Eight years ago yesterday, my husband and I asked a structural engineer who specializes in historic properties (among other things) to look at the ruin of Ebenezer AME on Bacton Hill Road in Frazer/East Whiteland Township. He reviewed the exterior. It’s not safe to go into the ruin – very unstable.
In 2023 I lamented the state of the ruin and said everything had the engineer told me a few years ago now that I passed along to East Whiteland Township and East Whitehead Historical Commission was sadly happening. The walls have never been shored up, and the development going along around it is taking a toll. Time, weather, and circumstances are not friends to this site.
I also had said then that before COVID hit, there was a lady from the National Trust for Historic Places I had connected with who seemed interested. Her name was Lawana Holland-Moore. I have tried following up since, but nothing, not even a reply. (Sigh.) Who knows? Maybe she will see this post and renew her former interest. There are so many historic places and structures at risk, but I just wish this place would matter for more.
Then last year (September, 2023), East Whiteland erected a local historic marker. It made me hopeful. It was at that ceremony that some members of a local AME Church (Mt. Zion AME in Devon, PA) helping out with saving Ebenezer thanked me for my activism efforts over the years. No one had publicly done so ever at that point. Pastor April Martin and Bertha Jackmon. Coming from them that really meant something special to me.
At the recent October 10th, 2024 East Whiteland Township Board of Supervisors meeting, I was also thanked in absentia by the East Whiteland Historic Commission and the Chair of the Supervisors, Scott Lambert, for my efforts dating back to 2013 or so. These comments occurred in the midst of an update I never thought would happen: funding for stabilizing the ruin of Ebenezer has been found between the township and the AME Church. It sounds like the project will start soon.
I couldn’t zoom or attend the meeting, so it was just today I watched the video of the meeting. I literally started to cry when I heard about stabilization becoming a reality. And I admit to being a little misty eyed over being recognized by my township. I am neither thanked nor recognized positively very often. Usually I am chided and berated and more for daring to blog and have opinions.
Ebenezer is very personal to me. When I first moved to Chester County to be with my husband, I quickly became obsessed with the ruins of Chester County. We drove past Ebenezer often. It was overgrown and tumbling down. I thought it was a farmhouse in decay. Then one day when we were headed towards Elverson to see friends, my husband told me to bring my camera and we would stop for a few minutes.
Stopped we did. I still remember walking through the dead weeds to the rear of what I thought was a farmhouse ruin. Then I saw Joshua. I think I held my breath at first. He was a Civil War soldier. Then I started to look in the weeds around some more, and I realized this was a burial ground. Then it hit me: this must be a church ruin. How could people not care?
That was 2013. And that is when I started looking into what I would eventually learn was Ebenezer AME.
The origins of the AME Church go back to the Free African Society which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. Richard Allen was born a slave in 1760 in Delaware. He was owned and then freed by Benjamin Chew, who was a prominent lawyer and Chief Justice of the Commonwealth from 1774-1777.
Ebenezer was a very early AME church, and Bishop Richard Allen was still alive (he died March 1831) when the Quaker, James Malin, probably decide he would deed the land to the AME Church so Ebenezer could be built (June 1831.) Ebenezer is quite literally perhaps the second oldest AME site in the country, except for Mother Bethel AME in Philadelphia. So you can see given the age of Ebenezer AME in East Whiteland, Chester County, PA that it is truly part of the early days of a church and religion founded in Philadelphia. Bishop Richard Allen died in 1831, just months before Ebenezer came to be after Joseph Malin deeded the land. According to the deed transcript, it was for a church and a burial place. My research indicates the first church was built (or finished) by 1835.
Members of this community have been documented as former slaves. Their ability to construct this church demonstrates the prosperity and commitment of this community.
The trustees of the Ebenezer AME church purchased the land in 1831 from James Malin. The oldest gravestones found in the cemetery date from the early 1830’s. The congregation disbanded for a time between 1848 and 1871 during which time the building fell into disrepair. By June 22, 1873 the church had been rebuilt and rededicated. It continued to be used until 1970…Now it is abandoned.
A stone building, dilapidated and crumbling from the outside in, still stands on Bacton Hill Road….The gravestones which surround the building clearly show that it was a church. Nearly all the headstones have fallen downhill and lie, face up crumbling from the wind and rain.
Records show that this church, formerly named the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, was built in 1832 on what was originally known as the Yellow Springs Road. A celebrated gospel church, it was regularly attended by Negroes who lived and worked on Bacton Hill. Very few of the lives of these people, who were once a great part of the history of East Whiteland, have ever been chronicled.
Early tax records for Chester County show a listing of “free men”. Actually these “free men” were colored slaves who had been given their freedom from bondage when they reached the age of 38. Later on, the age of freedom was lowered to 23 years of age and finally a state law granted that any person born in the state of Pennsylvania was a guaranteed free man.
The farmers of Valley Hills would often give these free men, after their term of bondage was up, a small plot of land for their own upon the hills in Bacton. On these, the former slaves built small log cabins or stone buildings. Many ran small farms while still working during the day timbering the summit of Bacton Hill and carting lumber down to the Great Valley for the lime kilns.
Think about it: these free and freed men who lived and worked around Bacton Hill built a church, and eventually a stone building was built. In 1989 when the paper was written, 80 graves were documented. When the next Eagle Scout documented graves, I believe he only documented 26. Some of the graves disappeared. Sinking into the murky and often swampy land (several springs are underneath apparently, and there are also interestingly old clay pits somewhere way off to the rear of the graveyard on another property), and it would also sadly not surprise me if other headstones had simply been removed. Yes, people steal from the dead and that includes headstones. That’s why East Whiteland PD has kept an eye on the headstones and grave yard in the past.
Anyway, riots and “disturbances” between 1848 and 1870 caused the church to not be used as much and it apparently fell to ruin the first time. But in 1872 the old church was brought back to life and reopened December 8th, 1872. “Important” clergymen were reported as having been present, and in June of 1873 the church was re-dedicated as Ebenezer African American Methodist Church.
At this point the church remained in use until 1910. Then the church may not have been used again until the 1940s. In the 1940s it was reported to have been some sort of a big thing at the church to celebrate it’s history. It was said people from all over Chester County gathered with “prominent” members of the A.M.E. Church. It is believed that is when the church was electrified. After the church stopped being used, and the woods and swampy marsh grass grew up around it, and a mobile home ended up next to it.
Some of the family names on the gravestones are the same as families still living in Malvern Boroughand in Chester County!
For the past many years at this point, I have been writing about this. I see the importance of this site intertwined with its 184 years of individual history combined with the 200+-year-old history of the AME Church founded by freed slave Richard Allen. (The AME Church as all know celebrated its 200th anniversary this year in Philadelphia.)
The parcel’s 1832 deed of trust transfers ownership of the land from James Malin, a prominent Quaker farmer involved in the Underground Railroad, to three African Americans – “Samuel Davis, Ishmael Ells, and Charles Kimbul” – for the purpose of constructing a church with a burial ground in East Whiteland.
Ebenezer’s floor was a raised platform on stone piers, according to research by archival consultant Jonathan L. Hoppe, for the Chester County Historical Society. Its single room had a door facing the road; opposite was the raised pulpit. The interior walls were covered in wainscoting.
I first photographed Ebenezer in 2013. Then a few more times after that times including in June 2016 when the Inquirer article was in process. Then a second time, October 1, 2016. i placed the Philadelphia Inquirer articles. They are among my favorite articles and Kristin Holmes did an amazing job.
Inquirer reporter Kristin Holmes with former Chair of the East Whiteland Historic Commission and neighbor, Tim Caban. Tim was instrumental in the early days of my ruin obsession. And he has always remained a sounding board and wealth of knowledge.
And we have to speak about Hiram. Hiram Woodyard was a Township resident and former slave who served in the Union Army as a teamster. He was a leader in the African American community and is buried at the Ebenezer AME Church. His home still stands on Congestoga Road. Other homes he built still stand. He was an inhabitant of Bacton Hill.
And we have to talk about friends I made along the way who died before they could see Ebenezer get this far. The late poet A.V. (Ann) Christie and Al Terrell.
Ann I met shortly after I started my vision quest on Ebenezer. She had been battling breast cancer but showed up at my door one day with a boy scout report and the Conestoga Turnpike book written by my friend author, artist, and historian Catherine Quillman who is a true Chester County treasure who shares her knowledge so freely and with an open heart. It is because of Catherine I was able to prove my suspicion that although the property had been abandoned, it really wasn’t and the AME Church and more specifically probably Mother Bethel still owned it.
Ann died in April, 2016. She was so wonderful a human. I actually do have some of her poetry in my personal library. In her obituary story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, John Timpane wrote:
Poet and friend Leonard Gontarek offered a poetic remembrance of Ms. Christie by e-mail: “Like the poet herself, A.V. Christie’s poetry is precise, elegant and generous. In her poems she gives us a model of the universe: If we possess integrity and trust the world, truth will come through. If we know the world deeply enough, we will see the logic of happiness and sorrow. If we listen carefully, we will hear the music coaxed from the dusk and fallen magnolia flowers, the pond, the clouds, and her beloved robins. It will be the music we hear as knowledge becomes wisdom.”
This is a poetry of grace and holy light.
Ann loved Ebenezer, and had at one point lived quite nearby. She grew frustrated with trying to engage people about Ebenezer. She was responsible for organizing and often paying for a few clean ups.
Then I met Al Terrell. He also lived nearby. We became friends after bonding over the same black Civil War Soldiers. He visited Joshua and Hiram too. When and said he was going to get Boy Scouts and volunteers in there to clean up AND would get the AME Church to say OK, I was so glad to hear it, but didn’t hold out much hope. The Boy Scouts were from the Willistown Troop. And there were others. Bible study folks from Al’s bible study and Lee’s Lawn Service. And more. And this was just the beginning. Al threw himself into this the last couple of years of his life. He helped get the Veteran’s Day ceremony November 19th, 2016.
November 19, 2016 is when we held the Veteran’s Day Ceremony at Ebenezer to honor the black Civil War Soldiers there and others. It made front page news of The Daily Local. That was such an emotional day for me at that site, I cried. And I have no ancestors buried there, just my black Civil War Soldier Joshua Johnson whom I discovered one day many, many years ago in a pile of weeds that I thought were surrounding an abandoned farmhouse.
EAST WHITELAND >> During a humble autumn afternoon, a small ceremony paid homage to a long since abandoned graveyard housing African-American Civil War veterans, and others whose names have been lost to time and erosion.
For Bruce Reason and Al Terrell, the sight of the cleaned up Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church cemetery on Saturday was a welcome one.
Reason, 56, of East Whiteland pointed to one of the legible headstones bearing the name of one African-American Civil War veteran, Joshua Johnson, 1846-1916, and said he was related.
“It feels great,” he said about the site of the cleaned up cemetery. “I waited years for someone to come along (and clean up the graveyard).”
The person who came along and led the clean-up effort was Henderson High School sophomore Luke Phayre.
Phayre, a member of the Willistown Boy Scout Troop 78, had been looking for a project to complete so he could become an Eagle Scout….And Terrell, himself a former assistant scoutmaster working on rejoining the troop, suggested to Phayre that he clean up the graveyard as his own son, Andrew did almost two decades earlier.
“I thought it was a great thing to do, to honor the soldiers buried here,” Phayre said. “You couldn’t even see this (gravesite) from the street.”
The gravesite and the ruins of the old church sit alongside North Bacton Hill Road, near where the road intersects with Route 401.
Starting in August, Phayre and other volunteers worked to figure out who technically owns the abandoned property, get permission from the owners, and to clean up the graveyard and crumbling stone church laden with overgrown nature.
His efforts were recognized Wednesday when at 1 p.m., a ceremony led by the commander of the West Chester American Legion Post 134, retired Air Force Capt. Howard Crawford.
The ceremony also served as a way to honor the dead. It included a color guard presentation, gun salute, and memorial prayer.
Members of several different organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Marine Corps League participated in the ceremony. Three East Whiteland police officers were also present.
On that day I do not recall any members of the then East Whiteland Historic Commission or township supervisors, but I will always remember the members of East Whiteland Police Department who showed up to be part of the honor guard and keep the traffic in check…on their own time.
Then things slowed down, and Al Terrell died. I knew that November of 2016 that he knew something was not right with his health but he didn’t speak about it. And then shortly after Christmas that year, Al contacted me and said he wanted me to promise not to ever give up on Ebenezer. He was insistent, and that was not his way. Then one day in January, 2017 when I was sitting in my living room talking with my friend Tom Casey, my phone rang. It was Kimberly Boddy, a wonderful woman I have since lost touch with, but who at the time had helped with research because of other research she was doing.
And Kimberly has a really cool Chester County heritage as she is the granddaughter of the late Lee Carter, who was a self-taught Chester County artist who also had what I think was called the Road To Freedom Museum at one time. The Daily Local wrote about an exhibit of Lee Carter’s paintings in Coatesville in 2015.
I still remember sitting in my living room and saying to Tom, “I can’t believe it. Al can’t be gone.”
Al and I had been talking about trying to get someone with special radar equipment into the graveyard to properly map the graves once and for all those last times we spoke. Ground Penetrating Radar.
I still miss Al. And Ann.
Al in November, 2016 saluting our soldier, Joshua.
Things kind of slowed for a while until new blood and energy on the historic commission reinvigorated them as well as real interest from the supervisors in East Whiteland. Now I will freely admit it has been touch and go with the East Whiteland Historic Commission and me for years. Some people like me, some merely tolerate me, and a couple I have felt quite clearly dislike what they perceive as my interference on their patch so to speak. Then Pastor April Martin and AME historian Bertha Jackmon also had more time for Ebenezer, and now here we are. A historic marker and money for the ruin stabilization. This is a God is Good thing. I spent a lot of years feeling quite despondent about this site, until things started to happen.
I will note that to date I have never ever had a reply to any of the many emails (and some phone calls) sent over time to Philadelphia Mother Bethel’s Mark Kelly Tyler. Shame on him because before Mother Bethel, as one of his callings was Bethel AME in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He has talked a good game in interviews with the Inquirer, etc., but he has apparently never thought humble Ebenezer AME at 97 Bacton Hill Road in Frazer was important enough in spite of the inextricable and irrefutable links to Mother Bethel? Pity. But hey, he’s got his plum now as a newly elected officer of some importance in the AME Church as per the Inquirer this August and allow me to quote with some feeling of irony:
The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church in Society Hill, was elected as an officer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) at its General Conference this week in Columbus, Ohio.
He was elected to become one of nine general officers: executive director of the Department of Research and Scholarship and historiographer of the AME Church, which has its headquarters in Nashville.
The election took place on Monday. The Tennessee Tribune posted the results, noting that six new bishops and nine general officers were elected. (There are at least 20 bishops in charge of geographical districts.)
“As I step into the role of historiographer / executive director of the Department of Research & Scholarship of the global AME Church, I find this moment to be bittersweet,” Tyler wrote in a text from Ohio Wednesday afternoon….In an interview earlier this month, Tyler said the new position would require him to resign as pastor at Mother Bethel AME, at 419 S. Sixth St., where he was appointed the church’s 52nd pastor in 2008.
He said he would remain at Mother Bethel for at least two to three months until a new pastor is appointed by the church leadership.
In his new role, he will have two offices, one in Philadelphia and one in Nashville…Tyler said he has always loved history, and he hopes to create a major documentary film about the church, possibly with PBS.
Gosh Rev. Tyler, history? Imagine that. So, a reminder that some of the earliest history of your church is here in East Whiteland Township at 97 Bacton Hill Road in Frazer, as well as elsewhere in Chester County. Maybe now you will have time for those emails? Return phone calls? Sadly I have my doubts, but hey, that’s on you. (And yes I am being deliberately pissy and unapologetically so.)
So I was sent these photos. Obviously I didn’t take them I don’t live down there, and this is Chadds Ford. This is the Air BnB that is the subject of consternation with neighbors located at 1465 Smithbridge Road. And the date showing that the photo I guess was taken is 2024, so is this house still active as an Air BnB? I mean what happens? Does the township building close up shop on the weekend and then people rent this house? And yes, I can ask that question. After all April 19, 2024 was a Friday and that looks like evening, right?
Again, this phone had a date of April 19, 2024. In this photo, you can see lights on in one of the buildings which meant it was towards dusk, correct? I just am interested to know if this is after the cease-and-desist letter of like a year earlier, how was it still looking like a short term rental?
And then this is the same property that’s supposedly scheduled at the end of this current month (if the Zoning hearing occurs) that now wants to be a Bed and Breakfast Inn?
Now for the record, I don’t object to bed and breakfasts. I think they are a good adaptive reuse for often otherwise quasi-obsolete historic homes. I also like bed-and-breakfasts, because I think they have more character and charm than hotels a lot of the time. But if this property has a conservation easement with the Brandywine Conservancy how would this work? Can you just stop having a conservation easement or is that forever?
I actually think if this property had just been a long-term rental with like a normal family in it, or had been introduced from jump as a bed-and-breakfast with on-site ownership running it, you wouldn’t be here with this house on this property, but that’s not how it has played out is it? But again, where is the Brandywine Conservancy on this? Can properties like this with easements that have language about no commercial things going on ever have a use like this?
Look at all the photos of all those cars. How would you feel if you were a neighbor? Would you trust these property owners going forward? Did these property owners ever try to really interact with the full-time neighbors and work things out with them? And by really interact I mean, did the actual property owners sit down with neighbors ever do that or just their representatives? That makes a difference.
In Radnor Township, in Wayne, there used to be the Wayne Bed and Breakfast Inn. It was gorgeous. It has since been torn down for hideous development, which is criminal. But the original owners of the Inn, not the people who subsequently sold to a developer, went out of their way to be good neighbors. And I remember when they were initially trying to get approval for what they wanted to do and it was a tough row to hoe. I know because I followed the meetings.
Above are just a couple of the articles that were written about the now, but a memory Wayne Bed and Breakfast Inn. They have a date of 2021 on them but it’s not actually 2021 that’s just when the website was updated and they reloaded those articles. The Inn actually opened around 2012.
And I know someone else who owns a bed-and-breakfast inn. There is no delegating to random people, they live on site. They take their stewardship of their historic property quite seriously. and it’s beautiful. But part of being an innkeeper I think is how you get on with your neighbors and if you started as an Air BnB that had lots of party weekends can’t you just understand why neighbors are not trusting? And I still can’t seem to find the answer that Chadds Ford Township knew this was an Air BnB before neighbors told them it was an Air BnB can you? I can’t find it in the Inquirer article, I couldn’t find it in like meeting minutes for Chadds Ford, so did they know or they didn’t know until neighbors said something?
Anyway, it’s obvious that communities including Chadds Ford need to look at their zoning and have conversations about short term rentals and whether or not they want bed-and-breakfasts in certain areas but not in others, or what the criteria is etc. it’s also apparent that it would be helpful if the Municipalities Planning Code was also updated for more fleshing out of these uses state-wide.
I will close with screenshots from when this Chadds Ford place was on Air BnB. The dates on the screenshots indicate 2023. Below that, my noodling around about Air BnBs in general based on what’s listed.
Here’s hoping a resolution to this thorny issue can be achieved. Just like the property owners have rights so do the neighbors. And Chadds Ford needs to hear all, equally. And I really hope the Brandywine Conservancy can clear up how they feel about this situation, don’t you? The Brandywine Conservancy does amazing things, but they can’t continue to play possum with this issue in my humble opinion.
Please check out todays daily local, thursday, Oct 4th. Please look under public notices for the Downingtown Borough. FEMAand PEMA are asking for bids, to KNOCK DOWN 8 properties on Brandywine Ave. The very old duplex houses. 8!!!!! Please let your readers know about this.. I believe many are rented? Owned? Very sad… Destroying history again.
Look, I hate seeing houses get torn down, but this isn’t to destroy history. This is to basically try to make sure that Downingtown doesn’t flood again like it did during Ida.
FEMA and PEMA doing that means they just flood too badly that’s not destroying history that’s trying to save people a lot of aggravation in the future. It’s unknown, whether this will work or not.
I will post the notice from the Daily Local which you can also find online a PA public notices :
NOTICE CONTENT
NOTICE TO BIDDERS DOWNINGTOWN BOROUGH PROPERTY ACQUISITION, DEMOLITION & RESTORATION PROJECT Bids for the demolition and restoration of eight (8) properties (listed below) located within the 100-year floodplain of the East Branch of Brandywine Creek and its tributary Parke Run will be received by Downingtown Borough. The project involves providing all labor, supervision, equipment and materials to complete the demolition of the existing improvements such as slabs, foundation and retaining walls, pads, walkways, ornamental vegetation, as well as the work associated with site restoration and stabilization activities, including temporary erosion and sedimentation controls and restoring the public right-of-way areas (public curbs/sidewalks, roadways, etc.). Moreover, the Work also includes streambank stabilization and revegetation, wing-wall installation and bridge scour protection, furnishing, placement and compaction of clean fill material to bring the sites to grade, furnishing and placement of topsoil, and final grading and seeding and mulching all disturbed areas. The project will also include the removal and proper disposal of demolition debris and rubble and providing all labor, equipment and materials to complete asbestos abatement/removal within the structures as well as removal and proper disposal of all waste as specified prior to the demolition of the structures. The successful bidder will be responsible to confirm that the utility services to the properties have been disconnected and terminated with the various service providers. Note: The streambank stabilization and revegetation and wing-wall installation and bridge scour protection is only required at the 128 Brandywine Avenue property. This work also requires stream diversion and protection procedures. Property List •112 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •114 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •121 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •123 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •125 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •126 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •127 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 •128 Brandywine Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 Bidders are required to comply with the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act of 1961, P.L. 987, No. 442, where the project cost is twenty-five thousand dollars or above. Funding for this project is provided by FEMA/PEMA to acquire and demolish the properties that have been impacted by flooding from hurricane Ida. The bid documents and attachments can be viewed through PennBid (www.PennBid.net) or at the office of Downingtown Borough located at 4 W. Lancaster Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335 beginning on October 4, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. local prevailing time. Sealed bids must be submitted online through the PennBid electronic procurement program prior to November 5, 2024 at 10:00 a.m., at which time they will be opened publicly and read aloud at the office of the Downingtown Borough. An optional prebid meeting and site walk-through will be held at the Borough address above for all prospective bidders at 10:00 AM local prevailing time on October 15, 2024. Bids and bid security shall be furnished in accordance with the instructions to bidders. Bidders shall submit proof of qualifications to perform the work as described in the instructions to bidders. Downingtown Borough reserves the right to waive technicalities and to reject any or all bids or items herein in the best interest of the Municipality. Technical questions concerning this work and directions to Downingtown Borough and properties should be directed to Mr. Matthew Bush of JMR Engineering, LLC at (484) 880-7342. DLN 10/4, 10/10; 1a
All of these houses have been acquired by the Borough of Downingtown for demolition because of the flooding.
Yes this is unpleasant, but so is the flooding and it’s not the first time it flooded badly there. All you have to do is go to the Downingtown Historical Society website. 
No one wants to lose homes in a community. No one wants to lose historic homes that means something to people in a community, but sometimes the truth of why something is happening is not so simplistic as “it’s wrong.”
DOWNINGTOWN — The damage wrought by a summer disaster continues to break hearts in the borough.
Efforts for the recovery from the damaging floodwaters of Ida, a tropical storm which struck the Northeast on September 1, inspired citizens to share their stories — from fears and woes to concerns and hopes for the immediate present and near future — at the Downingtown Borough Council on Wednesday night which lasted nearly three hours….Residents who spoke of personal and local devastation suffered from the floodwaters of Ida included Randall Scott, John McMichael, Megan Stellfox, Dawn McMichael, Sara Brown, Lorraine Geiling, Patrick Moffitt, Patricia Moffitt, Gina Curry and Joann Widener, among others.
The United States Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency sent representation to the Downingtown Council meeting to share information.
“It breaks my heart,” said Dague upon listening to the residents who spoke up on Wednesday, many sharing they needed help still in wake of the storm. “A lot of people were upset that FEMA was turning them down.”
The mayor added that there was a FEMA representative at the meeting who hopefully shared resources with the residents who attended. FEMA has been in Downingtown every day for the past three weeks or so.
Now, a month and one week since Ida struck Downingtown, a storm that also resulted in the death of one borough resident, many people remain unable to return to their homes, even as winter months swiftly approach…”It’s weeks later. It’s better. We’re living our lives because we don’t have a choice,” said Downingtown resident Gina Curry while addressing elected officials at the Borough Council meeting on October 7.
A resident who suffered considerable flood damage to her home and property, Curry said she begged for help, and received the support that she had desperately sought when she reached out to the borough and asked.
“But a lot of people can’t. They won’t,” Curry said of fellow residents suffering in silence still from damages to their homes caused by Ida.
Floods are common occurrences in Downingtown when there is rainfall.
Curry said, “I am terrified every time it rains.” …..Downingtonian John McMichael said there are so many dams in the community, which creates an excess amount of waterflow to the borough.
“Eighty percent of Chester County floods out because of over-development,” McMichael said.
Many people who spoke during public comment Wednesday night concurred that some people in town remained without electricity while others had suffered in want of food because of ongoing power outages first sparked during the storm.
Dague estimated that at least 30 homes still remain completely unoccupied.
That man quoted above said 80% of Chester County floods because of over development. I don’t know if his percentage is correct but it is a huge contributing factor along with climate change. So if people want to get upset, get upset with your state legislators, who won’t update the Municipalities Planning Code to preserve our communities and stop the rampant march of development in our county and region and statewide.
The people who owned these properties chose to sell to FEMA and PEMA. and I can tell you, I know if neighborhoods in North Wayne, who maybe wished they had had the option after a hurricane years ago to sell out to FEMA or PEMA except they listened to a commissioner who told them it would be fine. And it’s not fine on some of these streets in Radnor Township in North Wayne every time there’s a bad rain storm. And maybe if those homeowners had been bought out back then they would’ve had the ability to be able to afford to stay in their communities. I don’t know that most of them would have that affordability or option today.
We have to hit the brakes on development, especially in light of climate change because we all know that these storms were getting that used to be reserved. The lofty titles like 100 year storm or 200 year storm or 150 year storm or whatever are happening toooften.
These old houses in Downingtown are sadly what is known as collateral damage, and so are the renters in them. I don’t know that they’re all rental properties but I suspect a lot of them were.
I apologize to people who might not understand why I’m writing this post and think that I should be fighting to save these houses. I can’t save these houses, it’s literally not my place, and having seen the damage that water can do, you sadly come to the realization we can’t save everything because people can’t keep losing everything they own every time it rains.
I went down a rabbit hole this morning and hopefully they’re all legal? I have no idea, do you?
It is municipality to municipality and I just randomly decided I’d go nose dive into the Main Line and I have to ask how many houses on the Main Line are Air BnB now?
From mansions to rooms for rent to small little older houses that don’t interest developers, but might interest a regular family if they could afford to live in the neighborhood, I just have to ask how many houses are Air BnB?
I didn’t go diving into Chester County per se. I really kept it to the Main Line because I was more curious there. And the reason I’m curious is it is so hard for people to find affordable rentals let alone affordable houses to buy and I think this is part of the problem.
Anyway, it make sure understand how people can afford to live on the Main Line now, right? They can just Air BnB it, right? Are these people paying taxes to the municipalities that their short term rentals, whether it be a Air BnB or VRBO are in?  in places where this is allowed in their code, it’s kind of like a missed revenue stream, isn’t it? 
Sign me gobsmacked. I did not know this was such a cottage industry on the Main Line.
Chadds Ford, PA is actually Delaware County, PA but to me has always felt more Chesco than Delco. Chadds Ford has beautiful twisty roads, some gems of homes and estates, and used to be quite understated. I say used to be, because like every other slice of heaven between Devon and Wilmington….there is development.
Anyway in April, 2024 an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer by a reporter whom I respect and follow caught my eye:
So it looks like Smithbridge Partners (or maybe their lawyers since do we think the owners will go to court?) has put off their court date until after their zoning hearing board hearing event which looks like October 22? Now zoning hearing was put off from September, correct? When I last looked they were supposed to go to court this week on the fine stuff, and now the dockets read November?
And what is it to be at zoning October 22nd? If it reads like September 4th which was postponed it will be “1465 Smithbridge Road – Appeal of Zoning Code Enforcement/Variance to operate B & B”?
So are the owners going to be ON PREMISES to run a B&B AKA Bed and Breakfast Inn? It’s kind of 24/7/365 as I have known people who have operated B&Bs and one who still does? As a matter of fact, one person I know operates a B&B in PA and has a separate Air BnB in another state which is professionally run by a real estate company with strict rules.
So how come that Air BnB became such a mess? Did the property owners think neighbors would just give up their personal reasonable expectations of quiet enjoyment for the profit of others? I mean if there is the money to do things right, why not do just that?
So would you want to be known as the people who purchased part of a former Du Pont property and then was all over media for this? Supposedly, these folks own about 400 acres of land in Chadds Ford between Smithbridge and Ridge Roads? Below is what I found on various properties under or affiliated with this entity:
Now with regard to the Air BnB at 1465 Smithbridge Road I have to ask, what is currently going on? Is it now empty or is it still being rented out as an Air BnB? Another wrinkle is a conservation easement on the property perhaps? It is (and already was when they bought it) under conservation easement with Brandywine Conservancy, correct? The easement states, “No industrial or commercial activities shall be conducted or permitted on the Property, with the exception of agricultural and livestock activities.” The conservation easement is copied below.
How is either an Air BnB or a B&B not a commercial activity? What does the esteemed Brandywine Conservancy say about this? And if there is an easement, can you use the easement as in is there a trail? if so, is it maintained and by whom? I ask not because I know anything suspect, I ask because we have all heard of properties out here with conservation easements and I am guessing someone does maintenance so they can be used the way they are supposed to be used, right?
So the Air BnB of it all got a cease and desist letter in 2023:
So what is the end game with the thing going to zoning later this month about being a Bed and Breakfast? Is this just to wiggle a door back to Air BnB? And given the other properties they own are any of them regular rentals? If so why can’t 1465 Smithbridge just be that? Or don’t they have any relatives who could live there and just let it be a normal property in a beautiful area with a conservation easement? And again where is the Brandywine Conservancy on this?
Now I asked around to those who know more than I and they came back with a famous court case that seems similar. There’s is interesting and relevant legal precedent for this case. The “Slice of Life” case was heard by the PA Supreme Court in December of 2018.
In its opinion, the Court concluded that even though the applicable zoning ordinance did not specifically prohibit the short-term rental of residential homes, such use was nonetheless prohibited. The Court stated that prohibited uses of real property do not have to be expressly excluded on a zoning ordinance.
The critical inquiry for the PA Supreme Court was the interpretation of the term “single housekeeping unit.” Past court decisions in PA have consistently applied this functional standard in its analysis to cases with similar facts. For example, courts have allowed the use of a residential home by a homeowner to provide lodging, meals, and care to physically and mentally disabled persons in their home. Conversely, courts have determined, under the same standard, that a residential home is not allowed to be used as a half-way house or a group home for foster children. These decisions turned on the fact that the average stay at a halfway house (2-6 months) and at a group home was too short to be compatible with the single-family concept.
Now the Slice of Life of it all came up again in a New York Times article this past spring about a community in the Poconos. I have been to one of the fancier of the cabins/lake of it all communities up there years ago now. It was beautiful and closely held to keep out short term rental issues. It was so beautiful and natural. It was a delight. And tiny Medford Lakes, NJ has legislated against Air BnB type short term rentals in their community to preserve it’s character.
Air BnB rentals have created controversy in all sorts of communities in Southeastern PA, and in Chester County I can think of West Vincent and Willistown and West Chester Borough. I still do not know who is on first where.
Now one of the other properties these Smithbridge People own is of interest to me. And octagonal house.
Has anyone been by this lately? What’s the current condition? Now that could make a great long term cottage rental couldn’t it?
I don’t really have much else to say on the topic. I definitely don’t have a horse in the race, except I have to say while I would not mind a traditional actual owner operated Bed and Breakfast Inn in my neighborhood, I can say the big old no to the Air BnB of it all.
This is still a situation to watch. I will be curious what happens to 1465 Smithbridge and the cool little octagonal house.
One photo is what Lloyd Farm in Caln used to look like – Next to it is today.
Main Line Health is interested in putting medical on PART of the property. I foolishly thought that they would carve off their part and do their thing and leave the Lloyd Farmhouse and land intact but that was just wishful thinking I guess?
More dirty deeds done dirt cheap on the part of the developer who has sat on this property??? And this was part of yet ANOTHER Penn Land grant and they have allowed an 18th century farmhouse to rot and be destroyed by vandals, and then there is the part Caln Township has played in this, right? Legally the house should have been secured, right? The township should have been on top of this right? The township should have been looking for a better solution, right?
Yeah, not so much, right?
The planned MOB (Medical Office Building) will be 4 stories high and residents say changing zoning from R4 that permits medical but also commercial? Residents fear the property owner / developer will come next with apartments or offices and get all of this and the house will be taken down? There’s a story behind all this isn’t there? There is always a story and as always with Caln there is zero transparency and mostly murky, right?
But hey Commissioner Lorraine Tindaro can live in her little house of hoarders and they at Caln look the other way right? Do any of those commissioners out there have cleanhands? (HINT: buy them soap for their holiday gifts perhaps?)
Residents are further concerned that more is afoot. They say look at the proposal. They say it is very oddly drawn and interferes with the extension of GO Carlson Blvd to Rock Raymond Road that PennDot is doing for their expansion of 30 bypass? Its suspicious because they couldn’t explain it and why couldn’t it be explained? Does developer landowner have a secret pan?
GO Carlson Blvd is a road that runs parallel to Business 30 East to West. Lloyd will be cut off and the entrance moved to Rock Raymond Road and Rt 322/Manor Avenue and no one can explain that? Why???
The answer is it’s always fishy in Caln, right ?
GO TO THE SUPERVISORS MEETING! CALL YOUR FRIENDS AND REPORTERS.
And to be clear: if medical use was merely being carved out and the balance of the property was being carved out and house saved that would be different, but once again residents are waiting for the hidden shoe to drop in Caln once again. And if this is all true how cruel is it to use much needed medical in this part of the county as a Trojan horse for more development that no one needs on the rest of Lloyd Farm?
Caln Board of Commissioners Meeting is Thursday, September 26th 2024. 6 PM.
The notice on the township website starts with their projected end time of the meeting. I think that is done on purpose to confuse. The meeting starts at 6 PM. Show up a little earlier and get a good seat.
Bring your pitchfork. Actually kidding on the pitchfork, just SHOW UP. You seriously need to rally and pack the meeting.
Caln Municipal Building is 253 Municipal Drive in Thorndale.
If you care, show up. No excuses, no one knows if this will be it or not so no meeting skipping you have to show up if you care. No one likes to make the time for this stuff but if you live out there and you care or your historic preservationist and you care, show up.
I just don’t pretend to understand what’s going on. Just when you think it can’t get any more twisted and insane over at the Historic Hood Mansion in Limerick, it just does.
A little while ago I wrote about how Hood Mansion was facing destruction from warehouses, End it seems that according to Limerick’s zoning officer, Greta Martin Washington, data centers are a form of warehouse, so was this the plan all along?
So why the switcheroo of what was previously being built versus now? I mean OK if the zoning says a data center is a kind of a warehouse and then they put that in a public notice that might possibly be the letter of the law, but is it the spirit of the law and does the spirit matter at all here?
So I have to ask with everything else Hood Mansion, did it come up at Limerick supervisor meetings? And since human remains were found there, what about them? Limerick seems a little bit shrouded in mystery and cloudy days, so I’m asking the questions. It’s another Nancy Drew mystery, right? Needs sunshine?
What is also with Nancy Drew mystery with Limerick Township are their agendas and their meetings because I don’t really see them talking about this unless I’m not looking in the right place? Again did the change get discussed at a public meeting or just in the notice filed in itty bitty print that no one reads?
Always read the fine print. It’s exhausting.
Yes, warehouses were bad enough right? It’s a historic site and it may quite probably have been on the underground railroad, and they recently found human remains right? So now it’s not mega warehouses, it’s mega data center time?
Gosh Limerick Township, that’s very Louden County, Virginia of you.
Yeah, I’ve written about data centers before. Here are the posts:
Was this discussed in a meeting in Limerick as well? I know I’m becoming repetitive, but I’m just so curious as to how this all came about, or if this was the plan all along?
And people would ask why data centers? Will data centers get along very nicely apparently with nuclear power plants, correct? And isn’t Limerick literally like down the road across the road across the street or something?
And what made me think of that? A little Googling – I found this thing from May in Data Center Dynamics:
It’s a pretty big article and it’s fairly interesting. I would suggest people read it because it’s a road map isn’t it? Aso basically, it’s like these people want to do this in Limerick right? They knock down the Hood Mansion they don’t care about the human remains or the history and they build a data center and they’re across the street from Limerick or whatever, right?
And don’t forget data centers also go hand-in-hand with those lovely hydrogen plants don’t they? We learned that in West Whiteland didn’t we? MACH 2 Hydrogen Hub anyone?
If you’re interested in that, check out this Delaware Riverkeeper video :
I will close by suggesting everyone read what’s below from this August- It’s a big long article I’ve taken a big old excerpt, but go to the source and read the whole thing. I think this is the game plan. Of course, I have no proof and I also have no inside information. It just seems to make sense because there’s a nuclear power plant at Limerick and then there’s the Hood Mansion and they want to put a data center form there now, so has this just been hiding in plain sight all along?
Time will tell and all of the people who live in that area of Montgomery County need to wake up, not just a historic preservation types who want to save old structures like Hood.
There’s a big picture here. Lots o’ money in data centers and things data centers love and interact with right?
Don’t forget Louden County Virginia – down there those residents in those developments next to data centers can tell you how noisy they are. There are tons of articles.
I’m rambling west for something that interests me. And it has nothing to do with Pennsylvania or Chester County Pennsylvania.
Today, I am taking my readers to a place I have never been but want to see some day. It’s a place where it is literally one of the last great open spaces of this country in the American west. It’s in a state where a few Pennsylvanians I know have settled. Including in some of the historic parts like Fort Collins and Villa Grove and elsewhere. Some came for the larger suburbs near Denver, other near resorts like Aspen. There are actually quite a few Pennsylvania ex-pats who call places in Colorado home that I can think of.
Someone I know in that part of the world sent me this story. Remarkably, a news station in Denver covered it. I say remarkably because this is Villa Grove, Colorado. In Saguache County. Population? According to my research literally like 260 – 300 people, but maybe only 30 full time residents. It’s a tiny frontier town 4.5 hours from Denver I believe so a news crew covering this is huge.
Residents in this tiny town don’t want an almost 200 foot cell phone tower taller than any tree a few hundred feet front where they live and less. Can you blame them? No one wants to live in the shadows of those wires here . Think of it as a giant abstract metal penis on a plain.
VILLA GROVE, Colo. — Nearly a third of the full-time residents who live in the small town of Villa Grove in Saguache County are now suing county commissioners after the approval of a 195-foot-tall cell phone tower in town. The county wants to build a massive telecommunications tower right on the edge of town, just a few hundred feet from the few homes there are in the picturesque town outside of Salida.
“Even our trees, which are the tallest things in town, are only about 60 feet,” said Paula Maez, one of the plaintiffs suing the county commissioners. “I’ve never sued anyone in my life, but I felt strongly enough about this that I stood up and will continue to stand up.”
Maez said there are only around 30 full-time residents in Villa Grove. There are no stoplights and only a handful of stores. Most people who live here have been here for decades…. “We recently had our Saguache County commissioners approve conditional land use for a cell phone tower that’s going in just to the northeast of here, basically right on top of our little town,” Maez said. “195 feet of metal monstrosity.”
Commissioners and the cell phone company both say that the tower would help with cell phone service in the rural area. However, the lawsuit hoping to stop the tower states it would only impact cell service within a five-mile area.
9NEWS wanted to talk to the Saguache County Commissioners about why they approved the cell phone tower even after more the half the town showed up to commission meetings to speak out against it. Their attorney said they won’t be talking about it.
So Saguache County, you don’t want to talk about it to the affected residents, media, or anyone else about a MAJOR decision to affect a small tight knit community that I bet you ignore as often as possible? Gosh, that’s so wonderful of you! (Yes, dripping sarcasm here.)
And this tower will have limited practical impact or value since it will only improve MAYBE a five mile radius?
Seriously ? Makes you ponder another question doesn’t it? Exactly WHO is getting paid WHAT to shove this cell tower in, Saguache County, CO?
Given this website (link right after this paragraph) I have to wonder since Villa Grove is an unincorporated town if this county is getting ready to tart the town up for their profit? It sounds very Yellowstone the TV series as a motive, but heck most things like this are about money, aren’t they?
Villa Grove has hot springs nearby they say, and beautiful vistas, why not fill the county coffers and make it super tourista, right? County profits? And I’m not saying that to be anti-progress, I’m saying that because progress that works needs resident input and participation. Duh.
The town of Garibaldi was established by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1870.[2] The town served as the southern terminus of the Rio Grande’s narrow-gaugePoncha Pass line from 1870 to 1890.[2] The town was named for ItalianrevolutionaryGiuseppe Garibaldi.[2] The Garibaldi Post Office opened on June 13, 1870.[5] The town’s name was changed to the less political Villa Grove on January 19, 1872.[5] The spelling of the town’s name was changed to Villagrove on October 12, 1894, and back to Villa Grove on July 1, 1950.[5]
Saguache County Colorado has issues if you dig around for articles, so maybe the thought that it is all about the money in the San Luis Valley is not so far fetched? And Villa Grove is considered the northern gateway to the San Luis Valley?
A couple of years ago there was a Live Nation music festival around Villa Grove called Seven Peaks Music Festival. Supposedly drew thousands of people to this tiny town? But then Dierks Bentley got fickle and moved it? Or does he always just move it around? Or was trendy Red Rocks his goal all along?
Well, that article makes you wonder doesn’t it but again I ask and it’s a pretty simple question: if an idyllic tiny frontier town in Colorado doesn’t want a cell phone tower in that town where else can I go? And is it really necessary RIGHT THERE?
And as is the case in any article in any paper across the country, politicians will talk a good game, but are they actually talking to and with their constituencies? It seems like in this case, the Saguache County commissioners here are merely ignoring these residents. If these are residents living there and paying taxes, why do they have to play mother May I with everything ?
And let’s talk about the natural beauty of the area as well as it being one of the last frontiers. I point out to you an article from 2009.
A Pennsylvania photographer is among the souls who’ve been branded by the high valley’s exquisite light.
Kathy Hettinga – who grew up in Alamosa and now is a professor of art at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa. – has returned to the San Luis Valley year after year, responding to its mystical lure and desolate beauty. She’s taken more than 10,000 photos in the valley’s historic cemeteries, recording the graves of generations of residents, some of them prosperous, most of them poor. She’s captured the plastic flowers, the plaster and enamel saints, the wood and metal and concrete crosses that mark the graves, and the churches that bear silent witness to the mortal comings and goings of the faithful.
A fraction of Hettinga’s 15 years worth of photos has been compiled into the book, “Grave Images: San Luis Valley.” She wrote the text and also helped design the book…. “I have a studio in Colorado (near Villa Grove). I still do consider the valley home,” Hettinga says during a phone interview. “I go there every summer and last year I was on sabbatical and spent a lot of time in the valley. I got to see the aspen and the beautiful light.
“The light in the San Luis Valley is really special: There’s the big sky, the 8,000-foot-elevation valley floor, the clear air – there’s a lot less atmosphere. Growing up, I loved it.
I think there’s a lot going on here. And I think, keeping a community the way the community wishes to be kept is not high on the priority list of Saguache County. To that end, they offer zoom meetings and I encourage nationwide media to attend it September 3 and anyone else who is interested in helping a small town preserve their way of life without a close to a 200 foot metal penis plunked in their town. Take a peek at their agendas and see how you can register. They can try to deny you but legally they cannot. It’s a public meeting.
I searched the county website for Saguache and came up virtually empty as to information on this cell tower. I guess I’m just used to the websites around here that when you have a land use issue like that, the municipality or the county will have documents up that people can look at as to who wants to do what basically and where and how you provide input. I found mentions on one agenda, but I don’t find meeting recordings after the fact unless I’m not looking in the right place. Except, I don’t think this is the most sunshine, friendly county government is it?
I’m not quite getting the executive session on an issue that’s kind of public? Does the county on the land in this little town where the cell tower is going up?
As for the two LLCs mentioned – I didn’t find too much either, which is not unusual. There are LLCs all over the place.
So that’s all I’ve got and this is literally a Nancy Drew mystery and it’s kind of concerning because this is the kind of thing that happens in more places than anyone wants to acknowledge. But I think a little frontier town in Colorado deserves a little sunshine here because this will affect their town and their properties and their way of life. And if people are saying yeah, we have cell phone service why do we have to have this giant tower? It makes a person wonder why the crickets as in political crickets as in no one is telling these people that are about to be directly affected much of anything? It’s only going to affect 5 mi.² or something than what is actually being planned for this area by that county?
People wonder where series like Yellowstone and 1923 and more get their inspiration. Isn’t the inspiration from life, history, current events?
So Taylor Sheridan? I think we have a new story for you. 👇 Yeah Villa Grove, Colorado why not contact him?
On July 31, 2024 the Chester County District Attorney’s office formerly charged Kathryn Calmus Frankel with arson after the July 23rd SECOND destructive fire at 400 Leopard Road in Berwyn, in Easttown Township. The FIRST destructive fire of May1st I guess is still under investigation? There have been no updates that I know of, do you?
Now the preliminary hearing was scheduled in front of Magisterial District Justice Mackenzie W. Smith at his court on 1572 Paoli Pike in West Chester ORIGINALLY on August 5th. It has been CONTINUED to September 9th and she is represented by Joseph P. McMahon of Lancaster, PA.
I have no news on the actual house. I have driven by a few times since the July fire and it is surrounded by chain link fencing and is so sad to see. I do not know if it will ever rise from these ashes, and if they demolish it I hope people document that in photos. It is a great loss as a historic asset.
