So perhaps Faunbrook has a new owner? Apparently the winning bid was around $903,000. And it seems the bid accepted is the lady who owns The Bookhouse Hotel in Kennett Square which is a beautiful and cool place. If this is true, then sign me not just cautiously optimistic, but optimistic.
When Faunbrook went up for Sheriff Sale we all who love that place and Chester County History felt a pit in the bottom of our stomachs. I know people who were interested in the property who told me the sale had gotten too rich for their blood. I still don’t understand how it all happened and I was so sad for the deceased former owner who was beloved in the community.
I looked at Faunbrook for a wedding a bunch of years ago. It’s a magical place. So let us all think positive thoughts that the sale goes through. I would had to see an unscrupulous developer get their paws on this beauty.
Some other stuff I found on Faunbrook is linked below and have a good weekend.
The other day I wrote a post about Harriton House in Bryn Mawr, PA and the executive disaster, err director and essentially was the Harriton Association board awake and breathing? I wrote my post because I was appalled by the rando reenactors, not necessarily museum professionals (the two are hardly mutually exclusive, are they?) playing dress up and house a few days ago, and well were all over the antique furnishings that umm used to have ribbons down the middle and/or little signs on them that said things like “DO NOT SIT.”
I have been around and volunteering at Harriton House most of my life. From the time I was 12. I choose not to go back now except a drive up once in a blue moon because I believe current leadership of the board needs to retire and because I am of the opinion that the current executive director is wrong for this site. I am according to the United States Constitution of which Harriton’s most famous inhabitant Charles Thomson was intimately acquainted with, well within my rights to criticize.
I love the place, and it’s headed down a slippery slope. I think they need changes to survive and that includes a different executive director and a change in board leadership and probably some of the board as well. Many of the original board members I once knew or were familiar with are gone, some deceased. And that is a shame because THOSE were the people who helped make Harriton what it eventually became.
I received one comment from a regular reader about how they were confused by my post because I am generally speaking a huge advocate of historic preservation. To them I explained as I have to the rest of my readers, I get getting creative, but you have to be SMART about it. Reenactors lounging on the furniture isn’t smart. YES have reenactors in the house acting a part, or even giving tours but stay off the furniture. Do living history demonstrations in the education center. That is WHY there is one! And I was around when the money was raised to rejoin the parcels that were all oddly carved out of the Harriton property. I was among those who helped clear out the old stables building that became the education center. It had been inhabited by a very elderly lady who was a hoarder.
Then I received this other comment. From a woman in Troy, New York. Which was rather odd, so did someone send her? Here is what she said:
Here is what she said verbatim:
Museum professionals create education program collections that contain reproductions or common historical objects that are intended for hands on use in education programs. This is different than formally accessioned artifacts used for exhibition and research. The ED of Harrington House is a respected Museum professional. Laypeople like this blogger have not been trained in Museum practices and professional standards. Hands on programs like this one consistently are among the most popular types of Museum programs. This is well documented in numerous museum industry marketing studies. The blogger seems to have some kind of grudge going on
I replied to her:
Dear Starlyn,
I realize that you feel that I would have no concept of good practices. But not only do you not know who I might know nationally and internationally, you also do not know that I am actually fairly bright. And I researched this.
To have a grudge, I would have to know her, and she is not someone I choose to know. But I am very familiar with this property and have been since I was 12 years old.
Other things that have gone on here are people who are regular people like myself just being able to handle historical maps and documents without proper gloves on. That’s a fact not fiction.
Hands-on living history programs are fabulous. But that doesn’t include random reenactors lounging on antiques that in some cases could not be replaced, and they certainly can’t afford to repair them.
Common historical objects are fine to show demonstrations with. That is WHY Harriton House has an education center.
Now fly away back to whomever sent you. I mean you work in Troy, New York as a Director of Corporate, Government, and Foundation Relations for a small college, correct? And resigned your job at Hart Cluett Museum after a rather short duration?
TROY — The Hart Cluett Museum is looking for a new executive director after Starlyn D’Angelo resigned after leading the cultural institutional for 14 months, the museum board announced.
“We thank Star for stepping in during a difficult time for the museum during the pandemic, and for her many contributions leading the museum through reopening to the public,” Mark Shipley, president of the museum’s board of directors, said in a statement.
D’Angelo said she decided to leave the museum after her expectations for the executive director’s job and those of the board did not match. The position is considered to be a high-stress role with the executive director taking on the responsibilities for day-to-day management and fundraising to keep money flowing into the museum coffers. D’Angelo described the workload as untenable in the way the position is structured.
“This is an old story in the nonprofit world. I don’t believe nonprofits as a whole get a lot of support,” D’Angelo said Saturday….The Hart Cluett Museum received a boost when some of HBO’s “The Gilded Age” was filmed here. Troy served as the stand-in for late 19th century New York City where the series is set. The museum provided information and guidance to production designers who were seeking locations in Troy. The series returns to Troy in August to film for a second season.
It is indeed so difficult for smaller non-profits to survive. Especially after COVID. That is totally true. Just look at Van Cortlandt House where Harriton’s current Executive Director came from. It appears to have very limited hours now and they no longer have even a website. I checked today. They also have not done anything on their social media accounts since October, 2023. That’s sad. This place has been under the stewardship of The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York through a license agreement with the City of New York since like 1896 or 1897. But the Colonial Dames are devoted to their sites, so hopefully this is just a setback?
Anyway, back to Harriton House. I won’t apologize for being curious and FYI the The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America takes care of some amazing historic properties, including in our region. They are caretakers of Stenton in Philadelphia which is truly magnificent. Stenton is truly worth visiting if you never have. As Stenton’s website will tell you, “Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia.”
Here:
Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia. Completed in 1730 as a country-seat, plantation house for James Logan – Secretary to William Penn; merchant, politician, justice, scientist, and scholar – Stenton was home to six generations of the Logan family, as well as a diverse community of servants and enslaved Africans, including Dinah, who lived and labored at Stenton for over 50 years. Furnished with 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects, and remaining in little-altered condition, a visit to Stenton offers an unparalleled experience of early Pennsylvania.
The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have worked to “preserve and maintain Stenton as an historic object lesson” since 1899. Today, Stenton administers the award winning History Hunters Youth Reporter Program, which serves over 3,500 underserved Philadelphia schoolchildren each year. Additionally, Stenton’s Colonial Revival Garden was the founding site for the Garden Club of America in 1913, and the site was honored as the winner of the Garden Club of America’s Founders Fund Award in June, 2015. Through tours, educational programs and special events, Stenton continues to transport visitors to the 18th Century.
Stenton has a rather famous landscape. It was as stated above, the founding site for the Garden Club of America in 1913. I am a gardener and garden lover so that is particularly cool for me. Stenton, like Harriton House was once a plantation. Stenton had like 300 acres or better originally. It was lesser acreage than Harriton which originally was something crazy close to 700 acres when William Penn bequeathed the estate to Rowland Ellis in the 1680’s. That is of course when it was called Bryn Mawr (“High Hill” in Welsh.) Then, Ellis sold the property in the early 18th century to Richard Harrison. Upon the transfer of the property and the land under new stewardship, it became Harriton. Just THINK about how far the land for the original land spread and how far into areas we know today, probably not all what we know today as Bryn Mawr either, maybe?
Harriton today, as in the property, is 13 acres according to Lower Merion Township. I think it is actually a little larger. The Harriton Association is responsible for caring for the house and I believe owns the tenant properties BUT Lower Merion Township owns the historic house and Harriton’s parkland.
I was around and volunteering as the old Harriton Association and mainly the former executive director, Bruce Cooper Gill, raised money and worked tirelessly to assemble the Harriton property we know today because although Lower Merion owned the historic house and park, it was the Bruce Cooper Gill and the then Harriton Association who acquired the three now tenant properties which was crucially important because it preserved Harriton and kept developers OUT. And even back a bunch of years THAT was a concern. (One would have thought they would have fêted Bruce properly before they shoved him out the door, right?)
So yeah, I was around for all of those properties being acquired, cleaned up, and so on and so forth. I even donated an old blanket chest that may have been in the 2007 acquisition at one time. Have no clue what happened to it, probably it was later sold at a fair because it has a tenant now.
I love Harriton. I don’t love what is happening and it is my right to say so. I think two years is long enough to see that the current executive director is not the right person although she has the educational background. Running a site like Harriton is more than doing historical costumes and reenactor dress up. The place used to be open with an executive director on site pretty much all of the time (the animals were under his care as well as the site.) Now it seems open Wednesday through Saturday and how many days is this woman actually there physically? The reviews on their Facebook page only have two recent reviews one in 2023 from LMTV which is Lower Merion’s TV station and they probably filmed there and the one in 2024 is a spammer advertising Bitcoin that I just reported as spam.
Obviously I hit a nerve somewhere given the uppity comment of Ms. I-Know-Better-Than-You-Ordinary-Person from Troy, New York. Good. Maybe it wakes some people up. Harriton House is quite literally a national treasure. Educational programs based on history are a great idea. So are historical reenactors…but USE THE EDUCATION CENTER for things, not the antiques in the house. For F’s sake that is WHY the education center was conceived of in the first place.
Harriton needs help. The obviously need money, and they need better direction. I will not say sorry that I think they need a different head of the board of the Harriton Association as well as a better executive director for this site. Harriton has looked sad the last few times I have done a drive by. It’s like even the garden clubs are gone. Lower Merion Township needs to wake up.
Thanks for stopping by on a snowy day.
Harriton House circa 2005 from Montgomery County’s property records listing.
First of all, I will observe that I do not think Historic Harriton House had a large visitor turnout for their “Harriton History Open House”. Mostly the only photos you see are adults playing dress up.
And about that dress up and ummm the fact that Harriton House is categorized as a Historic House Museum. One would HOPE that meant not playing house with precious antiques? Apparently not.
Look at the two photos immediately above. I do not even remember when I took above left. Please note photo on right which is a screenshot from a PUBLIC social media posted Sunday. If you zoom in on my photo (left), it says “DO NOT SIT”, nor are you supposed to monkey about with the petite antique side table. But photo on right, shows adults at the direction of Mrs. Puddle Duck the current executive disaster, err I mean director, frolicking on the antiques??? Are they even allowed to do that as far as their insurers are concerned?
But wait, there is more….
Below on left this time is a screenshot of a publicly posted social media photo posted Sunday as in yesterday. On the right is another one of years ago (I have taken hundreds of photos of Harriton and the fair, and notice the RED RIBBONS on the chairs? That means what class? Oh yes, DON’T SIT ON THE ANTIQUES IN THE HOUSE MUSEUM, correct? I mean can’t that person play their recorder or fife or whatever standing up?
Now then there is the kitchen. I was allowed to play with some dressed up kiddos circa 1976 or so, which although after 1973 when it went national, was an utterly different era. But today? Walter Staib uses the kitchen as a focal point in his PBS television A Taste of History series , but I bet he has some ultra bullet proof insurance to do so? But yesterday? It was dress up shlubs in the kitchen, so was there even special event insurance? Was Lower Merion Township ok with this after the executive disaster, err director’s first jam après the palace coup at Harriton replacing the man who literally made Harriton House what it became through 46 plus years of devotion, knowledge, and brutally hard work at times? As I heard it told there may have been a little fire in the colonial beehive oven because someone didn’t know how to use it and lumpy baking disasters? Below is a screenshot from January 2023 that shows the singed spot rather well doesn’t it? I mean I know that beehive door cover thingy had been rebuilt and was quite lovely before, right?
So yes, I did look up the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form from 1973. This house is locally, state, and federally recognized. It’s also in a category of a historic house museum which mean randos playing reenactment dress up kind of should not be lounging on the furniture, nor should the furniture be moved around a great deal. That is only preservation common sense, isn’t it? And doesn’t the 2022 IRS Form 990 value the antiques at over $500K? Also they probably kind of like shouldn’t touch historical documents up in the office area on the second floor unless you are wearing those museum grade cotton protective gloves either, right?
I would send you to the Harriton House website, but it has been pending a make over as per their words since 2023. I mean how hard is it to launch a website these days? Not very, but hey what do I know, right? I mean if you can’t launch a new website in colonial garb, Benjamin Franklin might be rolling in his grave or something, perhaps? Gosh am I being sarcastic? Sorry…but not really. It’s just how I feel about WHY they still don’t seem to have an updated website that functions well.
So what does the executive disaster, err director actually do all day? Does she come to Harriton every day? Look, I get as the now not so new girl (well it has been two years) she wants to make her own mark “storming the castle”, and I have no problem with living history days but Harriton House is like a giant ball of antiques, some probably close to irreplaceable, so if she only used her brain for more than dress up opportunities?
I have been struggling with how I now feel about Harriton House since they shoved the former executive director out not so long after his wife died. He was planning on retiring, but it’s always felt like some on that Harriton Association board just knee capped him and we can have that opinion, right? I mean how many days was he given to clear out 46+ years?
Part of the issues Harriton House faces is it’s definitely hard to be a small non-profit in the current environment. But it also means that the board of the Harriton Association has to be more hands on, and they need a change in leadership. The person at the helm should step down. I am also allowed that opinion. They have created the air of insular. With the former executive director there was more interaction and co-mingling with other non-profits. That is necessary for survival. The financials at the end of 2022 according to the IRS Form 990 don’t paint a pretty picture. What will 2023 say? I saw losses from beginning of year to end of year, increased expenses and salaries and for what? Also not to be petty, but 2020 was COVID right? They had HIGHER contributions than 2022 and line item 22 wasn’t showing a loss at end of year, either….so let’s see that means what exactly? That they can’t blame COVID or the former executive director?
I think Harriton House is continuing to slide down. And that is truly heart breaking and a goddamn waste of so many decades of honest hard work. And playing dress up and play acting on the literal antiques of a historic house museum is just bullshit. Also have they found a suitable tenant for the rental property attached to the historic house yet? That has been empty since when? September, 2023? That’s a significant amount of time to lose rent on the best rental property they have isn’t it?
At the very bottom, I will show you photos of the Harriton House I love. Hopefully it finds it’s way back there. But it won’t happen with the current executive disaster, err director and it won’t happen if the current chair of the Harriton Association doesn’t have the grace to step aside for other leadership.
Have a great week ahead. Avoid historic preservation disasters like randos playing dress up and frolicking among the antiques etc.
For the first time my blog’s header photo is from another photographer other than myself. Thank you Henry Alonzo Longabaugh
I want you to see how bad it has gotten at Lloyd Farm in Caln Township.
A new photographer friend, Henry Alonzo Longabaugh, sent in photos.
This is again, land that was part of an original Penn land grant. This farm existed before the USA was a country.
As residents of Chester County, Pennsylvania, we really need to start standing up for these properties and open space better. We are falling down on the job, quite literally.
This is yet another reason why I am saying that for election 2024, we need to make development, over development, lack of historic preservation, not enough open, space, preservation, and not enough agricultural conservation in Pennsylvania counties known for farming election issues.
Enjoy and learn from the photos.
And because of a greedy developer, and that is an opinion that we are allowed to have under the U.S. Constitution, this is not only demolition by neglect, but quite frankly historic destruction. And Caln Township is allowing it.
Damn people it’s developer who’s on first isn’t it?
Late last night, I broke the news on this blog about the Johnson Matthey land getting sold in West Whiteland and as per the Philadelphia business journal plans for Eli, Kahn to build warehouses.
But wait, there’s more. Apparently misery loves company and there’s another warehouse bit of scuttlebutt floating around Chester County, not too far away from this.
Sources living out around Uwchlan who have had to live through Lionville Statuon Farm have been keeping an eye on a particular location off of Route 100 and behind where the Harley Davidson place was and kind of where the ice hockey rink is.
They say that on edge of Uwchlan, another warehouse plan is being hatched? Is it true it is also developer Eli Kahn? The fear is that someone if not him will be putting up a warehouse at the end of Haywood Drive (where the skating rink is) and does anyone else have details? The land is fully covered in trees that provides a nice buffer from the turnpike for people on roads like Susan Drive and Saddle Drive.
So if I have it straight, it’s the Uwchlan side of East Township Line Road? Rumors residents are hearing has it that Uwchlan Township expects a warehouse proposal there in February?
And speaking of warehouse proposals what about that land near this cleared by Hankin last year or something for warehouses?
So I think, in my humble opinion that warehouses are the new apartments/condos/town houses/carriage homes/commercial real estate office buildings.
People say this real estate market is still so “hot.” I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. No one wants to admit when a real estate market is softening because it’s the death knell for developers isn’t it? I think certain aspects of real estate are still “hot,” but I think people are not renting the apartments as quickly as we are told; I don’t think new builds on condo, townhouse, developments, and “carriage” homes are moving as quickly as possible. Also just driving around you can see that regular residential McMansion builds are not selling out as quickly anymore.
And we know the commercial real estate market is also struggling given the fact how developers want to reimagine commercial office buildings if they can’t sell them. Look no further than Tredyffrin . They want to make one a school which actually isn’t a bad idea.
But then you look at East Whiteland and a developer wants to turn an old commercial office building into apartments because we need more of those of course, right?
By Ashley Fahey – Editor, The National Observer: Real Estate Edition, The Business Journals Jan 24, 2024
Now I am told from friends in Tredyffrin the new builds in historic Mount Pleasant are not quite selling like hotcakes, and the upper Merion side of Mount Pleasant has he had another proposal coming for like three more McMansion houses – this was the message I received:
Upper Merion Zoning Board Hearing next Wednesday February 7th. 7pm. Developer wants to build 3 townhomes at 1034 Mt Pleasant.
Called the ZHB officer to ask if neighbors on the Tredyffrin end of the street are allowed to speak. Waiting for a return call.
So recent infill development in Mount Pleasant. I think is one single McMansion and eight McMansion twins and residents over there are not seeing any have sold.
Ok ⬆️ above is preposterously called The Enclave at Saint Davids. That is very amusing Main Line marketing to me because this is Wayne but it’s close to St. David’s which I guess sounds more pretentious? You know kind of like when they call Downingtown Chester Springs? And the price tag on Henry/Fairview ? $1,349,000. $1,149,000.
Now part of the reason they’re maybe not selling are the student housing slumlords in this neck of the woods right? I mean would you want your million dollar house down the street from where drunken off campus college students are vomiting on residents cars after partying all night?
Sorry, I know I’ve been rambling on here a bit. But we have to keep talking about these crazy ass developments. They keep popping up so they’re still building residential but it’s really not selling the way you would think. People are still buying houses but they’re looking for established neighborhoods and even fixer-uppers because the price points are so crazy.
And then there are all the parcels of land or structures are sitting rotting because no one has paid the price to buy the land. That could be for commercial or residential.
In some cases, there are historical assets sitting there rotting. Lloyd Farm in Caln comes to mind or the Joseph Price House in Exton/West Whiteland. Even the historic farmhouse on Route 30 in Frazer, next to the boat dealership counts.
Whatever the reason is for development, there is too much of it. And if all of a sudden more warehouse, plans are popping up and worse it’s a potential indication of the fact that municipalities need to actually pay close attention here? But are they?
Only time will tell.
Maybe it’s just my opinion, but maybe just maybe it all needs to stop for a while? And we can’t do it just with the officials in various municipalities, the state needs to step in, but then they would have to get past lobbyists wouldn’t they?
I leave you with beware the Aesop‘s fable of “build it and they will come,” because sometimes it’s just like the Emperor’s New Clothes and maybe not really there, but hey, I am but a mere mortal and a female. What do I know right?
It was Happy Days Farm. It was part of a Penn Land grant. It was a historic resource. It was beautiful and until not that long ago, a working farm with terrific tenant farmers who cared about the land. Vanguard the financial giant had come to own it.
Now as of fall of 2023 another developer is in control. Portman Holdings of Atlanta is busy steamrolling it all down for some kind of 1.9 million-square-foot industrial complex. So is that developer speak for lots of warehouses?
We drove past what was Happy Days Farm today and it’s so sad and a waste. Chester County is disappearing one bad development at a time. Soon it will all be bulldozed and a county historically known once for farms, open space, bucolic vistas and lovely country architecture and more will be gone.
My wish for 2024? That Chester County residents will rise up and start saving what’s left of Chester County; will make saving Chester County an ELECTION issue. It’s a Presidential election year. Just a thought.
I stumbled across this again doing some research and it is truly a wonderful history of the township. It is on West Whiteland’s website and you can download it to read. I have uploaded it here as well because I really think it’s good.
I have lost count of how many times I have written about the Joseph Price House in Exton at 401 Clover Mill Rd, Exton, PA 19341 on the corner of S. Whitford Road. It has been on my mind because of the weather lately. Especially with all of the flooding and downed trees around S. Whitford Road.
So here’s the house….continuing to rot. I last wrote about it in October, 2023.
I wish some newspaper writer or TV reporter would take a break from murders, Trump, snow, etc. and focus on the serious lack of preservation by some property owners in Southeastern PA with regard to historic structures like this house, which is recognized as a historic asset by the federal government as well.
It is no secret that I love Loch Aerie Mansion. I love Addison Hutton architecture and this house is just magical! The difference from way back when I started photographing her. Here are some photos to illustrate the remarkable restoration:
Loch Aerie opened her doors today for a Christmas open house. All that was asked of her visitors was to bring a new toy for Tpys for Tots or non-perishable food for the Chester County Food Bank. In return, we got to soak in the beautiful Christmas spirit of Loch Aerie all restored, take photos with Santa and enjoy some holiday goodies along with cocoa and hot cider.
There were a whole bunch of adorable children, taking photos with Santa! My friend was the Santa and he had a great costume!
Loch Aerie should be awarded all sorts of awards for historic restoration and adaptive reuse that works. I loved this open house this afternoon. Enjoy the photos!
Loch Aerie is in East Whiteland Township, Chester County.
If you are interested in Loch Aerie as an event or wedding space it is located at 700 Lancaster Avenue, Malvern/Frazer PA 19355. Their website is www.lochaeriemansion.com
I liked it better with the old growth garden plants and trees and the beautiful Wayne Bed & Breakfast. Now it will soon be a naked acres homogenous row of McMansions. Location is Strafford Ave. and Eagle Road.
Radnor Township should wake up, but they won’t. None of these municipalities wake up until it’s too late. It’s the same situation on Radnor Street Road where the land is stripped bare for another homogenous row of McMansions. Every time I drive by I am astounded at the rape of the land. Beautiful and old trees just bulldozed away.
Add to this the planned development of downtown Wayne. Between what is being proposed for Lancaster Avenue and then the AT&T lot, every bit of what makes Wayne special is getting developed away.
