Once known as The Delaware Market House, The Gladwyne Market House is in a building has been a market at the corner of Youngs Ford and Righters Mill roads in Gladwyne since the early 1900s. It could be longer. I’m just not sure.
Delaware Market originally was a beloved small gourmet grocery with prepared food as well in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, that closed in September 2009. It was like the Instacart of its day because you could get groceries delivered. Now mind you, that was a paid privilege and the market waspricey, but the quality was amazing of pretty much everything.
I do not know or remember when they started doing more prepared foods because when we ever use the market, we didn’t use it for prepared foods per se.
I actually went to the Delaware Market House the day it closed and that was around 2009.
My photo
I still have my Delaware Market House bag from that last day they were open and the last chance to shop. It was a really nice store run by really nice people. At the time those owners were successor owners to the original owners who had sold it to them. It was reported back then that economic downturns made it too expensive for them to stay open.
My photo. Last day of Delaware Market House 2009
I never went back there after it closed as Delaware Market House, but it was resurrected thanks to a caring local resident. It then became the Gladwyne Market House or Gladwyne Market. So when it was resurrected at that point it became a slightly more modern iteration of what it had been. And there was catering and more prepared food, and it was still beloved by the community.
Well, we all recently learned if you ever follow things in Gladwyne that the market had its last day the other day forever.
Once again the property has been sold and the business closed.
From Facebook
According to a social media post I saw the new owners do not have a desire of just getting rid of the market building or the shops across the street which also sold from owners different than the market to these new people “RMR Property Holdings LLC.”
It seems that their goal is restoration, revitalization, and reimagining what could be. Again, saw it on a social media post.
But it sounds like it’s not an end per se in Gladwyne, but a new beginning. I am going sign off feeling hopeful.
It has taken 14 years as a survivor for me to realize the problem is not the fact that it’s October and it’s about breast cancer awareness, it’s still about all the pink crap that manufacturers shove at us saying it’ll do good. Yeah maybe for their profit margins, but not much else.
Year after year, I check into the minuscule proportions of profit that manufacturers who try to sell you pink crap during Pinktober actually donate.
Year after year, I can’t believe people haven’t seen through the various marketing schemes.
Breast cancer is neither pink or fluffy. I’m sure the pink color as identifier is because more often than not, it’s women who get breast cancer, however men also get breast cancer.
If you want to support breast cancer awareness, it’s not being done with a cheap pink bracelet. It’s being done with the brave women, many of whom you never know existed, who are just trying to live their best lives during an after breast cancer. It’s being done by the dedicated medical community and smaller nonprofits that want to educate and help people.
If you wish to support a nonprofit look for the local ones or the smaller ones in your community that actually help. One I think often of in particular, which is wonderful in the Philadelphia area is Unite for Her. I was introduced to them years ago by a woman who believes in what they do. They offer programming they get women together in fellowship. They offer practical information they offer support. I’m not necessarily talking about financial support. I’m talking about that friendly ear or programs that help.
This nonprofit was founded right in Chester County, Pennsylvania. they have wonderful programs and zoom calls that you can participate in and more.
And of course, another nonprofit also local to the greater Philadelphia region that I will always hold dear is breastcancer.org – this was founded by my radiation oncologist, Dr. Marisa Weiss.
The need for positive education on the topic of breast cancer or cancer at all never wanes. I realized that the other day when I was speaking with someone who has a newly diagnosed family member. It wasn’t that they were uneducated on the topic, it was about how people were behaving around them.
It’s funny it really annoyed the crap out of me to hear this, just like when I was newly diagnosed and there were people that had me 1 foot in the grave 14 years ago or we’re trying to sell me iodine cures, or other quack based treatment for breast cancer.
You get a breast cancer diagnosis and people are already planning your funeral and you really want look at them and try not to scream “get the F out of here !” (And in my opinion it’s quite all right to do that. It’s not their feelings that matter during this time it’s the feelings of the breast cancer patient.)
It’s that ignorance out there that makes me say every breast cancer awareness month hey it’s not pink. It’s not fluffy. It’s not about pink plastic crap, or some stupid bracelet that has the majority of profits going into the coffers of the manufacturer.
I think it is just as important for people without breast cancer to be educated on what it’s like to have it. I think it’s important for people to be educated on what actually helps.
And I think it’s important for the public in general to be educated about the pink plastic crap and dumb stuff that manufacturers put out during the month of October to say they support breast cancer awareness.
Today, 14 years later, because I’m a blogger that a lot of people don’t like even though they don’t actually know me I just have opinions different from theirs, I will sometimes get comments sent in that say things like “It’s a shame you didn’t die from breast cancer all those years ago.” To them I say, I hope you never actually get the disease or know someone you love who is affected by it.
Ignorance knows no bounds in this country and you know you almost sadly expect that from people today. It’s really terrible that that’s become the norm, but it doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable.
We live in a country that is such a hot mess right now, especially when it comes to healthcare and issues of women’s health in particular. Please don’t celebrate Pinktober with a piece of pink plastic crap. Get yourself educated on the topic and if you have a couple extra coins in your pocket, give to a nonprofit that you know will actually help breast cancer, patients and survivors. We donate to research that will keep cancer treatment going.
And if you have never experienced having breast cancer, don’t say to a breast cancer survivor or patient that you know how they feel. Trust me when I tell you that you do not. First of all, we feel so many things at any given time, and getting one of these diagnoses is a very personal thing so you can’t really get how that person feels because you’re not them.
I sign off stating once again I am one of the lucky ones. Please get yourself, educated on the topic, get mammograms, and genetic testing if you have cancer in your family.
I will open this post with saying if a randomly promoted post on Instagram had not found its way into my Instagram feed, I wouldn’t have gone down this wild rabbit hole.
I generally speaking, try to avoid ICE stories because as a person descended from those who immigrated here a few generations back, I find it like a parallel universe because we are a nation founded by immigrants at a time that if you counted the Native Americans as the original inhabitants, well who actually was legal vs. illegal back then? And then of course there are the history lessons of World War II?
But I suppose I digress…
This is truly seeming like fifty shades more of Honey Brook Township crazy is it not if all true?
Why is the Pennsylvania State Constable of Chester County applying for an ICE 287(g) Agreement for Honey BrookTownshipPrecinct 1?
So also very interesting? The Republican committee people for this precinct had zero clue this was happening! If they didn’t sign up for it then why is it in Precinct 1 ? Why not all of Honey Brook Township? Why this sole precinct? Is it because it is Valerie Shultz’s home precinct where she was a committee person?
This sure seems like more Cornfield Tammy Hall doesn’t it? Thug politics at work? I mean Chester County is a big county, so if this guy is the one constable for our entire county, why apply for it out there?
And what does Honey Brook Township get out of of it? Federal funds? If so, how would said funds get applied and for what purpose?
And is it really just a wild conspiracy theory to wonder about connections?
Seriously, this is just kind of insane isn’t it? I mean, is this all happening because they current power brokers are so incredibly threatened by the idea of a woman who is a Republican that Democrats thought enough of to put on the Democrat ballot for the fall as a registered Republican so upsetting their comfortable status quo that this is happening in that particular precinct?
Maybe HONEY BROOK TOWNSHIP has some explaining to do? See screenshots, links and a spread sheet from ICE governmental website.
And more importantly, I simply don’t understand how a municipality without a police force can help ICE arrest immigrants, anyway? And everything says Honey Brook Township Precinct 1, it doesn’t say Honey Brook Borough.
Also are there that many illegal immigrants in Honey Brook? So (again) does this mean if he gets approved for this that Honey Brook Township itself gets Federal funds to round up illegal aliens? What are they going to use the money for?
Don’t residents deserve answers? In Honey Brook and throughout the county?
Also, I looked on the already approved list and don’t see any other Chester County municipalities? So for like the umpteenth time, why choose Honey Brook Township? Wouldn’t you see logically that if this were to happen and be applied for it would be other municipalities in Chester County?
Now I have also been told that this guy is the Constable for Honey Brook Borough which only has one voting precinct (295), right? So why mention it other than to bait the Valerie Shultz campaign and to attempt to sow division and chaos in Honey Brook Township? And if he is the Constable for Honey Brook Borough is he stepping on the toes of a local police force?
Is this application in fact for Honey Brook Borough and not Honey Brook Township?
Constables are elected. Pay for all of their own equipment and must be self-insured so seriously will this guy’s insurer cover this? Sounds like an underwriting nightmare doesn’t it?
I don’t understand any of this. So many questions.
Oh Liz Sabo what a true gem you are! She’s having a “day of service” so my contribution is pointing out a lovely post she wasn’t quick enough to delete.
This ugly woman wants to run for Great Valley School board yet by this post she is doxxing someone’s underage child?
A woman who targets another woman’s child is not anyone you want elected to anything.
FYI her husband George Sabo is running for supervisor in East Whiteland so sadly I think these folks need to stay in their own basement where they are more comfortable.
I don’t think that the East Whiteland GOP or the Chester County GOP will do anything about this, but if you live in Great Valley and this woman shows up on your ballot in November, you all out there DO have a choice to do something. You have a choice to say no to a woman who targets another woman’s child for harassment at a minimum.
And then she doubles down on the post she removed by lying in a comment? Doxxing a minor child of her opponent and compounding it with lies? You see I happen to know Liz Stabbo’s opponent, and I have for years so I asked her if anything was on her LinkedIn like this because I looked and couldn’t find anything and she said no .
Great Valley’s incredibly double talking and hiding school superintendent Dan Goffredo should say something about this, but considering how he never really protected his staff from the middle school TikTok of it all, I am not holding my breath.
If people wonder why some people‘s children aren’t very nice, this is where you look no further.
However, I truly feel very sorry for Liz Sabo’s daughters. Even if they support their mom, at what cost are they supporting a completely phobic adult spreading hate and vitriol within our community? And can it be said that perhaps her phobias are based on issues with her own sexuality and sexual identity?
Stay in your basement, Liz, where you belong. Targeting an underage kid as a school board campaign tactic is unacceptable. No matter how we feel as adults about politics on any level, you leave people’s children alone, especially the underage variety.
Screenshot of Ellen Greenberg’s mother holding her photo in the Hulu documentary series.
I will admit I didn’t really follow this case at all until recently. The case started during a time when I was starting my breast cancer journey and learning what life after breast cancer was like. So I remember the initial news reports, but given my life back then and what I didn’t track this and plenty of other news stories I am sure.
Let’s go back to the beginning:
Her name was Ellen Rae Greenberg (June 23, 1983 – January 26, 2011) and she died after sustaining 20 stab wounds in her Manayunk apartment in Venice Lofts.
Her fiancé at the time was a guy named Sam Goldberg. Apparently he called police after he broke the front door down and subsequently found her with a knife sticking out of her chest, but didn’t recognize a knife being in her chest at first, according to the new Hulu documentary which I just found freaking strange. These apartments aren’t that big and if you’re standing there at the entrance of an apartment kitchen and you’re looking at your fiancée literally slumped on the floor or whatever you’re not going to notice a knife sticking out of her chest at first?
And they called it a suicide? How does one stab one’s self multiple times in the back and end up back down with a knife in the chest? And then there was this thing in the documentary where they said that some uncle of the fiancé Sam coming in and getting Ellen‘s electronic devices? So like her computer or tablet and phone? What was the condition of the items when police got them? How could they properly be examined after they took a detour and what is that term? Chain of custody? How was that observed exactly?
Ellen and her parents were from the Harrisburg area. It seems that her parents now live in Florida. Her former fiancé whose full name seems to be Samuel Hankin Goldberg apparently hails from the Main Line. His parents seem to still live in the area. Ellen’s parents are Joshua and Sandra Greenberg.
I have been reading and digging into this since I watched the Hulu series. Suffice it to say when you think you have heard the last worst story about anything having to do with Philadelphia, never say never and watch the documentary series.
R. Seth Greenberg was District Attorney in Philadelphia at the time of Ellen’s death. Charles H. Ramsey was Police Chief.
It’s just insane. Why is Philadelphia stonewalling the Greenberg family?
This is a crazy rabbit hole to go down. And I never really went down it before. There are so many articles, but what I still don’t understand is how the ex-fiancé and his family for that matter just seemed to move on like Ellen Greenberg never existed? He reportedly is married and has a family, and his parents seem to still live in the greater Philadelphia area?
It sounds like Ellen Greenberg wanted to have a family too doesn’t it? Only she never did, did she? Her parents never saw her get married, did they? Her parents never held any of her grandchildren because they were never born because their daughter is dead, right?
People started sending Ellen links for me to post when I was posting about Anna Maciejewska. Every time I looked at anything I kept coming back to one thing: how did Philadelphia think this young woman stabbed herself so many times in the back and chest?
So reports at that time talking about Ellen leading up to her death, included people saying she was anxious and seeing a psychiatrist, right? Does that mean she killed herself? No, it doesn’t does it?
Screenshot off of Hulu series, episode 2
And another thing is supposedly she’d been home a while before she died? Why did she have like boots on? I mean I get that they look like UGG boots or something but they weren’t slippers, they were boots. It’s snowing like crazy, but when you are in your house do you wear boots? Maybe but maybe not?
And how is it that the police and everyone started treating this as a suicide immediately because if you watch the documentary and you read the articles it’s like as soon as they appeared on the scene, they decided what it was and how could they? And then lickity split within a few days it seems of her death the apartment/crime scene was scrubbed within an inch of its life? I realize everything is not like an episode of Law and Order or whatever but doesn’t that seem strange?
Now that I’ve gone down this rabbit hole I get why people have been sending me links all these years.
There’s nothing normal about this, including the fact, the way her fiancé‘s family as well as himself just seemed to move on, right? and he’s married with at least one child right if not more? Perhaps their relationship wasn’t headed down the aisle, but we will never know because Ellen can’t tell us.
So they always tell us that if something like this is a murder one of the suspects they always look at are people closest to the victim. In this case it would be like a domestic incident right? So it would be partner, fiancé husband, etc.
Yeah, it seems like before anyone knew what this was this was just categorized as a suicide and how do you kill yourself by stabbing yourself in the back like how do you reach? Was she like really flexible or something? And I still don’t understand how they let her devices be taken out of the apartment like that? Even if it was a suicide, shouldn’t they have been collected on the initial scene that evening and at least looked at by the police?
Other things I find interesting? The media reports Nancy Schwartzman who directed this documentary, went to Shipley. They also said Sam Goldberg the fiancée also went to Shipley. I guess life really is a small world isn’t it? I know neither of these individuals, we just have a school in common, many years apart. “Courage for the Deed, Grace for the Doing” is Shipley’s motto. It has nothing to do with anything or maybe it has something to do with everything? What do you think?
I just don’t understand any of this. Most of all I don’t understand why the City of Philadelphia never seems to really cooperative so what is being hidden and who is connected to whom? Is this about money, as in whomever has all the expensive toys wins, and no one ever really looks into this case again?
There is a Facebook page that has been up for years about this:
In February 2025, the Greenbergs celebrated a major legal victory when the city settled both suits and the Medical Examiner’s Office agreed to reopen its investigation into Greenberg’s cause of death.
This ruling came shortly after Dr. Osbourne signed an affidavit stating that her death should be classified as “something other than suicide,” according to NBC Philadelphia. He reportedly made the decision after reviewing new information in the case and consulting with a pediatric neuropathologist.
The settlement also included an undisclosed amount of money.
“I hope today we made Ellen proud of us, and we were certainly very proud of her as her parents,” Sandee told reporters. “It’s monumental; for 14 years we’ve been dealing with this suicidal label.”
I don’t know if we’re ever going to know the truth. I hope we will, but it just seems every twist and every turn with this case now that I finally have sat down and read enough articles to make my eyes bleed, you go like a step forward and then two steps back. People really don’t seem to want to have this case to be solved in Philadelphia, do they? In my opinion, that is profoundly disturbing and sad.
Ellen’s family deserves answers. Her ex fiancé’s family should want this issue put to bed once and for all shouldn’t they?
Well, I’m going to leave this here with all the miscellaneous I dug up.
Ellen deserves to have her spirit at rest and justice done. Her parents deserve peace and the respect of the City of Philadelphia and various departments to actually do their freaking jobs.
My parents always had interesting people whom they knew. They were raising us during a time where it was all corporate America all the time in the Main Line/Philadelphia area, and I appreciated all those f the different kinds of interesting people they knew as opposed to just the stiff corporate types. And one of those people was Dr. Donald Rosato.
Well known in equine circles, he also was very much of a quiet philanthropist that you could always count on attending a nonprofit fundraiser and so on. He was a familiar face at Devon, Radner Hunt, Ludwig‘s Corner Horse Show and much more. I also always used to see him in more recent years at benefits for Natural Lands, for example. In more recent years, my mother and stepfather would run into he and Judy at benefits for the English Speaking Union. I think the last time I saw him anywhere was a couple of years ago.
Dr. Rosato was a very congenial man. I was to his home a few times over the course of my life, and one time in particular it was after we went carriaging with him when my sister and her husband were newlyweds. He had given my sister a carriaging day as a wedding present.
I will always remember that afternoon, Chester County was a lot less developed then. Halfway through that afternoon, we stopped down a dirt road or path to have a little picnic at this 18th century stone cottage that he owned that had been restored somewhat, but it did not have modern conveniences. It was frozen in time and it was simply beautiful. That was in the 1990s.
And a thing about Dr. Rosato were his wonderful dogs, as well as his amazingly beautiful horses. I also loved his beautiful restored farm house and his collection of carriages. The only other collection I ever remember that would have even rival his was the one from even further back in my childhood owned by Mr. Gwinn in Gladwyne. But Dr. Rosato’s horses were always better.
Dr. Rosato is someone I never saw without a smile on his face, and he had this remarkable ability to remember people, even if he hadn’t seen them in years. He was also very quietly kind to people who needed kindness.
I learned this morning from a friend the Dr. Rosato passed away a few days ago. He was 90 years old. He has survived by his lovely wife, Judy and his children from his first marriage. He’s also survived by all of the people in the equine circles in Chester County that he was very much a part of.
He was a familiar face on many of the back roads in Chester Springs and West Vincent in his carriages. He didn’t just drag them out for Devon or special occasions, he was a regular fixture on local roads.
The last time I was invited to go carriaging was in 2017. It was at that point in time that I realized how much the entire area had changed and how people did not know how to safely go around carriages on the road.
As a matter of fact, one of the things I remember from that day other than the sheer awesomeness of being in one of his carriages driving around Chester Springs, were a couple of extremely rude drivers in cars.
Of course what used to amuse me were all the people that thought they could just call him up and say take me for a carriage ride. You had to be invited, and it was special. And when you went for a ride with him, you also got a little history of the area. He would tell you about the farms, the area, and the houses.
Main Line Today wrote an article about him a few years ago:
People have asked why post about a little election in Honey Brook Township? Simple: what goes on out there is concerning.
No matter what your political persuasion residents in certain communities deserve more honest elections, and shall we say elections free of undue influence/interference? Aren’t we all past the election seasons of vote how we told you to? (And yes I really did hear someone say that years ago when walking an elderly woman into a polling place to vote in Ardmore years ago, and isn’t that nuts but everyone knows it happens right?)
Honey Brook has a political cabal and they have “turf” don’t they? And what is one of the biggest components of said turf? Isn’t it Tel Hai? Sort of Stepford meets Desperate Housewives? And the pecking order is someone there also controls the school board as well as the stupidvisors?
One of the first things of this election along with the constant parroting of saying Valerie Shultz is a Democrat because she is a Republican on the Democrat ballot was malarkey about trying to use a school for a polling place which is common practice. The talking hoodie is still beating that dead horse and does he even know it’s common practice to use schools for polling places AND most schools are closed on Election Day? Does he realize that it’s up to individual districts in PA and that school districts like Coatesville have already announced they are closing on Election Day?
How is voting in a closed school dangerous? The answer is it is not. It just doesn’t fit their contrived narrative.
Also not fitting a controlled contrived narrative? A very odd meet and greet right? Have you ever heard of a meet and greet where you were expected, no demanded to RSVP the same day the invitation edict was issued?
What even Chester County GOP candidates weren’t told is also interesting isn’t it? Isn’t this event happening to prop up the thug politics cabal’s candidate? He needs photo ops to increase his visibility and as cover for where he is shall we say lacking? This is not about county candidates at all is it?
And I wonder if these committee people and their handlers (because they are handled too right?) will recount their recent unsuccessful visit to the county GOP headquarters? Will they talk about why baseless accusations are called baseless accusations? Shall we guess, probably not? This event is a waste of time and gas for the county candidates but some are desperate enough that they will show up everywhere won’t they?
Oh poor talking hoodie doesn’t realize fact check is in fact either two words or a hyphenated fact-check situation? Depending on if it’s used as a noun or a verb? Is that too complicated a concept? Hey just fact-check me right?
And then there’s the handler of the hoodie. Just because he wants to play Tony Soprano running around with his little contribution checks doesn’t mean he owns a pork store does it?
This is all pretty simple out here when you break it down isn’t it power corrupt it’s time for change so every day there’s some new baseless, accusation or misrepresentation of facts isn’t there?
Like trying to say Valerie Shultz didn’t want to do her committee person job anymore and that’s why she resigned and that’s not true. Is it or factually accurate is it?
And can we talk how things get done out here? Is it a true and honest way or is it to keep haranguing people until you wear them down? And do these people understand the difference? Take another tired regurgitation and wow does he have acid reflux yet?
Apparently, someone has lost their drool cup again? And why is it they still don’t know how these open space referendums work and the subsequent taxes do they? Why is it this talking hoodie doesn’t understand the simple concept of these things have a sunset date and then they have to be reconsidered ? It’s not about cutting funding. It’s about doing things the right way. Just another giant fibber mcgee debunked. You are very welcome, Honey Brook.
And then below the next screenshot? I’ve been waiting for this all day. He doesn’t disappoint. Valerie Shultz did a lit drop overnight. It’s not about paying for stamps. It’s about making sure people get the literature. Sure, you can put stamps on them and buy a postal permit, but USPS is so bad these days and it’s Honey Brook Township so who knows if they would actually make it out of the back room of the post office right? And if you’re hand delivering them, you’re not supposed to put them in the mailbox because that breaks USPS rules, doesn’t it?
Mostly the big doofus is just probably annoyed because she beat him to the punch. but that’s what’s happens when you sit in the lawn chair on a random driveway with a drool cup, yes? And he just gave Valerie Shultz tons of free advertising because if he hadn’t said anything about the lit drop, it would’ve just been another day.
And one of the favorite terms, these people like to use is RINO even though most of the time they spell it RHINO right? They are totally derisive of most other Republican candidates end of the county except when they need them for photo for their candidate, right?
These people, if you say anything about the politics, they immediately try to parlay it into you’re speaking badly about the municipality in the area and that’s not it is it? It’s this thug politics cabal, who serve no one but themselves, isn’t it? I mean who else but desperate politicians trying to keep a hold on things would tell impressionable seniors that a candidate they didn’t choose, will raise their taxes in a retirement community that doesn’t pay those taxes?
It’s really not that difficult to see why people, including myself think that Honey Brook Township needs a political makeover.
It’s time to rotate the political crops, residents of Honey Brook Township. And a talking hoodie who beats his chest in frustration and fury and general lack of understanding on social media is not who you really want is it?
I mean, let’s get real, these people like to tell you how wonderful they are and what a good job they do but when you peel back the layers of that onion, what do you really get? Is it a soft rotten smelly center of a soft onion turning to rot? I think it is.
Be brave in November residents of Honey Brook Township. When you start to vote them out of office and different people in, you will notice a change in tone. And can we also hope that maybe those mysterious trucks that like to follow people around will take up delivering meals on wheels to seniors and more?
I actually have to say I think this is a shame and it was one of those places you could always enjoy. And I’m not even a beer drinker at all.
The first Iron Hill I went to was years ago in Media when they first opened there. Then I used to go to Ardmore when they opened there, and West Chester and Phoenixville.
The best out of all of the locations was always Media in my opinion.
When I lived on the Main Line and was working on events like First Friday Main Line, I can tell you that Iron Hill was very generous with nonprofits all the time. When I first moved to Chester County, I went to a couple small nonprofit things at the location in West Chester Borough. And as opposed to a lot of businesses they were always invested and involved in communities where they had locations.
Iron Hill closed Ardmore in 2024. At that time Phoenixville closed as well. And today, all remaining locations went dark. Under heavy circulation, of course, is the email that was leaked by an anonymous employee. Here is a copy and paste of what’s all over the Internet and social media:
“ Reach out to HR with questions.”
Ouch. So I’m guessing there’s no severance for anyone? And what about people who depend on an hourly wage job? Are there companies that have announced they are willing to look at terminated Iron Hill employees?
I don’t know what the inner workings of this are, but I’m a little disappointed. I mean, I don’t know how you completely shutter how many locations at once, but is this like the restaurant equivalent of when Carrie Bradshaw got broken up on a post it note by Berger on Sex in the City?
Anyway, I don’t think this economy is as splendid as people would have you think, or according to propaganda coming out of Washington, DC. and again I sadly think that Iron Hill just expanded too much. I’m sure the expansion game is tempting when you’re rising in the local business scene, but there is something to be said for less is more. Also, how many breweries and micro breweries and brew pubs are there at this point and could over-saturation in the marketplace also have contributed.?
A year ago today, my friend Jamie shared the following post:
ABANDONED PROPERTY ADVENTURE: We explored the abandoned Sleighton Farm School, which was a reformatory school for girls in Glen Mills.
Originally the Philadelphia House of Refuge, founded in 1826–kind of a reform school. Children at the school, which was first coeducational, had lessons and worked the farm. Eventually this became a girls school.
The school has been closed since 2001 and the buildings are in disrepair. Many of these are old dorms, which they called “cottages”—a misnomer, because many of these buildings are large.
The cottages were designed by Cope and Stewardson (1885-1812), a Philadelphia architectural firm that created many major additions to college campuses, including the Quad at Penn and many buildings at Bryn Mawr College. (Oakwell connection: They were buddies with architect Frank Miles Day, architect of Oakwell structures, and collaborated with him when he designed the Penn Museum).
There is a chapel which was built in the 1960s. A few months ago, one of the cottages burned down in an arson.
Eventually, this property will be demolished. Its fate is up in the air. I fervently hope it doesn’t become something like “The Estates at Sleighton Farm School by [XYZ developer].”
So in a sense this is like a sister school to that horrible Glen Mills School. And I feel almost compelled to go down the rabbit hole of this Sleighton Farm School after looking at a couple of other oddly related things…..
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has reached a settlement agreement with the Clock Tower Schools, clearing the way for the entity to operate at the site of the former Glen Mills Schools….DHS has granted the Clock Tower Schools a provisional two-year license to operate its residential and day treatment programs. The state is also mandating the Clock Tower Schools pay for an independent monitor, Justice By Design.
Yes, I did a little segue here to the old Glenn Mills school now known as something like Clock Tower. But back to Sleighton. And another interesting segue.
Sleighton has a weird connection because of architects’ connection to another cool old house I recently discovered because of the people restoring it putting it on Instagram. It’s called (or was called) Binderton and it’s in Chestnut Hill.
Binderton was built between 1903 and 1906 by Cope & Stewardson Architects. Like Sleighton School. Now I know this is a total tangent, but this house in Chestnut Hill is so cool. It also posts gardens that were designed by the Olmsted Brothers, which in turn ties it also to Stoneleigh and Oakwell. Cool, right?
So yes …..Sleighton….in 2021 the place was being discussed in conjunction with a plan for like 193 townhouses. And remember the property is part Edgemont, part Middletown.
Recently an article about a novelist taking inspiration for her book from Glen Mills/Clock Tower and Sleighton seems to lead me to believe they haven’t started anything much at Sleighton yet?
Now this property seems to be originally about 300 acres? The Sleighton Farm property was originally given to Henry Sleighton by William Penn. So it was also a Penn Land Grant? Newspaper archives have tons of articles about Sleighton ranging from problems, fights, fairs, and astounding amounts of money they got from the county and state.
It’s kind of crazy how much money these institutions used to get right? On July 15, 1957, the Delaware County Daily Times reported that Sleighton was getting $765,000 and Glen Mills School got $770,000! Think of what that would equate to in today’s dollars, right?
In 1970 from the same paper in 1970 I found a notice of an auction of “surplus goods.”
They had fairs, plants sales, and more. In 1974 they had the now deceased Judge Lisa Richette as a speaker and advertised for a farmer.
Like a decade or so ago there was a website post about a “school fixer upper.”
A multi alarm fire at Sleighton according to the Delco Times in June, 2024:
An incendiary fire at the long abandoned Sleighton Farm School for Girls in the 400 block of Valley Road in Middletown and Edgmont townships kept county firefighters busy Sunday night into early Monday…Edgmont Township Fire Marshal Al Mancill said the first call came in at 10:14 p.m. from a neighbor on Forrest Lane who saw flames. Firefighters arrived and found a 100-year-old abandoned dorm on fire and called for additional assistance.
It eventually went to two or more alarms, he said….Nobody was injured in the blaze, which took 90 minutes to control….
There have been numerous large fires over the years at the property, which has been closed for over 20 years.
Elwyn, which now owns the property, has a security patrol, with those members and state police patrolling the property and often making arrests, Mancill said.
Ok that is interesting right? And there were other articles from another fire on the Sleighton property in 2102 which said it was possibly due to a lightening strike…as in a storm.
A public notice posted in Monday’s Daily Times has drawn a rebuttal from Middletown Township.
Middletown Township is disputing a public notice Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware and Rocky Run Development LLC published saying that a tentative plan for a proposed planned residential development submitted to the township in September 2021 has been deemed approved…..
Back to June 2024. Pennsylvania State Police Investigators deemed the fire arson after an investigation. At that time anyone who knew anything was asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police Master Trooper John Stewart at 610-558-7085.
The Abandoned Online post has interesting history on the place. So however many acres are left is owned by Elwyn and they say that was a result of Elwyn merging with Sleighton:
The Sleighton Farm School began as the House of Refuge in Philadelphia in 1826. 1 4 It was founded by the Quakers, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Prison Society, on the basis that juvenile offenders should be treated differently than adults…Male offenders were moved to Glen Mills in Delaware County to the newly formed Glen Mills School in 1889, while the female offenders remained at the House of Refuge. 1
The House of Refuge sought land in the rural Delaware County countryside in 1906 in a shift of curriculum. 1 14 The reformatory school found the belief that students would be better served in a setting that emulated a large family, where the therapeutic power of growing things on a working farm would be better than keeping them in the inner-city hardscape……On April 17, 1931, the school split into two, one for boys and one for girls. The boys’ school kept the Glen Mills name while the girls’ school became known as the Sleighton Farm School for Girls. 1 4 12 By 1949, Sleighton had grown to 350 acres, housing 350 to 360 females. 4…..In 1993, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board purchased the easement to 120 acres owned by Sleighton for $1.62 million. 5 The easement purchase program, introduced in 1989, was designed to protect prime farmland from being developed by selling development rights to the state.
Sleighton merged with Elwyn in February 1998.
And there’s a lot more in that post so people should read it. It’s very interesting. But it’s very convoluted and confusing as to what is actually going on there. The only thing I seem to be able to find is that there is security on the site and I guess walking trails aren’t really open to the public?
I found something on social media from this year. That includes photos from I guess some kind of a firefighter who was on site for some kind of training exercise.
So what happens now? Who knows? Time will tell. As of June 4th unless I am reading this wrong the Justia site says “AND NOW, this 4th day of June, 2025,Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware d/b/a Elwyn and Rocky Run Development, LLC’s appeal is quashed.”
So it seems there is an actual park area that is public, and where the buildings are rotting is private? But I am not sure? I am not going there, but it is an urban explorer favorite apparently, and again, who knows what happens now?
