly insufficient. But it’s not about us as we’re trying to comfort people we care about. It’s about the people going through these steps of grief isn’t it? Nevertheless, it’s still hard.
I think as we age and we are confronted with these various losses. It gives us pause. You step back and you reflect and God forgive me, but you think to yourself, I’m so glad that’s not me.
Grief is not easy or necessarily kind, and every human being has to go through it at their own pace. But also, as fellow humans, we want to take some of that grief away from these people we care about only we can’t because it’s a process and it’s the beginning of life, and then the end of life. And then you wonder what happened to all the time in between?
And I think that’s the hardest part. Life goes by in an instant. It’s really not an instant it’s years and years but it’s fast.
I hate when friends and family are wound up in a world of hurt. You want to make it better, but all you can do is listen and be there.
I think it’s just one of those weeks.
Another friend of mine lost a dog yesterday and it was another one of those wonderful once in a lifetime dogs that you don’t meet very often. No one‘s really sure I think in the end what precisely happened, but she went down in a week.
Having lost one of my favorite dogs not all that long ago, I know that helpless feeling. And the ache in your heart that threatens to overwhelm you as your beloved pet draws their last breath.
Grief. It’s one of those things that does takes your breath away. It’s one of those things that if you’re not careful, just steals your very soul.
