This whole billionaire is buying up a Main Line area village is disturbing, yet expected at the same time, isn’t it? Is it as simple as nothing says I’ve arrived like “I own you and all of this?”
Ok yes, slightly generalized and sarcastic but that is how this feels, doesn’t it?
Why Gladwyne village? Some might say “why not” but I honestly want to know why don’t you? To me, in my opinion, this doesn’t feel altruistic or having a love of historic structures. I can have that opinion, unless of course in this process the first amendment was purchased as well?
Doesn’t this feel more personal to you? I mean look, Jeff Yass, who is very much part of this is a self-made man of an extraordinary level? An impressive career and financial trajectory is undeniable. After all when you look up his Wikipedia page you see he was a guy from Queens, NY. Described as growing up in an average middle class family and now he’s the Sheriff of Yasswyne, err Gladwyne?
All snark aside, on its face it is impressive. BUT. And this is a big BUT. But why Gladwyne? Is it to be able to look out from what we grew up with as The Guard House, now part of the Union League Club to be able to wave and arm and declare ownership? I don’t have that answer only the little voice inside me says this is still not just about sprucing up a historically listed village, but most billionaires play things close to the vest don’t they? (Not actually a dig, it just makes sense.)
I don’t know that I like the idea of this all being bought up by a new entity who doesn’t seem to truly understand the history of Gladwyne or Gladwyne village. Or maybe it’s just I truly wonder do they care? Is this a passion project or an enormous exhibition of ego meets narcissism?
Things I really don’t like are the word of mouth and direct conversations with people who have been having land agents or realtors or whomever showing up unannounced and uninvited. Whomever these people or this person is, they are trying to chat people up to sell their property and why? They don’t seem to wish to disclose who they are representing and why? Is this deliberate vagueness? A question I have NOT heard asked is DO THEY HAVE SOLICITATION PERMITS FROM LOWER MERION?
What these smiley doorknockers are doing is door to door soliciting, so has the commissioner now representing Gladwyne actually looked into that matter? Shouldn’t he and shouldn’t Lower Merion? They aren’t exactly peddling Girl Scout cookies, after all.
In my opinion (again allowed to have) the more properties acquired means the project gets bigger. I found the house bought at the end of 2025 close to other acquired properties:
So this house is zoned residential, right? I guess then it has to be moved to like some kind of commercial zoning in order for it to be a viable part of the revamped village concept or whatever the hell they’re calling it?
When it comes to bending over for developers, the current director of building and planning at Lower Merion Township is an expert isn’t he? I mean, we all remember or some of us remember the days of eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore don’t worry?
I don’t trust Lower Merion Township. When Bob Duncan was head of Building and Planning you could always count on him doing the right thing, or at least giving you an honest answer, even if it was hard to hear. In my opinion, those days are long gone at far away. And then you look at the manager’s office – the guy formerly from West Chester Borough. He was at that job for 27 years until 2014. He is super development loving manager, look no further than the path he set for West Chester Borough, yes? So in my opinion, is he going to actually care about preserving the historic village center of Gladwyne, PA?
I don’t know enough about the composition of the current Board of Commissioners in Lower Merion to know if any of them really give a good goddamn about the Historic Village of Gladwyne being preserved and not turned into Peddlers Village do you? What I doknow is Lower Merion is prone to historically bad decisions. Look at the failed attempt at eminent domain for private gain years ago?
And for those who think houses can’t be torn down by subsequent owners? Remember La Ronda.
I grew up in Lower Merion and enjoyed it and loved the quirkiness of old Gladwyne. I laughed when with the presentation for the Yasswyne of it all people were ooohing over picnic tables. Why? Had they never visited the Gladwyne Lunch? Not new.
Again, adaptive reuse and restoration? Not a bad idea. But wobbly plans that seem too good to be true? Shall we contemplate they probably are? I’ve been looking at their plans and again no problem with restoration and adaptive reuse but there’s big question marks over the Walter Durham building that houses the pharmacy, etc. and it’s always been an awkward building.
That’s nothing new. I actually don’t think it’s worth saving as it doesn’t work. BUT what replaces it? This is listed historic district, correct? It can’t be too huge and average retail looking it has to be special. It has to fit with the historic district. Size and scale matters. Design matters and this is a historic village, it’s not a beige beige world with loads of stucco.
When you look at the back of the parking lot, which actually isn’t that expensive now you can’t help but wonder are those townhouses over that wall an eventual target of this “reimagining”?
And no matter what happens who protects the residential residents around this “reimagining” ? Why do I feel like the Civic Association isn’t doing much here? Are they afraid? Are they unsure? Are they ignoring it hoping it’ll all go away? And what about the commissioners, including the new guy in Gladwyne?
A wonderful piece of art on a building not owned by the current buyer uppers of the village
And other than the legal wrangling and wondering about commercial and residential deeds and commercial and residential zoning of it all, what about traffic and practical things? Like current traffic? The car rider lines for the Montessori school are no joke and even I have seen those over the years. And then there’s the car rider lines for the elementary school.
And parking. I think it’s a no secret that the Guard House doesn’t have sufficient parking right? So how do we know there will be sufficient parking for this proposed Shangri-La of a Main Line Peddlers Village?
I mean, come on wouldn’t that be better to start smaller and see how this all works? Restore and work with what they have and not tear down houses? or did they buy that house in December to put a business there? If so, what kind and where will the people park for that?
Should we ponder that this is about the soul, moral values of a community and what people want it to be in the future? Do these village purchasers actually want meaningful input from the community or are they paying the community lip service just to get what they want? Come on now, don’t act surprised that I said that because developers do that all of the time, don’t they?
I have written before that there’s a whole history here. That history should neither be ignored nor denied. One of the problems overall on the Main Line in general as newcomers have moved in is they’re there for the lore not the reality. You have all the funny bullshit of what the Main Line is supposed to represent and a lot of. It’s just realtor marketing, take Malvern, which isn’t actually the Main Line but every time you turn around somebody is saying it is.
The village of Gladwyne I first saw as a kid wasn’t perfect. It was quirky, it was old, it was historic, and it was kind of awesome. It still is kind of awesome and it doesn’t need to be tarted up, just spruced up and restored a little bit better.
But nothing is going to happen if concerned residents don’t get off of their behinds and start going to commissioners meetings. Every resident in that municipality has a right to public privilege of the floor as they call it. There is a section set aside for that for non-agenda items at every commissioners meeting. There is also public comment on agenda items, should any of these things about the village of Gladwyne come up on the agendas.
I have noticed that the Township of Lower Merion offers Zoom. I don’t know that they offer comment on Zoom but residents can ask. People can keep up with the agendas and things that have been filed that are loaded on the website as well.
Years ago, the then director of building and planning also often used to have specific mailing list for specific issues within the township. I don’t know if they still do that. But again, I do know that residents can’t depend on the civic or going to those civic association meetings alone. People have to go to the township meetings, when they can in person, an alternatively on Zoom. The residents need to speak for themselves.
But people should be polite. And I know it can be difficult when you’re dealing with a municipality and you don’t feel like you’re being heard. But taxes pay for those bureaucrats, etc., remember that.
It’s not hard to organize, but the people of Gladwyne have to want this for themselves. Because if they roll over now, no matter what happens they’re going to end up with stuff they’re not happy with because they did not participate.
These are just my opinions and observations. In my opinion on the specialist of Gladwyne, as in the village has lived in me since I was a kid. It does not have to be super expensive and overpriced. It just has to be nice. Gladwyne used to be a bit more inclusive.
At the end of the day, I’m also concerned because I have seen what random development does and I’ve seen it in Gladwyne in other parts of the 19035.
Oh, look there she is! It’s Lisa Borowski there for a photo op! and you can always tell when it’s election season because she gets a fresh haircut and her bangs are out of her face and she looks less like a Muppet.
Former do much of nothing Radnor Township Commissioner now State Representative Lisa Borowski likes long walks, nature, photo ops. But what does she actually do? Most people are still trying to figure that out.
She is still very much on PA HB2151 which will remove the rights of Pennsylvanians and their municipalities when it comes to AI data centers.
She was also on that last bill (HB 502) that failed miserably in 2025. So what was she promised if she was on this HB2151 and was Josh Shapiro‘s little cheerleader Muppet?
So she’s out doing her nominating petition, and is announcing events where they’re going to be signing these petitions throughout Delaware County in her district. Here are the locations and dates:
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to show up at these events as well as call her office and tell her to get off of the data center bill. The number is PA HB2151.
If that bill goes through, it will affect our power grid which affects our PECO bills. It affects our water usage. Data Centers are not environmentally friendly. data centers are also extraordinarily noisy in a very pervasive negative way.
Lisa Borowski needs a field trip to Louden County, Virginia and needs to get her head out of her ass about this issue.
If Lisa Borowski wants to be reelected, she needs to do the right thing here. If not, she deserves to not be reelected.
BE POLITE when you contact her and I know for some that’s a challenge because she seriously has annoying affectations and mannerisms.
Make it an easy thing for Lisa to understand: if she wants to stay in office, she needs to get off of bad bills like this that only helps special interests, not everyday Pennsylvanians.
PS her municipality seems eminent domain happy so you might want to ask the state representative where she stands on eminent domain as well.
‼️MISSING‼️: Rep. Lisa Borowski Lisa Borowski for State Representative. We suspect she is probably on her knees somewhere doing whatever is asked of her by Johnny Frack as this is what she does- whatever she is told. (I hope the pats on the head don’t mess up her hair.)
Lisa Borowski is a co-sponsor of horrible data center loving PA HB 2151, and was for quite a while a co-sponsor of last year’s disaster of a data center bill HB 502, until she slithered away like the snake 🐍 in the grass that she is (or muppet weasel take your pick.)
This is Lisa’s habitual political M.O. —whatever is best for Lisa. She would not and cannot be counted on to defend Delco residents on pipelines, hydrogen hubs, warehouses, or wanton development (even in Radnor Township which also doesn’t like being tagged by this lowly blogher much to my great amusement!) so unless public pressure comes to bear she will sit there on data center bills like Joshie’s good little girl.
It’s time to innundate Radnor’s fave political muppet. Call her, if they don’t pick up the phone, leave a message. DO NOT USE FOUL LANGUAGE NO MATTER WHAT – among other things, her staff doesn’t deserve it. They can’t help it if she is inept and a political striver. (I had to laugh just now because for some reason when I started to write striver, it wanted it to be stripper🤣)
If you live in her district, you also should find people to primary her and run against her who are decent candidates. After all if she can’t stand up for everyday Pennsylvanians in solidarity of getting rid of data center threats, you can’t trust her for anything. People should want someone who works for them not for themselves and special interest groups right?
STATE REP. LISA BOROWSKI 168TH DISTRICT/DELCO CO-SPONSOR OF BAD DATA CENTER BILL PA HB2151 LAST SEEN AT PHOTO OPS IN RADNOR TOWNSHIP Call 484-427-2884 or 717-772-2005 1-833-787-5039
Oh, and Lisa? The First Amendment protects my right to criticize you as now a state politician because you are no better than you were as a local politician.
Ok residents, the weekend surprise is essentially the data center developer building in East Whiteland wants to make it BIGGER.
We have a proverbial foot in the door scenario, and IMHO East Whiteland never should have allowed the foot to get there in the first place and I am allowed to have this opinion under the First Amendment.
To QUOTE the township:
📌The Applicant for the proposed Data Center on Swedesford Road will attend the upcoming Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 to present an Amended Plan for the project. The Amended Plan differs from the Previously Approved Plan as follows:
total building square footage has increased from 1,026,800 s.f. to 1,656,630 s.f. (along with related increases in building coverage and impervious coverage)
cooling equipment has been redesigned and relocated from the ground immediately adjacent to the buildings (water-consuming cooling towers) to the rooftop (waterless rooftop chillers) along with corresponding sound mitigation barriers
emergency back-up generators have been relocated from the basement of the buildings to the ground immediately adjacent to the buildings along with corresponding sound mitigation barriers
office uses and loading facilities have been relocated from the southern side of the buildings to the northern side of the buildings facing Swedesford Road
additional trees and landscaping have been proposed on the former sewer lagoons located between the development site and Swedesford Road
design and location of stormwater management facilities, parking lots, and internal circulation areas have been modified
previously proposed microwave towers, antenna yards, and ground-mounted cooling towers have been removed
East Whiteland Township needs to say NO and they need to enable Zoom capability for ALL meetings where this is concerned given the weather and number of residents and neighbors who will be interested.
Again… the weekend surprise is essentially the data center developer for the East Whiteland Data Center on Swedesford next to West Whiteland park land, wants to make it BIGGER.
East Whiteland Township needs to say NO and they need to enable Zoom capability for ALL meetings where this is concerned given the weather and number of residents and neighbors who will be interested.
When we (myself and others) posted about this data center first happening a few years ago, very few people were interested. It was the chorus of crickets.
Recently, some people seemed like they were interested in this again and people wondered where they were a couple of years ago. This is the same developer that West Whiteland turned down for the hydrogen plant.
Once upon a time, I think this developer was like a stock broker or a money manager, but then he saw the dollar signs here didn’t he? So that’s fine if this is his chosen career path, but he shouldn’t detrimentally affect residents in multiple municipalities should he?
I make no secret of the fact that I always thought this was too big a plan for Swedesford Road. And at the time I couldn’t believe the people in developments across the road didn’t seem bothered by this.
Here are some interesting comments so far:
If you Google the project, here’s what comes up (in part):
Key Project Details
Location: 760 Swedesford Road, Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Capacity: Planned for 290 MW of power, with significant capacity for 2 million square feet of development.
Partnership: A joint venture between Green Fig Land Company and 1547 Critical Systems Realty.
lol Features: Designed for hyperscale users with potential rooftop solar (up to 7 MW) and high-density, interconnected capabilities.
Sorry, not sorry but residents and residents of neighboring municipalities had better wake up this time around.
The bell on the original data center being built, can’t be on wrong, but residents should have a say and be able to say no to making it bigger.
A neighboring site offers an additional 5 million square feet of development potential.
fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty and Green Fig Land Co. have unveiled the latest advancements at their 100-acre hyperscale data center developmentoutside Philadelphia that could eventually comprise up to 2 million square feet of space. Lease options are now available for build-to-suit, powered shell and turnkey data center space.
Located about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia in East Whiteland Township, Pa., the site was acquired by GFLC and 1547 in 2022. The development firm had previously received the local authorities’ approval to construct two data centers of about 1 million square feet each. An adjacent property is available for the development of data center buildings totaling up to 5 million square feet.
Yep. That’s part of the regular view at 249-269 Lancaster Avenue in Malvern, East Whiteland. This week it’s a dumped mattress and some other stuff a couple of weeks ago. It was bags of trash, just sitting in the middle of their property. As in somebody dumped trash, it wasn’t collected there. A lot were white kitchen trash bags.
The property is rotting. It looks like hell. Why should residence and anyone that drives by look at new slumlord city there? And what about the businesses nearby? Don’t they deserve better?
I seem to remember that when the property sold around 2019, we knew that the buildings were going to be torn down and at first we were told a Lidl Market was going there.
Lidl went elsewhere. Then there was this whole thing about putting apartments there. East Whiteland Township did not want that and I don’t remember what happened but the apartments didn’t happen (thank goodness.)
So every once in a while, you hear a little rumor but mostly it just sits in rots and becomes a trash dump.
I took some moody photos in 2020 because I wanted to record the vintageness of both locations.
I don’t know about my readers, but I am of the opinion that these developers and property owners shouldn’t just be allowed to let locations rot because they can’t get their own way. Can you agree on that? I mean, if you want another example, look at one of my favorites, the farmhouse at Clews and Strawbridge with boats in front of it half of the time, right?
Would it be too much to ask if they would tidy up their properties while they are pending whatever is going to happen? And is there other stuff going on with that property that people need to know about?
Would the property owner like to look at this if it was sitting on his front lawn or whatever?
Historical Gladwyne Photo belonging to Lower Merion Historical Society.
Yasswyne? Really?
Gladwyne, is kind of a special to me. Circa 1975 was my introduction, and it was magical. Sledding on crazy hills off of Monk Road and Rose Glen. Free range kid wandering from the historic village through to the haunted feeling sanatorium buildings of the once “Gladwyne Colony”. Halloween and sleepovers and birthday parties with my friend whose dad went to high school together. The Gladwyne Library and its wonderful stacks and things like the plant sale. (And the cookbook fundraiser- I still have a copy!)
And the horses. Gladwyne then was still an equestrian hub. Sledding and carriaging with Mr. Gwinn. Leaning how to ride. Watching pony club. I didn’t belong to that I was not good enough.
The old village. It was just so nice. One of my friends was related literally to founding fathers of the village. Tree lined streets and marvelous old houses from so many eras. Whimsical Victorians. Charming Bungalows. And even 18th and early 19th century houses, mostly frame.
I realized this morning that the Gladwyne I stumbled upon as a kid was actually reminiscent of parts of Chester County I love so much. And to that end, sprucing up the village is not a bad idea, but this mass appropriation of buildings in the center as well as talks of tearing things down including one of the houses near the library I guess that was purchased? My opinion is a HELL NO.
It’s hell no to Peddlers Village-lite complete with all those absurd picnic tables scattered about the village that will not in my opinion be maintained long term. It’s hell no to making it a faux tourist attraction bringing lots of traffic to little streets with barely enough parking for residents.
Look I felt something was up in the fall, when I went digging into who supposedly was doing this, and that was not when any of us knew a big contributor to the destruction of the White House and the East Wing and the McMansioning of the people’s house.
I remember when I first started nosing around about this Gladwyne thing people on the Main Line were really odd with their reactions and I even had my comments taken down in places. And literally what I was sharing was who bought the place and was on the deed records with Montgomery County. That was before anyone even knew Yass was involved. But now I wonder what Gladwyne’s new commissioner knew and when?
And I remember when I figured out who these Bryn Mawr people were without knowing that anyone else was involved, I had reservations. Mostly because they just seemed like they were about themselves.
So they live over on Rock Creek Road and I knew a lot of people growing up and into adulthood that lived on that winding road and it had cool houses and beautiful trees and gardens, still does. So they restored their house and reinvented it and that’s their right but I remember looking at it thinking it’s really brown and it’s not quite here but I could appreciate some of the design elements.
But the Historic Village of Gladwyne, and it is a historic district, turned into some odd thing that it’s not? That’s not worth the renovation of the older buildings in my humble opinion thank goodness I don’t live there. 
But I had no idea the scope of this project until I saw the website and some of what the people who want to do this were posting:
To follow are four screenshots from their public website below. Go onto their website and read every word.
It’s Gladwyne Village as in the Village of because literally that’s what it is. Then I noticed that they magically weren’t doing a zoom of the meeting and when you don’t want to record a meeting that always set up red flags in my head. If you’ve got nothing to hide on a project, you put it out there for the world to see, including the meetings don’t you?
And now, it seems, historic Gladwyne has Jeff Yass.
The richest man in Pennsylvania, and his wife, Janine, have partnered with a younger husband-and-wife development/design team to both turn back the clock on Gladwyne village AND propel it into the next century.
The partnership spent millions over the last several months to buy or lease key properties in the heart of historic Gladwyne: the former Gladwyne Market, Gladwyne Village Shoppes (which house the beloved pharmacy and Homeroom luncheonette), Gladwyne Post Office, the former longtime OMG Salon building and, as of Dec. 31, a private home in the Village….The designated face of the partnership, Andre Golsorkhi revealed the quartet’s vision….At the outset, Golsorkhi (below) emphasized that his investor/development group is 100-percent local and, believe it or not, was NOT doing this to make money….The first resident who spoke felt blindsided….Another speaker feared the conformity of a Gladwyne Square. “It’s going to end up looking like Nantucket, she said. “This presentation makes me even more nervous about what you guys are doing …You’re saying Gladwyne needs branding… it’s gonna be a certain architecture that you think is important when you’re destroying a quirky Walter Durham house… I like communities that are organic and grow up in different ways. We have other buildings in Gladwyne that are just as important for the community that are not owned by Mr. Yass. I just wonder what the end game is. There’s always a price for this.”….Architect Ed Lewis (below), a 60-year Gladwyne resident told Golsorkhi that he “started the historic district in my living room with a meeting of neighbors concerned about overdevelopment.”
My photo
Read the entire Savvy article. It is very long and gives a lot of detail and thank you Caroline for what you do.
OK, I’m going to be 62 years old this year so why mince words? I think this plan is bullshit. This is about someone’s sanitizing and reinventing a place that first and foremost is a historic district.
I have no problems with people restoring things, but this isn’t about restoring. This is about changing history. And it’s not really the history of the people who bought the buildings.
To these four individuals, this is about making money. It’s not necessarily so all realistic, and I am allowed to have that opinion.
Again, I have no problem with someone fixing up old buildings and creating an adaptive reuses. But when you start to want to add parking lots and a random nouveau village green with lots of picnic tables that never existed within the history or framework of this village, it stops being about preservation and switches to just being about profit, doesn’t it?
Now I will agree the Walter Durham buildings that comprise the pharmacy, etc. are awkward. I’m really familiar with them. My mother was a realtor with a real estate office that was in the lower level years ago and for all the years that I banked at PNC, my branch was Gladwyne because they were the nicest people. And Gladwyne Pharmacy was our first pharmacy out here when we moved here and I still used to use them here and there until I moved to Chester county because I wanted to support them because they were independent like Parvins in Bryn Mawr.
I also have to admit when the Union League club took over the Guard House, I wondered what the future held for Gladwyne because that was a big change. But I didn’t anticipate this. And I have to say that The Union League respects the village. They have done a fine job with the place, although I do miss the ability to just go in there on a Friday or Saturday because I don’t belong to the Union League. I have been there for dinner several times since it reopened as part of the club and I love it and why do I love it because it’s still retains what we knew as its history. Even down to some of the dishes that were signature to Albert Breuers.
Found this on Wikipedia and I can’t find my photos and I have tons of The Guard House somewhere 
I know change will happen, but the change doesn’t have to be this drastic and it shouldn’t be. These people have the money to restore what they bought in the village of Gladwyne without making it look like Disney or a more expensive Peddler’s Village with insufficient parking.
I did dig out some of my photos of Gladwyne and why is still so special to me. And a lot of that includes things like the Memorial Day Parade. or walking down the little streets in the village and hearing the ghosts of my childhood passed and it’s a simple as knowing who lived where and things we explored St. John Vianney was our parish. Our first vet was Gladwyne vet. And the library. That library is still my favorite library anywhere. I won a Martha Stewart cookbook years ago as an adult in a raffle, I used to bury myself in corners as a kid and read, and I loved the plant sale. And I have a copy of their cookbook they used as a fundraiser. They could’ve had more than one cookbook over time, but I have the original one. and at one point in time, one of their librarians was actually a princess.
Yes a princess. She died in 2005 and her name was Maria de Pasquale. She was a friend of my parents along with her husband, Joe, who was one of the famous DePasquale brothers of the Philadelphia Orchestra and my friend’s aunt. She was a descendent of Napoleon‘s first wife, Josephine and Czar Nicholas I. She was born Maria Madgelena, Duchess von Leuchtenberg in Nice, France, daughter of Duke Serge Nicolaievitch and Duchess Anna. She renounced her title somewhere around 1949 to marry Joe.
So yes, my childhood librarian was once a princess. And she was tough. You didn’t have your books over to you returned them on time. but she always had books to recommend, even to kids. She also spoke five languages. and I remember being in the library one time when her inner princess came out because she was annoyed with someone on the phone.
I found her fascinating. So these are the little things that make up the history of Gladwyne that creating some artificial version of a Nouveau Gladwyne will never capture.
Of course, I bet they don’t know about things like in the early 2000s when the pharmacist went to jail.
Or all the contretemps over the years with a now deceased member of a founding family of Gladwyne who at one time owned a lot of the things in the village. He’s long deceased now and could be so cranky.
Or the whole controversy over the Gladwyne lunch years ago or Barker Mill or Oddfellows.
Now, of course, the 19035 has become known in recent years as being the home of shall we say Main Line grifters, correct ? And the McMansion ridiculousness?
And we can’t forget about all of the controversy surrounding what will be the redevelopment I guess eventually of the Dorrance estate on Monk Road. Course I was also on that property as a kid and it’s nothing sort of spectacular even if the old apple orchard no longer exists.
And I remember when the estate on Waverley Road was sold to become Waverly Heights. And there were other surrounding properties that got fed into it and when I was a kid, there were lots of horses with swishy tails hoping for a pat at the fence or maybe an apple. The Junkin Estate.
The Gladwyne I grew up with was always a mixed bag originally it had been like mills and farmers and people with grand estates who owned lots of horses. It was very much like parts of Chester County, including Willistown.
Or my one friend‘s house across the street from St. John Vianney which was sold and bulldozed and it had the nicest pool. It was the best house. In its place? A McMansion so big I don’t even say you can. I don’t even know how you can say they have green space or a garden. Of course Lower Merion planning really didn’t say much about that. Did they? and that will be a definite hurdle here because that planning department is so pro-development, along with the fact that the new commissioners, including the one for Gladwyne have not been there long enough to understand the place. And that even includes River Road.
Again, I know, change happens, but here it shouldn’t be so drastic. It should truly be keeping the history in mind and the current plans in my opinion do not.
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.
I have been in love with North Wayne, PA for years. It’s an amazing and historic area, and ironically was a quasi planned development in the late19th century. The North Wayne Historic District is actually a national historic district. Most houses were built between1881 and 1925, and include notable examples of Shingle Style, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival architecture. Among the famous area architects who contributed to this were the Quaker Price brothers (William and Frank, who also did a lot of Rose Tree in Media.)
Allow me to share something I wrote many years ago in 2011:
Allow me to quote myself but click on the above link for photos I took years ago as well:
I first became a fan of North Wayne when I was a kid. The fanciful Victorian architecture in particular had me at hello, just like Cape May, NJ.
North Wayne has grand Victorian homes with sweeping porches and smaller homes of a more fanciful bungalow style. Many of these homes have been lovingly restored. You see Queen Anne, Second Empire, Tudor, shingle style, stick style, craftsman, and colonial revival homes dot the streets neatly laid out on a grid pattern.
Like many other towns on the Main Line, Wayne popped as the Pennsylvania Railroad developed and connected Philadelphia to points west–Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. The Main Line itself received its now famous name as a result of this train line.
Wayne as we see it today can be ironically described as an early planned development. Streets were orderly and on a grid. Houses were large, but convenient to downtown Philadelphia. They embraced the Victorian sensibilities and importance of hearth and home, yet were so modern. Steam heat, the train, public water and sewer, electricity, indoor plumbing, paved roads. There were even swimming pools–like the famous Wayne Natatorium.
The Wayne Natatorium, which was recognized in the fall of 2010 with a historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, was located in North Wayne on what we know today as Willow Avenue. Among the largest open-air, in-ground swimming pools in the United States, and some still argue the world, this Victorian folly existed between 1895 and 1903. It was 500 feet by 100 feet and played host to national swim meets during its existence. And in the winter, when this fresh water pool froze over? There was ice-skating and winter carnivals held under colorful lights.
The area in which the Wayne Natatorium sits is in North Wayne, but outside the boundaries of the historic district. The historic district in North Wayne only extends so far, and doesn’t encompass a lot of the more modest streets with working class roots that abut the Wayne train station, and I think that is a mistake. For example, if it hadn’t been for vigilant neighbors who live on some of the streets NOT in the historic district, 236 North Aberdeen Ave. might have been lost a couple of years ago to ill-fitting new development.
What was so special about 236 North Aberdeen Ave.? It was the home of builder Jonathan Lengel. Lengel was a builder who brought a lot of the whimsical architectural visions of such greats as David Knickerbocker Boyd. Lengel was responsible for the construction on some very interesting Radnor landmarks.
North Wayne not only boasts the homes out of the imagination of David Knickerbocker Boyd but also among others, the Price brothers–William and Frank Price, Philadelphia Quakers who were originally protégées of Frank Furness before venturing out on their own starting in 1881…..Radnor residents, take the time to become more active with your local Radnor Historical Society and get to know your local streets. They are delightful and charming, offering a real sense of community. Get out of your cars and walk these streets if you haven’t in a while. You’ll be glad you did.
Yes, I mentioned the Wayne Natatorium. I raised the money, found the non-profit sponsor and got the PA Historical Marker approved years ago in 2010. And guess what? Didn’t live there. I just loved the quirky history. See next link to learn about the Wayne Natatorium.
Both organizations continue to do their thing, although I wish they would be less insular and more active.
One house that got torn down just outside the historic district of North Wayne a few years ago was the one built by Jonathan Lengel for his own family on N. Aberdeen. I had helped stop the demolition a bunch of years ago, but Radnor Township didn’t give a damn a few years ago and down it came. I wrote about it:
Here are some photos I took of North Wayne from around 2007:
Oh and what else did I do back in the day for North Wayne? Well I got stormwater improvements out of Septa and some safety issues addressed with a giant drainage pipe that frequently flooded out parts of Pennsylvania Avenue.
How did I do that? The lead engineer for Septa at the time was a super nice man named Jeff Knueppel. (Yes, the one guy in recent past who was eventually the general manager of Septa before the wheels fell off and people like former politician or perennial politician Leslie Richards came to be there.) Jeff Knueppel was a great General Manager and accessible to the public. But I digress.
Anyway, I had written an editorial for Main Line Media News when Tom Murray was the editor, and Jeff Knueppel read it and contacted me. At the time, Wayne train station and their parking lot was getting a makeover. Jeff Knueppel said the budget had room for added stormwater infrastructure underneath the parking lot, and they did some stuff with the embankment facing Pennsylvania Avenue and put a grate over the giant pipe to keep dogs, cats, and kids out of it (which had been a problem.) Next photo is what this looked like before Septa added the grate cover thing and did improvements.
So this was something I did with my writing and activism because it was the right thing to do.
I used to belong to the Radnor Historical Society because I loved North Wayne so much. (I am thinking of rejoining, actually.)
Anyway…. before Christmas I was over there and I took photos of some of the houses on Poplar Avenue because it is one of my favorite streets back in North Wayne. In an other life, I almost lived in North Wayne, a couple of streets removed from there.
Now I hadn’t posted most of these photos yet because I had not gone through them and was editing a lot of December photos and still am from volunteer non-profit photo taking amounting to a few hundred photos. When I started going through the photos from Wayne, I shared one particular house on my blog’s Facebook page:
The ONLY thing I said of the above house is “this house in North Wayne could be fabulous….”
Nothing else. It’s one of my favorites and is one that I have watched for YEARS. For years it has gone through phases where it was tidier and repairs were happening but over the past couple of years in particular it has devolved into this. Here are photos going back to 2007 where you could see the house, 2012 when there was gardening going on, and 2017 when it started to slide into the condition you see today in 2025. These photos incidentally are from Google:
This house was fabulous and could be again if the decay is stopped. It was built around 1905-1906 by Jonathan Lengel whom I mentioned earlier in this post. Here is a screen shot from Radnor Historical Society of Poplar:
So yeah…I posted about this house because it is one of the quirky houses of Wayne I think are so cool. But of course the moral judgement squad of a lack of reading comprehension on Facebook jumped on my back:
So yeah, I love the judgmental who can’t read. Literally ALL I said was the house could be fabulous. The Judgey Judgersons came from West Goshen, Downingtown, Malvern, and I don’t know where else…but none from near this house in North Wayne. As a matter of fact a woman who grew up across from there left a comment saying the house was once fabulous.
All of these people completely missed what the post was about and decided I was targeting whomever lives there. I mean HUH? I was talking about the house, no clue who lives there or what is going on. All I said is the house could be fabulous.
But if we are going to talk about the deterioration, it is happening. Like I said, I have been watching this house from the early 2000s. For a while it looked like repairs were happening, and gardening was happening so it was a shock when I went down this block this holiday season and saw it. This is a neighborhood of old house proud and other houses disappeared for McMansions literally have appeared across the street and down.
I was not doing anything other that taking photos on a public street. I wasn’t peering in windows although with this down on her luck North Wayne house the windows aren’t clear on the second floor. I saw it when I was taking photos and chose not to take that photo. But if the inside indeed resembles the outside then whomever knows the owner maybe should help them?
I am sick of people who lack basic reading comprehension and interpolate whatever is on their mind, not mine, as my actual thoughts or reason for writing about something. This happens with almost everything and it’s old. I am not going to stop writing and people did this when I started writing about Loch Aerie before she was restored, and even more recently the Joseph Price House in Exton.
Get. Over. Yourselves.
No one has to read what I write, and no one has to comment on my blog’s Facebook page or here. And if you don’t even know what it is you are bitching about, it’s even more pathetic.
I am talking old houses here, in an area I find immensely special in spite of the crazy municipality it is in. And Jonathan Lengel? The guy who built the house I spoke of having the ability to be fabulous? In the area he was also responsible for The Saturday Club, Waldheim mansion – (VFMA’s Sullivan Hall, torn down in 2001), Walmarthon estate (Now still there minus historic log cabin), and Waynewood Hotel – (Still standing AKA Wayne Hotel.)
Check out the history in North Wayne and better yet check out the Radnor Historical Society at Finley House. The Finley House is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. 113 West Beechtree Lane, Wayne PA. They also have amazing photo archives. (https://radnorhistory.org/archive/photos/)
I take photos. A majority involves old and often historic houses.
Ciao haters. Go look at some cool old houses and enrich your sense of why they are important.
Developer Eli Kahn at 12/1/25 Tredyffrin Supervisors Meeting
So this is an interesting one at the end of the supervisors’ meeting last evening, Tredyffrin Township’s bumbling and inefficient zoning officer (I am entitled to my opinion and I’m being understated because I don’t understand why she has a job, but I digress) pops up rather nervously to announce to the supervisors that are developer was there with essentially a problem.
What was the problem? Something to do with the sewer and how his workforce housing project was essentially being potentially charged too much if it goes forward the way it is for sewer capacity they’re not going to use, right?
Here is the recording of that portion of the meeting:
I don’t understand how it was just sort of popped on the agenda like this do you? I’m not saying he shouldn’t be heard because he should be heard, and this is a developer whose projects I am not generally speaking fond of, but when you listen to this meeting snippet, do you really think he’s wrong? I actually don’t. (Shocker, right?)
This project was introduced at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025:
So this is a trend we’ve seen being proposed in other municipalities and not just by this developer. It’s all about redeveloping these old commercial properties and these office buildings that have become obsolete whales and making them into living units, and in some cases, schools?
So I have to ask are we potentially replacing one problem with another problem? To be clear l, I’m not saying I’m against workforce housing if it actually happens. But I also look at these plans for this housing and so many of the units are these little itty-bitty things so what about workforce housing for families?
But I’m not going off on that tangent today that’s just something I think about. We definitely need affordable housing for all stages of life, but do we really need more apartments? I keep asking that question.
So the reason Eli Kahn went to Tredyffrin has to do with sewer. And sewer capacity and what he is paying for. It’s an interesting conversation. Listen to the video. So he’s telling the supervisors that they have problems in their sewer fee structures I guess? Basically he’s saying it’s not a one-size-fits-all?
I find it interesting, just like I find it. Interesting how it all kind of got plopped at the end of this meeting.
What is it with sewer fees and sewer capacity and municipalities out here so you have the thing that West Goshen Sunshine uncovered that’s on her Facebook page about fees paying health insurance bills of supervisors?
And then, of course, we have West Whiteland Township, trying to do the right thing for residents being sued by the Exton Mall developer and why? If there isn’t really sewer capacity, how should they be able to build as much? I don’t understand. it’s not like that’s the only problem on that site is there? Not enough parking correct? Too many houses for the area because of the density already existing correct?
