Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. RIP Blackburn Farm at 1135 Sugartown Road in Easttown Township – from the dust another McMansion of the nouveau will rise?
Who knows.
But yet another piece of Chester County history is now gone forever.
The gorgeous house that sat at the crest of a small hill that you could see as you went up. The long driveway was demolished the other day.
Blackburn Farm was part of Chester County’s equestrian and agricultural past as well as part of the tradition of the Devon Horse Show before that went bougie obvious. For 31 years it was part of the staging for the horse show. I believe it mostly had to do with carriaging from what I read on the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society website (I do belong to this organization and they have the most wonderful historical publications.)
It looks like in the early 2000s is when that development behind Blackburn farm was subdivided and developed. Originally I think the parcel was 100 acres or better.
I was actually on the farm once for a very special house tour posted by the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust.
The whole property was quite magical and obviously well loved and well-maintained. When the owner listed it for sale just because it was time to downsize, it never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that it would be destroyed like this.
Yes, I understand that people have their private property rights. But why do you buy a spectacular historic property with other than a need for maybe some updating because that’s just a necessity every now and again, only to destroy the history quite literally?
I can’t even imagine how the prior owner felt. I know I would be so sad if one of my childhood homes had been demolished, and of course there’s no guarantee that that won’t happen someday.
It’s so weird a concept to realize that I’ve visited some of these amazing homes that have made Chester County so beautiful and some of them have been torn down. This is one reason why I think it’s so important to save the Darlington Inn in Westtown.
It’s a shame in Pennsylvania historic preservation means so little. It’s paid lip service, but we can have data centers right?
Carry on.
https://www.tehistory.org/hqda/html/v40/v40n2p073.html
https://nbcphiladelphia.app.link/3d7oGMpm24b
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1135-Sugartown-Rd-Berwyn-PA-19312/9204109_zpid/
https://www.compass.com/homedetails/1135-Sugartown-Rd-Berwyn-PA-19312/1NP5EJ_pid/