For years, we have watched the former faculty housing for Church Farm teachers deteriorate. No that’s not the fault of the school, the land was sold decades ago at this point.
I have followed it here on my blog and so have many in the community. The land has been for sale and vacant forever and we knew this development was coming.
The development is 55 and over so it won’t be putting kids in the school district. It’ll be like a Hershey’s Mill in West Whiteland. However it’s rather dense, and it is yet another reason why in my opinion, whatever happens at the Exton Square Mall needs to have less density. It’s so much development not too far apart.
And even if the mall developer and his attorney, don’t like my opinion, I’m allowed to have it.
Anyway, it’s New Year’s Eve 2025 and the development has begun. 
I wish this was less density here because I do not know where all these developers think we are going to put and care for all these additional people? We don’t even have a hospitals to care for our residents now. (Of course this is also why I think that the Exton Square Mall would be the perfect site for a new hospital but developers won’t make enough money on a new hospital will they? What do they care about us getting sick? )
So again, it’s not like this wasn’t approved or we didn’t know it was coming. It’s been very much out there. But it is quite jarring to see the land stripped bare bit by bit as this development begins.
On New Year’s Eve I’m going to make my last play of the year for lawmakers and Harrisburg to get off their asses and do a comprehensive update of the municipalities planning code. There hasn’t been one since it arrived circa 1969 and as I have said innumerable times before, that’s what gave us Chesterbrook.
I’m going to share some of my old photos taken over years past for many years, and a little video compilation.
First the photos:
These were at one time really nice little houses. They could’ve remained nice little houses as starter homes or step down homes for people downsizing.
On a snowy afternoon, what’s a fun thing to do? Hmmm…maybe go to a Christmas party in an antique market of course!
You also need music …
And some nibbles….
And add some friends and #shoplocal !
We did this at Frazer Antique Market and it was magical. Most importantly besides friends coming together at Christmastime? Supporting a local business and vintage/antiques and crafts people.
It’s not about the influencers who want a ridiculous photo for their Instagram and Snapchat, this is about supporting our local businesses.
And no, I was not compensated for this post OR this event. We paid to host it.
This was our Christmas present to friends and loving what’s local.
Also many, many thanks to the acoustic duo The Dunns for the festive music to add to the atmosphere. You can hear them locally at places like VK Brewing and Myrtos as well as other local spots and places like Cape May in warmer weather months. And they are occasionally available for private events!
I took this photo in March, 2025. It continues to rot.
Let’s go back to East Whiteland. To 310 Lancaster Avenue in Malvern, you know where Clews & Strawbridge Boats is?
Once upon a time that farmhouse looked normal. It is part of 3 separate parcels of land totaling about 5 acres. Main Line Watercraft Realty is the name, but looking into the deeds and mortgage, a name emerged. I will post those documents and you can look for yourselves. But hey, this man sits in a very nice house on pricey real estate in the region (not Chester County), while one of Chester County’s historic assets just ROTS and that is so truly terrible isn’t it? And if this property owner cared about the house and historic barn, wouldn’t they be better looked after? Now I am not writing this man’s name, although he has appeared in many public facing media things, especially for his day job so to speak right? No he’s not a real estate developer is he?
All I know is this historic house was once owned by artist Margaret Strawbridge Clews, who died at 91 in 2010. She must be turning over in her grave at the condition of that house, right?
I found her obituary. Here is a link and allow me to share from it:
HANOVER – Margaret Strawbridge Clews died August 6th at the age of 91 – just six days after she warmly welcomed each of her children, grandchildren, and all eleven great grandchildren as well as nearly 100 friends to the opening of her one-woman art show at the Howe Library in Hanover, NH. Born into the postwar debutante world of Philadelphia in 1919, the year women got the right to vote, she was a life-long activist and artist – devoting much of her art to her favorite causes of women’s rights and peace.
Mrs. Clews was the granddaughter of the founder of Philadelphia’s landmark department stores, Strawbridge & Clothier. With Mancha Madison Clews, her husband of 66 years, she was the proprietor of their family boat business, which thrives to this day in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Their company, Clews and Strawbridge, was the only combination marine & Saab automobile dealership in the USA.
She was a graduate of The Shipley School and of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Exhibiting her first work at the age of 16
Do we think Margaret would love this decay? The decay of a once lovely 18th century farmhouse? She came up in a post I wrote in 2019:
Now Lincoln Highway/Lancaster Pike/Lancaster Ave was laid out in 1732 according to the Tredyffrin-Easttown Historical Society. This farmhouse I was told years ago was built in 1734. And the current property owner just lets it sit and rot? And the rest of the property looks pretty shabby too, doesn’t it? I remember how nice it once looked because years and years ago when the Saab dealership was there, I had friends who got their Saabs there.
I found a brochure advertising the property from a realtor. Don’t know if this is still being marketed by this person or not. So who else is concerned about this property? It narrowly escaped being a very dense residential development a few years ago correct? So now what?
The house COULD be saved, but not unless the owner sees the light right? He lives far enough away he doesn’t drive by it every day so it’s just something in an investment portfolio, correct?
Is there anyone who can encourage him to see it as the valuable historic asset that it is? Maybe he can make an old house call? Do the right thing?
To follow are the deed and some other things found on public records. Perhaps some reporter somewhere will be inspired to write a real story about the history of this house and the current ownership?
If not, tick tock East Whiteland. It’s time for this guy to respect Chester County’s historic architecture, right? And yes I can have that opinion.
And that’s a wrap until next year! Another amazing holiday house tour from Surrey Services for Seniors
I am an in kind and regular sponsor which I am just mentioning so you know WHY I do the photos and that they are done as a volunteer. (Otherwise you’re not allowed to take pictures inside people‘s homes obviously.)
This year, the houses were so beautifully and perfectly festive!!! I have to say the homeowners knocked themselves out for all of us and it was much appreciated!
I loved all the homes and will be going through photos over the next couple of days, but I will be sharing a little video with you guys below so you can get a flavor for the tour and the shops afterwards, which were also so much fun!
I do have to say my favorite house was on Poplar Avenue in North Wayne. I love that section of Wayne. It is so historic and just being in the neighborhoods there makes you happy because mostly everyone decorates.
If you would like to give a Christmas donation to Surrey, which does so much for people follow this link:
It’s the end of December. Soon it will be New Year’s Eve and then 2025 will be here.
I marvel that so much of my life has already happened and the inner child in me born in 1964 marvels at all the time that has gone by and all the distinct Christmas memories.
I remember the Christmas processions we did at St. Peter’s with our white robes and candles. The Christmas book fair at St. Peter’s and getting books sign by Marguerite de Angeli. I remember Santa Lucia at Old Swede’s. I remember the year Kitty the cat got into her catnip Christmas stocking and was as stoned as a loon dangling mostly upside down from the top of the Christmas tree. And then she skidded up and down the front hall for a while.
I also am even at 60 reminded of the year my mother told me to stop fiddling with my chocolate milk at Wanamaker’s Crystal Tea Room at Christmas and drop it… and I did…right into my aunt’s lap…as in her sister-in-law not my great aunts. Winter white suit too I am told.
We used to go see all of the Christmas displays at all of the department stores in Philadelphia and then we had lunch at the Crystal Tea Room. I always had scrambled eggs, toast, and chocolate milk. Mostly we did this with my great aunts.
At Strawbridge’s it was the Dickens Christmas Village and the figures were animatronic. At Gimbels the figures also moved, but in the windows. Lit Brothers had the enchanted village and John Wanamaker’s had the light show and the pipe organ and the waterfall. After the light show was when we would go all the way up in the elevators to the huge Crystal Tea Room. It was filled with the noise of other families and tons of kids. I also remember when we were leaving there was almost like a check out line in the grocery store. And all the women who were in the tea room wore crisp uniforms.
It’s sad to me now because Philadelphia during Christmas was once really something. Those Christmas displays drew people into the city almost like a July 4th concert.
I’m told that part or all of the Lit Brothers display is at a slightly creepy cavernous warehouse space in Oaks next to a FedEx hub called the American Treasure Tour Museum. The place is owned by someone referred to as “the Collector” who is supposed to be all mysterious, yet Reddit says it’s the developer behind Audubon Land Development (think Happy Days Farm) which owns that property in Oaks where this is and Arnold’s Family Fun Center etc. is? Also supposedly owns the Classic Auto Mall in Morgantown?
The Wanamaker pipe organ has its own nonprofit now and is being preserved. But the Wanamaker building which is a historic landmark went into foreclosure and it was announced in December that it had been acquired by a developer and private equity firm out of New York and the building will be converted to residential apartments, and my guess is that they will be rental apartments vs. some kind of condo development. Now that is not the worst adaptive reuse I’ve ever heard of, but what will happen to the organ in the future and during construction? And according to the Inquirer, that is where the Strawbridge’s Dickens Village moved so what happens to that now?
Also, the Christmas season always meant The Philadelphia Charity Ball. When we went, it was held at the Bellevue Strafford and it was held on December 23rd. Being in the Cotillion was like being part of a different world. I don’t think it’s the same today and it seemed quite small in event this past year and moved to Merion Cricket Club which kind of takes the Philadelphia out of it, so it could be dying?
Other memories like caroling parties at my cousin Suzy’s in Newtown, Bucks County where we all had a lot of fun….except we were so out of tune I am surprised no one paid us to go away. And when we were there for any kind of a holiday meal or gathering, the plates that were used were Suzy’s late mother’s and they were a pattern I have never seen since with pine boughs and pine cones. They disappeared in her divorce. I still wonder if her first husband has them somewhere. I think it was a Rosenthal pattern.
Then there are all the memories of Christmas parties at my parents’ friends between a Harleysville, Schwenksville, Malvern, and eventually Wayne. Glittering German Christmas celebrations that were just so beautiful in all of their homes over the years.
Also the little girl memories of going with my father in a red VW bug through the snowy streets of Philadelphia to get a Christmas tree sold off the freight cars at the rail yards.
Or other little girl memories of going to 9th street for Christmas goodies from DiBruno’s when there was only one and whatever meat we were preparing from Cappuccio’s. I even have a random Christmas or Christmas Eve memory of my great aunts house on Ritner Street in South Philadelphia and it was packed to the gills and so hot.
Lots of other memories mashed together through the years including my father’s slightly exasperating method and routine for putting up the Christmas tree. And oh yes, silver and gold ornaments only. We eventually snuck in some other stuff over time but they were few and far between and only little white lights. The trees were gorgeous, don’t misunderstand me, but I think this is why my trees have so much color. Of course the other thing about the growing up Christmas trees is they often didn’t come down until almost February and one year almost Valentine’s Day.
And then there was New Year’s Eve party when we had first moved to suburbia and were living in Gladwyne. I think it was New Year’s Eve 1975 into 1976. I remember grown ups dancing in the snow and singing LOUDLY as the clock ticked down to midnight. That was the night when my late godmother’s husband tried to scrape all of the dinner scraps down the sink drain….and there was no garbage disposal….
And then there was the year our friends from Bethesda, MD came up for New Year’s Eve and Abigail the Springer Spaniel ate part of the chocolate sponge cake cooling on the stovetop waiting to be rolled with cream for dessert… the surviving cake became a trifle.
Then there was when a friend of mine named Barb showed us all the art form of the gift basket. We had never thought of blending old and new in a basket full of Christmas treats for people. It was something she did and to this day it’s a favorite kind of Christmas gift to assemble. Back then it was because it gave us more bang for our buck with Christmas presents and a more younger person‘s budget. I still like it because it’s fun to do.
Then came the Christmas Eve party that always felt compulsory. It was a Main Line affair. The parties hosted when it was wife #1 meant the daughters had matching outfits to wife #1’s hostess gowns and they were posed on the stairs when the front door was answered. (Well it was the late 1970s.) Wife #1 set the tone and the woman had enough of a chill she was frosty.
It was no real surprise when there was a divorce and then there was wife #2. (Of course later on, wide #1 would hunt husband #2 who was the father of someone else I knew like big game, and wow all those bridesmaids then, really? But I digress.
When it was wife # 2 the parties became more warm and welcoming. Except when I was in my 20s there was the married guy who had a store somewhere who came every Christmas Eve for a few years without his wife and every Christmas Eve tried to pick up single young women, usually the daughters of the the families attending. One year it was my turn. He asked if I wanted to go to a party with him and leave the current party and I asked him kind of loudly if his wife would be joining us and something else. That took care of that. That was super uncomfortable. Worst of all? Married dude tried to pick me up in front of my father.
Now this was the party where the cool kids hung out in the library, and the younger kids took over the basement. And the adults were everywhere in between.
As time seemed to speed up, I would host Christmas or Christmas Eve and then my sister would host Christmas or Christmas Eve. And then there were years were Christmas seemed to not exist like the Christmas in 2010 that my brother-in-law died.
This has been a really nice but still kind of hard holiday season this year for me personally. It’s the first one without my friend Anna, and when you’ve had 48 years of Christmas and holiday seasons in one form or the other with one friend, you miss them when they’re gone, but I’m thinking now she’s with our friend David, who passed away a couple of years ago. I still keep waiting for the phone to ring or to get a text message from her. It’s just sort of bittersweet in some moments and others just sad. And then I have the random memories of shopping for Christmas presents in Bryn Mawr with her when we were younger than driving age. There was this awesome bookstore next to Parvin’s Pharmacy and then there was KatyDid and looking at the scarab bracelets at Mr. Fish’s.
And then this is the Christmas I found out that a friend of mine from college that I didn’t even know was sick was also gone. She was someone that I was only in touch with infrequently at this point, but it’s still another loss. And she came from a rather large and close-knit family, and I feel for them and her own family. She was so nice and bright and hard working and lived for her own family.
This is also the Christmas that one of my sorority sisters is on hospice. She told everyone before Thanksgiving. She’s just a wonderful person and nice. And another person I know is on hospice. It must be one of those years.
So I have all of these great Christmas memories and then there are the holiday season melancholies I suppose you might call them. Nothing terminal or bad, but bittersweet with twinges of sad. There are people we have all had in our lives that we just maybe thought would go on forever. And a lot of them were the people we knew who also loved the holidays. We carry their memory and our memories of them in our hearts and minds, and it’s ok to get a little schmoopy and sentimental.
I was sent this and it’s still up and it doesn’t quite have that Christmas spirit does it?
Somewhere in the background “she’s lost that loving feeling” is playing, can you hear it? I didn’t know Creed’s Seafood & Steaks was missing needing a fauxblicist? No Christmas Eve din dins for the fam?
I just wonder who’s the Victor she’s talking about? I thought maybe at first it would be one of my favorite journalists from Philadelphia Magazine but then I remembered that the guy at Creed’s had a partner by that name didn’t he?
So I guess I just don’t understand. I also don’t understand because I didn’t know that Creed’s needed help with their “marketing” ? I mean they’ve kind of been doing their thing since when? 1982? And there reviews are always good and consistent aren’t they?
Creed’s is in King of Prussia at 499 N. Gulph Road . Here is their website:
OK, so again I don’t quite know what’s going on here I don’t know that any of us need to know, but it was a hell of a thing to post for somebody who seems that they want a business owner’s attention and business from isn’t it?
Cheer up Easter Bunny season is coming soon or a mini photo shoot with the trusty old iPhone, right?
This gets the big face palm for the end of 2024….and pro tip for this “professional“ : you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and F bombs. Just saying.
And Christmas Eve din dins debacle from over a decade ago or whenever it was will never die as long as she keeps posting things like this, right?
It’s Christmas and if you have your people, hopefully you are with them.
It’s a hard day for some because it’s a day of emotions and emotionally loaded memories.
It had been 14 years since we were all together at my sister’s house for Christmas. We had been together other places, but not allthere since my brother in law died that Christmas of 2010. Or the Christmas time forgot, and the year a blizzard visited New York City. I still remember the surreal experience of waking up Park Avenue with just other people and snow. No cars or buses or taxi cabs.
I didn’t even realize until the other day how long it had been since we were all together there.
I wasn’t sure how it was going to be for me. There is still so much of my late brother in law there. Good memories. Calling my niece “Cake” coming into the kitchen loaded down with Christmas presents. He loved Christmas.
Now the kids are all adults with their own lives and there we all were again. The same, yet altogether different and changed by time.
I have tuned into a bit of a country mouse at this point in my life, but New York City at Christmas is magical.
The laughter echoes still in my head although I am now back in the quiet of our home. I felt a lot of emotions today, not bad, it was just a lot to experience. New memories melding with old.
It was a nice and beautiful Christmas after a crazy 2024. I hope all of you had a wonderful day.
This is a great curiosity of life I think right now. Last year at first people were excited at the idea of Yuletide, but then the reality was less than, correct?
So then we had the whole thing about it was coming back at a golf club on the other side of Montgomery County owned by the Union League. (Liberty Hill.)
I wrote about dissatisfaction with the event just recently.
And now here we are 10 days before Christmas and all of a sudden they’re singing a different tune about closing notJanuary 5, 2025, but December 23, 2024? So if you bought a season pass for this, do you get a partial refund? People are asking this question and it showed up on social media.
And the reviews and people being dissatisfied has only increased. And then, as a friend pointed out, the event people seem to be pushing back on Google reviews, which is kind of amusing.
Also kind of amusing is most of the positive reviews you say are essentially influencers and what not so are they comped? It’s a fair question to ask because the majority of the reviews are actually very negative aren’t they?
I’m just going to share a potpourri of screenshots:
So Yuletide, whose fault is it now?
What’s going on?
If people paid for a season pass and you’re closing early, what are you doing for them?
If you’re closing early, how does that affect the vendors who have committed their time and money to this?
How does this affect the employees that were hired to help run this event, and most of all why are you closing?
Last year (2023) you were at Devon, there really weren’t a lot of straight answers after the fact as to where your contract went etc. were there? So you were supposed to be new and improved and smaller and more thoughtful and more fabulous at the Union League’s Liberty Hill in 2024?
Seriously, what is going on?
It seems like there’s a lot of bah humbug in the house? And if people bought a season pass and you are shortening the season what are you doing for them? After all, if you think about it, after December 23 is pretty much when all the schools are on vacation, so if this was supposed to run until January 5, can’t you consider the fact that people that paid for your season pass were really going to use it in that time between just before Christmas and just after New Year’s?
So they went from Devon Horse Show in 2023 where they fell flat, to a geographically somewhat undesirable and odd location? A golf club owned by the Union League in Lafayette Hill? What happened to that lease that was supposed to be more than one year with Devon Horse Show anyway? It’s one of the great mysteries of life isn’t it?
Anyway, so it’s happening again and the prices aren’t much different. And then there’s this great disclaimer. Basically can it be said they’re there to take your money, but they’re not responsible for anything?
And I’ve been hearing from people that tried it again that said it’s just the same song different radio station so to speak. Now I know where they’re having it because it was an insurance company owned golf club for a long time. It’s pretty but for an event like this? In my opinion, it’s just not another good location. Except I have to be honest, if they had handled it properly, Devon was actually a great location.
Here are two of the recent reviews I found:
So there you have it don’t you? And this is what I’ve also heard from people that went, but didn’t leave any reviews. They didn’t even bother to post about it on social media.
And the other thing is it’s Christmas and people don’t mind paying a tasty per head charge to walk in the door, if part of it goes to a nonprofit so where’s their nonprofit component this year? Or again it doesn’t exist does it?
I think this is sad honestly because I think it had the potential of being something really cool. But this is a special and magical time of year and if you can’t really bring the magic because you don’t have the true generosity of holiday spirit, then this will keep happening won’t it?
My favorite bad review was the one that said it was a crime against Christmas. Buy that man a peppermint cocoa!
I will note I found one very glowing lonnngg new positive yet poorly written review and I have to ask: did that person pay for the admission or were they comped because last year weren’t they at the comped preview? Because they are in influencer category ?
Santa’s watching… do people think they’ll be back for a third year?
I posted all the reviews I saw on Google. They match again what I’ve been told by people I know who went. I’m going to say go up to Bethlehem or some of the other great markets for Christmas. One of my favorites is coming up and it is the Clover Market holiday market at Westtown School.
Also I have to ask how do you categorize the reviews family that’s doing this ? They are liking their own festival? I get that but are those real reviews or like familial sock puppets ?
