when all else fails, attack the blogger? really?

I don’t know who this person is. Her social media Facebook profile says that she’s only here to keep up with her child’s school and Facebook marketplace and likes Downingtown STEM. Yet here she is sharing the love towards me? And apparently according to her I stalk people with larger followings than mine? Really? I am not an influencer earning money on clickbait or a compensated blogger, and the whole thing about followers is pretty much always amusing to me because I don’t get it. And I will also never get that how so many people who don’t know me, have never met me, and whom I don’t care to know can take so much time to actually hate me? And while they claim I am the big old hater, it’s ok for them to hate me? Pretzel logic, my favorite kind.

This person posted the above about me because I posted about what was happening over in Westtown on the blog’s Facebook page. And I’m not going be called hypocrite or anything else by them. They need to be reminded of the following:

  1. I shared a news item.
  2. I did not create the news item.
  3. I am not the architect of the crime.
  4. I actually don’t go near the place, except to occasionally go up and down 926 which means a drive by on a public road.

I should not be an adjacent topic to the news item, and even if I have reservations about the fauxmer over at Westtown, I would never ever condone what has happened inside that historic barn. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting.

My crime as it were is I had shared the news articles about what is going on at the old Pete’s Produce, now Farmer Jawn at Westtown. My other crime is I am not a fan of what I have seen over there since the new tenant moved in.

And again, no matter how sketchy I feel in my opinion the whole successor to Pete’s Produce is, when have I ever said or thought that disgusting hate symbols, vandalism, or graffiti were ok anywhere? You can answer or not answer, as you choose. The answer is the first day of never. I’ve covered all of these topics over the years.

Of course, this woman did not unfollow my blog’s Facebook page on her own, she was removed. They all announce when they come with their criticism and their nasty thoughts that they’re going to unfollow or some actually message me and tell me to do it for them, but they never do it on their own. That is one of the funniest things about Facebook, especially. Every day, someone in some group or on someone on some page announces their departure….and then sit there and lurk.

And being outraged that anyone would do this to a historic barn on a property owned by a Quaker school makes me a hypocrite? How? That’s ridiculous.

It’s like saying you are a racist because merely as a nanny nanny boo boo retort if you say something that makes them uncomfortable in their rainbow farting unicorn bubble of a world. I find that despicable as well.

We live in this ridiculously political correctness society. All of these people expect you to listen to their perspective, chapter and verse, but if you say something that is out of the Stepford wife, category of safe topics, or if you are not a Disney mom cruise blogger, you are a baaaad person. You can even be the same political persuasion as someone but if you veer off a safe, Stepford wife topic you are a baaad person. It’s funny, except it’s also pathetic and overdone.

I am a baaaaad person here because I have questioned the authenticity of Farmer Jawn and that is my right. And that doesn’t make me a racist, either. Oh yes I am deliberately being repetitive, because the only way to get a message across with some of these essentially drooling idiots is to keep repeating yourself.

People are super accusatory just because. Not because they have anymore depth than a fruit fly or have done any research into anything. They will say someone is bad horrible nasty, pick your pejorative adjective because somebody told them that that’s what they should say. Or just because you are different from them and they can’t understand that.

Of course these are also the same people that vote every single election how someone else told them to vote, without doing any of their own research into whomever the candidate is. It’s the grand land of sheeple, and a misplaced sense of entitlement.

Like this woman today who is only on Facebook for her kid’s school and Facebook marketplace who also told me I was an embarrassment to this entire country. I just have to laugh out loud and ask who died and made her George Washington? Do they even understand that our rights as Americans is what gives us all the right to question and speak out or speak up, and more?

Now I’ve asked around in the Quaker community and people who had kids at the school who either graduated or left, and neighbors. Apparently, there are people who have been upset with the school past and present. I was reminded of the whole nastiness with turf fields, and I don’t remember how many years ago that was. Is this nasty business the work of kids who are just jackasses or adults and why? Someone in the area also told me that the school also has overnight camps during the summer? That could mean quite a bit of other than normal human activity, right?

And the hate symbols with regard to the swastikas? I have been told this symbol is used not just against people who are Jewish now like white supremacists which I had forgotten. But I am sure yet more people will surface and blame me for all of this for questioning Farmer Jawn in general, and I will REMIND them, I am not the only one who has asked questions, there have been questionable business things as in several other things seemingly failing correct? And I still think that was a big ass grant to give someone who really hasn’t demonstrated a consistent track record, and saying that has never meant that the ideas aren’t good. It’s a lot of money for someone without a proven track record. Have you ever done anything with or for a non-profit? If so you would know how hard it is to get ANY grants.

And I do have many questions about this whole thing from beginning to end. And the media reports say this happened as well in the spring and did anyone hear anything about that? Wouldn’t you have thought Westtown School would have said something? Did they not report it to the police?

If anyone knows who did this, they absolutely should come forward.

I will finish with the Inquirer article. Whatever is happening, those symbols and whatever the other racist stuff was is really disgusting and horrible. Only time will tell if this latest venture at Westtown will be a success, but were you surprised to essentially hear not much security seems to be over in that part of Westtown’s sprawling acreage? And I am not saying that is the responsibility of Farmer Jawn, Westtown’s tenant, but I am kind of thinking Westtown should have already had a lot of security in today’s world because most schools do, don’t they? I was honestly surprised.

And to the Inquirer, I feel the need to remind them that questioning this place etc., doesn’t mean all of who have are running around with paint and messing up historic barns. And people weren’t upset at the actual farm fields laying fallow in advance or organic conversion, etc., people were upset at the weeds growing all over the FRONT where the store is and THAT is an important distinction as well.

Inquirer: FarmerJawn targeted with racist and antisemitic graffiti in Chester County
Police are investigating after the farmer discovered a swastika spraypainted in her barn this month.

by Jesse Bunch

Published Aug. 13, 2024, 11:14 a.m. ET

does anyone remember a farmhouse and barn demolished in paoli probably after 1970?

You know how random memories float to the surface? I remember a farmhouse with a barn my aunt and uncle rented when I was quite small in Paoli off of Lancaster Ave, Route 30. My uncle was a corporate America guy from that era and while climbing the corporate ladder they were transferred around for years until settling eventually back in the Philadelphia area, but this was during a period of (if I remember correctly) being in between Cincinnati, Ohio and someplace in Florida.

I remember the house they rented at that time was on it’s own road off of Lancaster Avenue. I do not necessarily remember it being marked and I do not believe it was South Valley Road. I think it was on the right heading west. Mind you this was around 1968 – 1970.

It’s amazing the postcard images that show up on Ebay.

It was a white farmhouse, probably 19th century but I do not know. It was a large house, there was a barn to the side. I remember open space like a field across from the house which was on this road or lane.

The house (white with black shutters) had a big front porch, and inside it had a pretty staircase. There were also back stairs off of the kitchen. I remember a back staircase off of the kitchen and back of house. I spent one weekend there or a few days with my cousins one summer, but not my sister, she was a toddler just walking. We had one Thanksgiving I think it was there. I remember the grown-ups and any high chair kids in the dining room and the kids table was a card table with a white tablecloth. I remember the dinner because that was the first time I ate black eyed peas.

It was a cool house, and I remember at some point after my aunt, uncle, and cousins moved back out of state, the property was torn down for a store or stores. I believe it was gone before the Bicentennial.

It was a pretty big house and I often wondered what happened to it. So if anyone has any memories of a house like that with a barn to the side that is no more, please let me know. Below are two old images of two inns that are no more from the general vicinity, that remind me of my memory of the house. I also don’t know if this house may have had something to do with either the Dingee or Biddle farms which if memory serves were horse farms in the area.

so…. the story of 400 leopard road in berwyn has taken a twist

Neighbor photo

Yesterday I wrote about the lightening striking twice at 400 Leopard Road in Berwyn. We had watched the massive local media cover this home, a very historic home to Easttown and Berwyn beginning on May 1, 2024. Yesterday morning I received a call from a friend who lives in that area in tears about 400 Leopard Road in Berwyn again.

Guess what? It went up in flames AGAIN. July 23, 2024. Maybe once you would think was an accident, and honestly I never did, but twice? My opinion is that is not a coincidence is it?

Well….it’s now July 24, 2024 and guess what? The wife (or eventually to be ex-wife) of the couple who own the house is facing well…arson charges. It’s a twist. It’s a plot twist, but is it really unexpected?

Of course this is odd, because these were the original charges filed this morning and then mid-afternoon there was this:

Here is the docket as of 4PM, showing a bail bondsman and is she in or out of jail at this point?

So, yes, again, this is the wife. And the chatter has bene insane on social media. I am not repeating it, because who knows what is true? I think a lot of it is, but I have to ask something now about the FIRST fire on May 1: is it true that had be marked as a fire of undetermined origin? If so, does that change now? I am asking because since May 1st nothing much has been heard. Yesterday around 1 or so, the Chester County District Attorney posted a very brief statement: “The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is aware of the fire that has occurred in Easttown Township and are working with the Fire Marshal to determine how it started.”

This brings us to today. I don’t get the whole firebug thing. It’s a compulsion I suppose like shoplifting or something? But is this woman a firebug or desperately unhappy and perhaps mentally ill?

A perusal on the Internet shows she is a doctor:

Now I went to the civil dockets after the first file because I was told this was a divorce house. Prior to the first fire there was a realtor sign on the lawn:

May 1st or May 2nd photo found on Facebook somewhere.

Someone messaged me today just a little while ago:

Sugartown Road is still blocked from traffic between Lenape and Leopard Road. AND… there are people all about the house and some sort of “command station” under a blue tent there as well.

Here are a few photos from today, I will post more if I get them. One is from a local who lives near by and others are from fire companies like Radnor.

Now I could post the divorce and child custody dockets, but I am not. I have to ask though if the dates on the dockets of court related events are related to the dates of fires? One was May 1st, then the fire later that day? Then other momentous events recently? Do people think that is all coincidence? In my opinion it is NOT, which is why I question WHY the May 1st fire had undetermined origins?

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/te/crews-battle-house-fire-easttown-tuesday

Someone who once called that house home said today in a comment:

Breeze Hill was built tough to have withstood what she did to it as much as it did. Not that I have any hopes for it now… How destroyed this woman’s soul must be to have done such a thing as this.

So 6 ABC and reporter Leland Pinder and 6 ABC updated their story from yesterday, so allow me to share :

Chester County woman charged with arson after home catches fire twice in recent months
By 6abc Digital Staff / Leland Pinder
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 7:32PM

There you have it. That is a lot of the chatter I heard. Of course I want to know why a house with no electricity and wasn’t habitable had the pool opened? Will Kathryn Calmus Frankel be retroactively charged with first fire? And if she is out on bail, will she go back there again? And the ATF is now part of the investigation? Will we ever hear from the Fire Marshall? Will a lot of the neighbors stop being frosty to media, I wonder?

Sign me disgusted. This woman Kathryn Calmus Frankel put neighbors and first responders at risk. And she is a doctor to boot so what does the Hippocratic oath actually mean to her? In my opinion, perhaps a study in hypocrisy? A lot of our first responders include junior firefighters and among those ranks is my friend’s daughter whom I have known since she was in elementary school. And she destroyed a local historic asset too. That is despicable.

Now what we all will want to know is can this house be saved?

400 leopard road in berwyn (easttown) went up in flames AGAIN so does lightening strike twice?

We watched the massive local media cover this home, a very historic home to Easttown and Berwyn on May 1, 2024. This morning I received a call from a friend who lives in that area in tears about 400 Leopard Road in Berwyn again.

Guess what? It went up in flames AGAIN. Today, July 23, 2024. Maybe once you would think was an accident, and honestly I never did, but twice? My opinion is that is not a coincidence is it?

Here is the link to the video of the live stream I took Thomas Primetime Brown got GREAT video:

I don’t know if the video will remain, so make sure to pay attention to what was said before live stream went soundless.

I heard firefighters or EMTs say on the live feed “She was in the house.”

“One person taken to hospital with burns.”

I wonder if the ATF is looking at this now? One fire, accident….MAYBE. But TWO fires? Does lightening strike twice? Gut check says no.

Now if you go to public court dockets, the owners of this house are embroiled in divorce and custody issues. Is that all related?

I am sure the media is digging in and and I will sign off with links to prior two posts. Again, does lightening strike twice? I do not think so, but it is up to officials to be transparent here. This is so not normal.

what 400 Leopard Road USED to look like

still rotting: joseph price house in exton. tick tock, west whiteland.

It’s still rotting. I’m talking about the Joseph Price House on 401 Clover Mill Road in Exton on the corner of S. Whitford Road.

I have written about it many, many, many times now.

https://chestercountyramblings.com/tag/joseph-price-house/

So West Whiteland has realtors on their historic commission and I know they want the house saved. I wish they could find a preservation buyer that could budge the demolition by neglect owners off of the property before it is too late.

There was a rumor a few months ago that someone once again was interested in buying the house but guess like all the other attempts, the demolition by neglect owners didn’t go through with it?

There are also a couple of trees in really bad shape.

The place has zero security it seems like and does the place look safe and secured?

West Whiteland has that property maintenance code, right? Maybe they can sit on the owners to NOT just let this gem rot?

Tick tock.

now THIS is chester county – a delightful discovery (and an estate sale.)

We went today to the Sales by Helen sale in Kennett Square on 640 N. Walnut Rd. We got there late – there were things I wanted that were garden related but it was just too hot to move earlier.

I think it was like a horde of locusts descended upon the sale because the place was pretty stripped when we got there, which was fine because I don’t need anything REALLY, but I did want to see the property which was AMAZING!

The house is not a 19th or 18th or even early 20th century Chester County farmhouse. It was built in 1973 and the barn was built in 1998. (Here is listing while it exists.)

I marvel at this crazy beautiful property because it was built in exacting detail to look old and to be utterly Chester County. Not a McMansion of plastic or bad stucco, but a stunningly beautiful place. It looks old, yet it’s perfectly modern and turn key. You could move right in.

I got a basket full of red napkins for Christmas, mostly Ralph Lauren. And a couple of bars of expensive craft soap in their wrappers, a porriger, a wee Santa and an old tiny china doll for the Christmas tree….for $10!

But again, the best part was seeing this spectacular property on conserved land. Just shows what can be built. Imagine if developers trampling Chester County had actual talent and imagination? We might get more of this and fewer McUglies.

meanwhile in easttown, demolition by neglect at 32 waterloo avenue?

First I will start with somewhere under ALL of this mess is supposedly a house built in 1890. It was bastardized in the 1960s. I wonder what it originally looked like? Someone had said it was possibly a stable or livery originally, so an adaptive reuse would be normal for modern living but LOOK at what neighbors have to literally look at today?

I went looking in ChesCo Views to see who owned the property and obviously it’s an investor or investment group. There are a few properties involved.

Here’s what I found in public records:

Dilapidated property

I don’t have all the details but I asked around and apparently 32 Waterloo was part of an original plan for an office building?

I found these old articles:

Local scuttlebutt has it that they weren’t actually able to do what they originally wanted to do. So houses that they owned were rehabbed and rented out I have been told.

So here’s an excerpt from a 2008 article in Main Line Media News (you know back when our local news was actually reported by our local papers and not disemboweled by hedge funds):

Anger was the word of the evening – or at least the most memorable word – at Tuesday night’s Easttown Planning Commission meeting when Michael McNulty, who is applying for land-development and conditional-use permits for the proposed Waterloo Complex on his property in Berwyn, became upset with the commissioners and stormed out of the room.

Because only two members of the Planning Commission attended Tuesday’s meeting, there was no quorum, and it was unclear why the absent members did not show.

However, chairman Mitch Shiles and commissioner Joe Tamney stayed to hear requests and presentations from community members.

OK so apparently this guy McNulty’s entity still owns these properties correct? I just pulled the records today off of ChesCo views, right? So it kind of makes me laugh because it’s almost like when people threaten to leave a Facebook page or a Facebook group, but they never do?

I remembered when all of this was happening at the time I just never knew what happened to it as an issue until someone posted a picture of 32 Waterloo Ave. over the weekend.

Back to local scuttlebutt. Somewhere along the line, thank heavens, plans for an office building in the middle of Berwyn‘s historic village fell apart. Now, if I recall correctly, when this first started, some of the people in Berwyn came to us at the then Save Ardmore Coalition (now defunct) to ask us how we organized. I also seem to remember now that I’ve started digging back into this that this was covered at the time on the Save Ardmore Coalition blog because we did cover other areas. And at that point the site had multiple bloggers.

So I found all the articles that exist on coverage of this issue of these properties being consolidated for an office building in Berwyn’s historic village. What I was told by locals is that at some point after all of this, the man that owned the properties fixed up all the others and rented them out.

However this one property at 32 Waterloo Avenue has something wrong. I don’t know what the deal is but sitting like this you know something happened right?

So Easttown what is the deal? Intentional blight? Demolition by neglect? It’s also concerning because this is an area of Berwyn that has a lot of investment properties. And if one gets to slide by on subpar standards of property upkeep, the others might follow? Or one would think a real estate holding company like Eadah, that takes reasonably decent care of their properties and has property in that neighborhood might also be bothered by this ?

I honestly don’t know what’s going on, but I will close with a little montage of Google Earth photos of this property at different times over the years.

You be the judge.

this view never gets old

suntop repairs in ardmore?

A friend of mine sent me a photo they took quite recently of SunTop in Ardmore. It looks like it’s under construction again? Correcting past mistakes? Or maintenance?

SunTop places have had fires over the years, but I have not heard of any for years have you? It’s very weird the way Frank Lloyd Wright houses all over the country have had fires over the years. And this location is no exception. The first one at SunTop was 1941.

I’ve checked with someone I know in the area and they thought there was no fire of a recent vintage, but these houses have required repairs etc. especially since some of the restoration might not have been historically accurate or in some cases, interior rooms were rearranged like I read in an old article.

So it looks like restoration is what is happening with this house and then I found similar on Google of all places with a note to respect someone’s property.

SunTop is a Frank Lloyd Wright creation that has had a complicated history at best with Lower Merion Township.

It as called “the Ardmore experiment” was built in 1939 as a potential solution for multi family housing. One of the units had a fire in 1941, but wartime shortages during World War II meant repairs didn’t happen.

https://www.oldhouseonline.com/house-tours/restoring-frank-lloyd-wright-suntop/

Of course, Lower Merion being Lower Merion rewrote their codes, and SunTop suddenly became non conforming as a use in a single family zone in 1951. Ironic considering all the multi family cram plans they approve in the present, right? Sorry had to say that as it has given me a chuckle looking at this.

An owner in the 1950s of SunTop was denied a zoning variance in 1957 to restore the fire damaged property. Finally in 1965 a zoning was amended or something so restoration could occur. It seems like in 1989 another renovation occurred to correct mistakes from the 1960s. In 2003 there was another renovation judged from media reports.

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/radnor/ardmores-frank-lloyd-wright-house-is-for-sale-2

They are actually super cool houses and were ahead of their time. They just don’t seem particularly durable. The only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Malibu, CA burned down in 2018 wildfires.

And then there was one hotel Wright built in Tokyo. It survived an earthquake, fire, and tsunami in the 1920s but was torn down in the 1960s.

https://www.dwell.com/article/frank-lloyd-wright-imperial-hotel-martin-house-thought-built-exhibit-mayan-revival-3148cae8

Now my friend who did the SunTop drive by recently, loves the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. He has tried to see as many of Wright’s structures as possible over time. SunTop appears in a catalog he has devoted to the homes.

So I was never a huge Frank Lloyd Wright aficionado but I have always been intrigued by what he had the foresight to see in Ardmore, PA. Their design works for multi family housing. Imagine if something like this could ever be designed instead of the awful rape of the land we see now.

The thing about Wright’s designs is much like Wharton Esherick, his designs involved and seemingly enveloped nature. Both Esherick and Wright also have things in common with George Nakashima and his legacy – furniture and buildings on his property. I think Nakashima’s furniture is beautiful and I have always wished I would find an Esherick print at a garage sale.

the fight for shiloh

It has been a long, long time since I wrote about Shiloh. Shiloh is a sad story: a cemetery where the headstones and remains of an extraordinarily important AME church were bulldozed away in Westtown because a former property owner wanted to. But all the souls and remains of the dead are still there. The current property owner is also seemingly uninterested in the history and the languishing dead in now unmarked graves, which is sad.

Today between 11 AM and 1 PM on the steps of the old Chester County Courthouse at 21 West Market Street there is a ceremony to honor the 14 AME soldiers still on site at what use to be Shiloh AME in Westtown. It’s funny, I mentioned to an advocate for this site that this would be the perfect location a few weeks ago to get attention to the history languishing.

You are invited!  Please Share.The Forgotten USCTs of Shiloh AME Church & Cemetery:  A Day of Honor and Memory 

Saturday, May 25, 2024,  11AM – 1 PM

In front of the Historic Chester County Courthouse

21 West Market Street

West Chester, PA 19380

FREE – Open to the Public!

Presented by the Friends of Shiloh AME Church and Cemetery

Featuring:

o   Rev. Dr. Richelle Forman Gunter, Associate Minister

St. Paul’s Baptist Church, West Chester

o  Speaker – Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch, author of

Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania

o    Robert Ford USCT 54th Massachusetts Co. B, Reenactor

o   Speaker – Dr. Tonya Thames Taylor, Professor of History West Chester University

o  Representative Headstones of 14 United States Colored Troops (USCTs) 

Buried at Shiloh

o  Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War

More Information Attached:

–   Shiloh AME brochure 

–   Inquirer Op-Ed, Friday, May 17, 2024, 

“Black Civil War veterans in an abandoned Chester County cemetery deserve a memorial”

JOIN US!

shilohAMEfriends@gmail.com

It’s hallowed ground treated in the most unhallowed way. This happens far too often. Could this space be saved and properly remembered? Yes, but the current property owner doesn’t want people on his property. It’s sad but that is his choice.

It just gives you pause. There are 140 graves that never moved when the church closed in the 1920s and a subsequent but not current owner bulldozed the crumbling remains of the church built in 1817 was bulldozed in the 1960s. Think about it, the AME Church was only about 23 years old when this was built and slavery was not yet abolished. This is truly one of the earliest AME sites in the same state where the AME church was founded by Richard Allen in Philadelphia. This site pre-dates Ebenezer in Frazer on Bacton Hill Rd.

I tried to write about Shiloh in 2016 when I was told that there was going to be a cleanup of the site. I was invited to it. Yet when I wrote a post people freaked out. So I killed the post and haven’t said boo since.

Only ONE grave survived thanks to a neighbor.

These hallowed grounds matter. People’s ancestors are buried there. Here’s hoping Westtown can get the property owner to come around.

My photo from a Westtown Day either 2016 or 2017 at Oakbourne.

Also see :

Here is the Op Ed from the Inquirer from May 17

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/memorial-day-black-civil-war-veterans-cemeteries-shiloh-ame-church-westtown-20240517.html