Category Archives: home front

they are not trying to destroy history by demolishing flood houses in downingtown. sadly, it’s necessary.

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I received a comment the other day:

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. 

https://www.downingtownhistory.org/flood-of-1942

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 struggles to shake aftermath of Ida’s floodwater damages with an estimated $10 million in losses suffered by community

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 too often.

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.

Truly, I’m sorry. 

Enjoy what’s left of a beautiful day.

and then you noodle around some more looking at how many air bnb and vrbo short term rentals are available elsewhere

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Alice down the Air BnB and VRBO rabbit hole continues. Mostly Chester County and crazy to reasonable prices, so many municipalities. Most, but not all municipalities, have provisions for these “short term rentals.“ However, I still think that in a lot of cases, they don’t know where all of these “short term rentals” are within their municipalities.

Then you have to wonder if municipalities are leaving money on the table? Do they charge these “short term rentals“ annual fees? Are there more frequent inspections? Do they see if these properties are carrying extra insurance that one would think they would need?

It’s not just a cottage industry for people who don’t know what to do with properties, you also have the speculative don’t you? So how does this affect the overall health of the community? I’m not saying they’re bad, but it seems like there is a glut of them doesn’t it?

They are limiting Air BnBs and VRBOs in Europe. They’re doing it to preserve the character and history of places among other things.

I found an interesting BBC article from this past July:

BBC What does a world without Airbnb look like?

And that’s the thing isn’t it? These are another form of flipper these people that do these short term, rental places, and they are competing with families and individuals looking for a place to live that’s somewhat affordable.

I think, given the glut of these short term rentals on the Main Line and Chester County and other places like Chadds Ford or Edgemont, etc. we probably need some rules. Could short term rental properties like this also be yet another reason why the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania might want to be updated since it hasn’t really been done since 1969?

Well, this is just some more to think on. At the bottom are the two other posts I have written this week on this topic.

This was a topic of discussion, apparently in Harrisburg this summer :

Testifiers shed light on need for short-term rental regulation in PA

Policy hearing examined impact of short-term rentals on housing availability, tourism

Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus    July 29, 2024 | 2:44 PM

PITTSBURGH, JULY 29 – The number of short-term rental properties are on the rise in Pennsylvania, and testifiers at Monday’s House Majority Policy Committee hearing on the topic detailed the need to introduce regulations to address ongoing concerns. 

The hearing, hosted by Rep. Lindsay Powell (D-Allegheny), examined the increase of short-term rental properties and its impact on tourism and housing availability. In 2022, there were 107 active short-term rental properties in Lawrenceville, but that number has since doubled and continues to increase. This increase in rental property ownership comes amid a housing crisis facing residents across the state.

“We have a growing need to make sure we have affordable, accessible, and dignified housing. We also have a need to expand our tourism efforts in Western Pennsylvania,” said Powell. “We need to explore ways we can expand tourism while creating more opportunities for affordable housing in a way that they are not diametrically opposed.”

Testifiers noted a disturbing trend of out-of-town entities purchasing homes for the sole purpose of turning them into a short-term rental properties. A recent Corporate Housing Studyshowed an 18% increase in houses sold to corporate entities in Allegheny County.

“There’s strong evidence that short-term rentals exacerbate our affordability crisis by reducing the overall supply of rental housing through conversions into short-term rentals and by boxing out prospective homebuyers,” said Dave Breingan, Executive Director of Lawrenceville United. “This will disproportionately impact low-income and elderly homeowners, families with children and first-time homebuyers.”

Testifiers agreed that local, responsible short-term rental operators can and have helped positively impact the area. However, many out-of-town entities purchase property for short-term rental use, then neglect their responsibilities. This has led to massive late-night parties that come with disruptive noise, public drunkenness, fighting and littering.

With the impacts on housing affordability, public safety and tourism, testifiers detailed the need for more regulations on short-term housing ownership. Recommendations include preserving housing stock for traditional homeownership, introducing efforts to minimize public nuisance complaints and reducing heavy concentrations of short-term rentals in residential areas.

I don’t know why our communities aren’t having more conversations about the short term rentals. Actually, I do know because look what happened in Willistown when they were almost discussed a while back, and it’s like everything goes underground. It’s a very contentious in West Chester borough right now. It was an issue in West Vincent.

This is a curious issue. I think perhaps it would be less curious if communities would discuss this openly. And I don’t think it’s for in a lot of cases a lack of residents trying. I really think it goes back in the end to each municipality, and how they are approaching the topic, if they have approach the topic, and maybe if they need to discuss the topic some more. 

Thanks for stopping by.

just HOW MANY houses on the main line are air bnb???
to air bnb or to bnb in chadds ford…that is the question

just HOW MANY houses on the main line are air bnb???

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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.

Happy Friday!

got tickets? surrey holiday house tour tickets go on sale october 2nd!!!

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When your friends are on a committee, you buy tickets.

When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and Christmas is a favorite season, you buy tickets.

When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and it benefits one of your favorite local nonprofits and helps seniors, you also become a sponsor.

So yes, I am personally on the sponsor list for the 2024 Surrey Holiday House Tour & Shop. Now I can’t be a big platinum sponsor, but I joined in where I could.

Surrey Services is a very special nonprofit to us in our house, so this is a pleasure all the way around.

Jim Devine Photography Photo

I am so excited for this year‘s tour and it’s Friday, December 6 and those tickets sell out fast that is not just hype. They literally fly out the door.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning October 2nd.

Again, tickets are live TOMORROW !

Start your countdown…⏰


Visit SurreyServices.org to purchase your tickets for our Holiday House Tour. Tickets are $95 per person and include a box lunch.

And the shops which are open to all? They are amazing! They have tons of vendors and my friend, Eddie Ross, who is also Volunteer Chair of this event, will be a vendor this year as well. If you have ever gone to his sales at his studio, I need to say no more, he has fabulous taste. And he loves Christmas as well! We share a love of old German kugel ornaments and glass icicle ornaments – as a matter of fact, he gave me these wonderful vintage glass icicle ornaments last year for Christmas that I can’t wait to put on the tree this year!

You KNOW you want to go!!! Come on now, let’s sell this event out and raise lots of money for Surrey. There are very few events I support at this point and this is one of them so I hope you will join all of us. It’s a wonderful day!

SurreyServices #HolidayHouseTour #mainlinepa

Jim Devine Photography Photo

former congressman jim gerlach has a new gig, and it sounds interesting and timely.

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Former Congressman Jim Gerlach May 29, 2010 at Historic Montgomery Cemetery at a Memorial Day Observance with a lady I once knew as Auntie Eileen.

I think it’s time to mention how we all wherever we are, whatever we believe, need to be able to have conversations. We can be opposites politically all of the time and yet, we can should be able to talk about things, even politics. People have lost that ability and I think it’s sad. We all don’t have to be bobble headed sheeple for either political party, but we need to relearn the art of conversation and meeting in the middle to get things done. To that end and this topic, has everyone seen see the article in the Daily Local about Jim Gerlach?

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach joins group fighting to defend democracy

I have to admit, I would not have chosen that title for the article, I find it cringey and awkward. But because it was about someone I like and respect, I read the article. Here’s an excerpt:

Jim Gerlach has taken on a new position.

The former congressman has joined the board of the Pennsylvania Democracy Defense Project. The organization was created to support the transparency, safety, security and validity of Pennsylvania’s election system.

“I’m excited to join this bipartisan coalition of Pennsylvania and national leaders working to restore faith in our election system,” Gerlach said in a release announcing his appointment to the board. “Now more than ever, we must work to dispel the misinformation surrounding our elections and restore trust in the process.”

Gerlach most recently stepped down from his post as president and CEO of the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance last year. He  had been with the chamber since March 2020.

Before taking over as leader of the local chamber, Gerlach represented parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties as a member of Congress for 12 years. The Republican lawmaker, who was widely regarded as someone willing to work with his colleagues across the aisle….Gerlach joins former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart and former State House Speaker Keith McCall as board members of the Democracy Defense Project in Pennsylvania.

This bi-partisan approach is not new to Jim Gerlach. He practices what he preaches on this topic, he always has, from the State House to Washington, D.C.

In 2022 he co-authored an Op-Ed in The Hill:

The Hill Opinion>Congress Blog
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
It’s time to put civility back in our politics
by Former Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) and Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), opinion contributors – 04/11/22 9:00 AM ET

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago last week, on April 6, 1789, the first joint session of the U.S. House and Senate met in New York’s Federal Hall and proceeded to count the electoral votes that would establish George Washington as the nation’s first President. That remarkable proceeding was peaceful, dignified and the outcome was accepted by all participants – candidates and supporters alike, those who prevailed and those who did not. Thus began the first full session of an institution now in its 117th iteration.  

Since the founding, more than ten thousand Americans have had the honor and privilege to represent their constituents in the House of Representatives and Senate. As legislators, their primary responsibility has been to accurately reflect the will and needs of those they represent and, most importantly, engage with their colleagues and the executive branch to formulate public policy that best advances the rights, opportunities, and security of their fellow citizens.  

Because our nation is so diverse, our people’s representatives are as well. Consequently, to achieve passage of legislation in either chamber, productive members are those who interact with each other, engage in meaningful conversation, and ultimately find the common ground that is the foundation of public policy advancement. They do so by respecting each other as colleagues, regardless of party label.  It is certainly true, that during that first Congress and ever since, spirited policy debate has been the hallmark of the American legislative process. But that debate must be conducted civilly and responsibly if we are to advance as a nation. 

Unfortunately, in the past few years, the conduct of far too many members of the House and Senate and in legislative bodies across the land has devolved into angry exchanges and name-calling that serves no other purpose than to inflame passions and harden sentiments against fellow officials. We are concerned that too many of those serving in and seeking elected office are willing to degrade our centuries-old representative democracy by riding a wave of tribalism and division. Instead of engaging in dialogue to achieve practical policy solutions, these outbursts of acrimony only serve to further separate members from each other and inflame individuals and organizations among the broader public. Worse, the rhetoric is increasingly involving threats or encouragement of acts of violence. 

In response to this dangerous and divisive trend, as two former members of Congress with a combined 24 years of service and coming from different regions and political parties, we have authored a “Civility, Not Violence Pledge” that has now been signed by a bipartisan group of over 100 former members of Congress. Together, we have all have pledged to withhold our support of any candidates – regardless of party – who advocate or threaten violence against their political adversaries. The pledge reads: 

“Recognizing that a strong, vibrant, and unified republic is founded on our citizenry’s mutual respect for the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others, and 

That our local, state, and federal elected officials have a special and solemn responsibility to recognize and promote such mutual respect in the conduct of their public duties, and 

That their conduct should at all times be civil, respectful, and ethical in action and discourse, 

The undersigned do hereby affirm and pledge that they will: 

  • Responsibly conduct themselves in speech and action in a manner that fosters civility and respect among fellow officials and citizens, 
  • Decry and oppose any conduct or activity that encourages, supports, or condones any act or threat of violence against any individuals, groups, elected officials, or government employees at any level of government, and 
  • Decline support for any persons or organizations that encourage, support or condone such violence.” 

…Having served in office ourselves, we call on current members and candidates for Congress to join us and publicly demonstrate their recognition that public service should be founded on mutual respect for their colleagues and constituents, and that their words and conduct should not be used to support or condone any form of violence in the public square. We also call on the public and the media to hold elected officials and all candidates accountable to make and abide by this same commitment.

See the pledge and the signers at www.civilitynotviolence.org/  

Baird served in Congress from 1999-2011 and Gerlach served from 2003-2015. Both are members of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress. 

Jim Gerlach with members of the Save Ardmore Coalition in 2006 with the late (and beloved and missed) Dick Saha and his wife Nancy of Wagontown Valley Township

Jim Gerlach was our Congressman for many years and he was a terrific congressman in my opinion. He helped us in Ardmore with eminent domain for private gain many years ago and the hallmark of his tenure in Congress is his door was always open for anyone regardless of political persuasion. You do not have that today and then there is the pecking order or if you can’t do anything for most elected officials with few exceptions, they don’t have time or they are more aptly put handled out of reach of every day constituents.

Now he has joined the board of the Pennsylvania Democracy Defense Project. The organization was created to support the transparency, safety, security and validity of Pennsylvania’s election system. Gerlach joins former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart and former State House Speaker Keith McCall as board members of the Democracy Defense Project in Pennsylvania. This group wants to bring together trusted leaders to bolster faith in the integrity of election systems. They said the organization will run a campaign to raise awareness of efforts to subvert elections across the country and help move people beyond polarizing rhetoric. This is BI-PARTISAN.

I think this is a great idea and I hope it’s successful. I am tired of the rhetoric. I am tired of the baseless crazy conspiracy theories and ridiculous litigation after every election cycle. And I know most of you are so I hope you all pay attention to this.

I am sure the critics of this post will become giant mina birds as to why this won’t work, and to them I simply say, what if it does? We have to start somewhere. The extremism of politics is ruining this country. Pure and simple. And no someone like Donald Trump won’t seriously support something like this because most simply put, a project like this is a complete threat to his insanity. He is essentially an autocrat, a dictator in training and has destroyed the Republican party. He is about whomever gets all the toys wins and HE wants all of the toys, he will never as a malignant narcissist care about anyone other than him which is exactly WHY when something BI-PARTISAN pops up, we all as Americans need to look at it.

The website is below.

Happy Friyay all.

https://www.democracydefenseproject.org/pa

Also from Memorial Day weekend 2010, then Congressman Jim Gerlach with Civil War Reenactors

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

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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:

Supervisors delay decision regarding parking issues at Waterloo Complex
Proposed Berwyn residential, office complex faces hurdles
Plans approved by Easttown planners after lively exchange
Waterloo Complex applicant is all out of patience

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.

lampshades

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Lampshades. Yes, lampshades. A very important detail in my opinion, just like choosing the right lamp.

Above is one of my favorite lamps. My husband can actually take it or leave it but I love it. I actually bought it for $30 without the shade, but newly rewired at the very first clover market ever a bunch of years ago and it was rewired.

This lamp is actually from 1935 and you can find an example of it online in the West Virginia Museum of American Glass:

Idealite, Inc., electric lamp base. Clear. Blown pattern incorporates stars, swags and tassels. Embossed under the base: “PAT. NO. 95524.” Possibly made by L. E. Smith Glass Company.

No, I don’t think my lamp is particularly valuable, I just like it and I think it’s cool that I was able to rewire it because I think it’s better looking than a lot of lamps I see today. Like many other details in a home, sometimes a rewired and modernized lamp is awesome.

I have actually used three or four different shades on this one lamp. I had not been thrilled with the one I had on the lamp most recently . It was almost right but not quite. Maybe it’s a woman thing and it’s kind of like not exactly having the right pair of shoes to go with an outfit or purse. It just has to be right.

So I was looking at a Facebook memory of a lampshade with pine cones and chickadees I bought from a woman in Maine who makes the most wonderful lampshades. Her name is Barbara Gail Lewis. Her business is found on Etsy and is called Barbara Gail’s Lamps.

Barbara is really an artist. And this lamp shade is so fun. I hunted for years a few years ago to find someone that made these pierced and cut and hand colored shades. I think it’s a real art form, and there used to be this lovely lady up in Adamstown, PA at Black Angus Antiques back in the day who made them, but I think she’s long since retired and the last time I went up there no one did lampshades like this.

To an extent, these handcrafted shades are an anachronism to modern designers. And they’re not in general “fashion” for home design and that’s fine. I don’t need to be trendy I just know what I like. And I have liked these lampshades since I was a kid because my mother has some, some of my friends’ mothers had them and grandparents had them. It’s kind of like a handmade patchwork quilt and to me it gives a sense of home.

So when I first bought the shade with the pine cones and the chickadees, I bought the wrong size. Because if you don’t learn how to measure properly for a lampshade, you’re screwed. From another business I buy lampshades from, Lamps Plus, here is a little video explaining how to measure for a new lampshade:

Anyway, I bought this lampshade originally for an old stoneware jug my mother had made into a lamp years ago. But the first lampshade I bought I didn’t measure correctly, and I needed a slightly larger one. So I hung onto the smaller shade and I’m glad I did because all of a sudden today I realized it would be perfect on this clear glass lamp.

I love these pierced and hand cut lamp shades. Sometimes they are just cut and other times they are multi dimensional and also hand colored like the ones that I have that are the chickadees and the pinecones. During the day when your lamp is off, it just looks like a pierced and cut lampshade. Here is another one I have for a converted oil lamp, another favorite lamp style of mine:

So I really do like converted oil lamps lamps. But I only convert lamps that have cracked collars or can’t be used as an oil lamp. I remember when Martha Stewart had converting oil lamps on her early TV series and in her magazine . Literally season 2 of the original series in 1995. It made finding antique oil lamps a very expensive proposition when they had been very reasonable in price. And then everywhere you turned, you had people turning usable oil lamps into electric lamps badly.

It was one of the Martha crazes back then I didn’t really like. As a matter of fact, it made me dislike her series and magazine, because half of the things I liked, she liked as well, and then she made a cost prohibitive for the rest of us. Yes, I know it’s the whole literal theory of supply and demand. Martha Stewart has always been good at supply and demand, and actually a lot of what many of us find sentimental.

So for years, I couldn’t either find oil lamps I wanted to use with liquid paraffin in them, or that were slightly damaged to convert to a regular lamp. You see I don’t believe in converting the ones that work in their original capacity to electricity. But everything is cyclical even in home decor, and now you can find some really great lamps and still get the shades made.

The lamp above is a great example. Over 12 years I found that brass lamp at the East Goshen Yard Sale when you used to go to peoples driveways and not to the township building or the park. It was from a farm on Hershey’s Mill Road set up off the road where I think it’s slated for some kind of residential development at this point, sadly. Or it was presented as such a couple of years ago. I wrote about the house:

nasty subdivision potential in east goshen? file under another chesco farm about to bite the dust?

Now I paid $12 for the lamp. The brass was In wonderful condition but it was unusable as an oil lamp due to a crack in the collar and a little one at the bottom. So it would make a perfect table lamp. I took it to Home Lighting of Frazer. They did a great job wiring the lamp, but they were super slow and really expensive. Because I spent so much on the wiring I had to hunt to find a reasonably priced vintage shade because I didn’t think a new shade would work for this lamp. I found one on eBay and it was hard sided and it’s historical buildings I believe of Williamsburg, Virginia.

Vintage lampshades can be the bomb. Usually they are, like lots of things, better made. I find them all over locally. Dishfunctional, Surrey Consignment Shop, St. David’s Fair, Frazer Antiques, Clover Market, estate sales and even Goodwill. Also eBay and Etsy. And sometimes even the Smithfield Barn.

For handmade shades there is also the Lampshade Lady on Etsy and LJs Florals and Shades.

There are other lampshade creators I occasionally see at craft shows, but none that I can find regularly. One was Shady Lady Lampshades.

Anyway enough waxing poetic on lampshades. But the right one can really change the look of a room and a lamp.

historic destruction, not demolition by neglect

Posted on by
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.

penndot needs to revisit the ship road couplet in west whiteland.

Posted on by
Resident submitted photo

I don’t even know where to start with this Ship Road Couplet, other than so far all it’s doing is giving residents heart attacks because of all the people going the wrong way.

I am generally not a giant proponent of things designed by PennDOT, because so often it doesn’t necessarily fit the area they plunk stuff into.

In my opinion, right or wrong, the Ship Road Couplet is why the people who live near Route 352 and West King Rd. didn’t want PennDot to have their way with a traffic circle there a few years ago.

I have been on it once and I didn’t like it. And the reason I didn’t like it is because of people going the wrong way on it and that’s scary. So honestly, I have avoided it ever since.

As is the case with many things PennDot, they engineer things and that’s that. However, I do know that West Whiteland has additional signage and maybe some lights or something arriving soon but it’s just problematic. I know the supervisors there aren’t going to like my opinion on this, but it’s my opinion.

I think this whole couplet was designed solely to facilitate a developer and a development that residents in West Whiteland and elsewhere didn’t want there. It’s a crappy looking development and it’s all about adding more density to an area, bursting at the seams, and then a developer pockets the money and moves along to the next project. Of course, in this case, one of the projects is the land he bought at King Rd and Phoenixville Pike and possibly behind the homes on Old Phoenixville Pike, right?

I also have to ask did the developer kick in any money towards this intersection improvement? I remember when Conshohocken was being redeveloped, developers had to help facilitate road improvements and that included signals, road improvements and a new bridge at one point.

So to me, this was a traffic solution especially designed for a developer and development, but did it really need to be that? It’s kind of like zoning overlays that are designed for developers. I think those are a bad idea too, but you that’s another topic for another day.

Residents have pointed out flaws in the design, even on Route 30. On Route 30 it’s with the turning going straight, etc. and there’s this weird dip or maybe a pocket in the road. So wait until it gets icy if somebody’s going too fast right?

Below for illustrative purposes, are 4 photos that are on Google. Top left is what it looked like before the couplet went in. Top right is a review of the Wawa that’s really a review of the couplet. Lower left taken three weeks ago shows you how freaking unattractive the whole thing is from an aesthetic opinion along with how lame directional curb cuts are. Bottom right is just how big the Wawa is, basically.

Now I have looked at this Wawa, and they have sort of angled curb cuts, but quite frankly, not angled enough to keep people from going the wrong way. I think they need to be angled better, and I think there needs to be one of those little concrete bollard things to prohibit people from turning the wrong way. This is not the first Wawa that has had to revisit curb cuts. I seem to remember a Main Line one having to do it at one time and I think it was the one on Bryn Mawr Avenue and Haverford Road.

All people do is go to the wrong way on this. And I think part of it is all the map programs haven’t caught up with this road “improvement.” and I went on Google just today to see if they finally would have pictures of what the couplet looks like on Google and they do not. PennDOT did a typical pat themselves on the back but not much else.

So PennDOT? Tag you’re it. And I hope you like the photo a nice business was kind enough to share with me today. I think it sums the situation up perfectly: Happy New Year To All Except The Ship Road Engineer.

is it too soon to tell eli kahn to buzz off with warehouses on phoenixville pike in west whiteland?

Posted on by

So we all know that this land has been for sale on the edge of East Whiteland, but in West Whiteland. It is one of two parcels you can see on W. King Rd. This particular parcel is part of Johnson Matthey, or it was until today apparently. Eli Kahn, has purchased the land according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Some of us were talking about this parcel earlier today, because a friend of mine, saw a bobcat in the overgrown, weedy plot of land, clearing it, or doing something like clearing it.

I actually said to someone I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I said maybe they’re finally just cleaning it up because it’s been for sale for so long. Well I should’ve known better, it’s been sold.

Developer buys 16 acres in Chester County, plans warehouse project

Paul Schwedelson

By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal

Jan 29, 2024

I will admit, as soon as I saw this article what I said out loud sitting here reading it was motherf—-er. Yes I said that. Loudly. I mean Christ almighty HOW MUCH MORE DEVELOPMENT? HOW MUCH MORE?

Because this is already the rumored developer sniffing around on that 15 acres behind old Phoenixville Pike across W. King Rd., isn’t it?

what is happening over around old phoenixville pike in west whiteland, really?

And let us not forget that the Weston tract is in play for fairly dense residential development still, even if West Whiteland said no to the last round of developer ideas. And Weston is for sure getting developed as something. And gosh a few pipelines run around there too, don’t they?

they said “no” in west whiteland!

And let us not forget the hot mess up at Ship Road and Lancaster Avenue in West Whiteland. And the Ship Road Couplet.

The above photos are from September, 2023.

HOW MUCH DEVELOPMENT CAN WE SWALLOW?

Oh the Philadelphia Business Journal referred to Johnson Matthey as:

“Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company that owns the adjacent parcel with an industrial building on it.”

Well that made me giggle. Johnson Matthey is like a born again virgin I suppose? Are we all supposed to forget they were among the successor companies to Bishop Tube that still toxic paradise on S. Malin Road in East Whiteland? Is it just coloring outside the lines to mention the little fact of life called a local area evacuation in 2011 because of a hydrogen trailer explosion at Johnson Matthey?

Homes evacuated near West Whiteland explosion site

The Johnson Matthey plant and nearby homes in West Whiteland, Chester County, have been evacuated after a hydrogen trailer exploded this morning.

Action News reports one injured person was taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center in an unknown condition and King Road is shut down between Ravine and Phoenixville Pike.

The Red Cross is already on the scene and will be at the East Whiteland Fire Department to assist with a reception center.

Here is the official announcement from PEMA:

“An immediate evacuation is issued for West Whiteland Township in Chester County due to fire at Johnson Matthey Company. Residents in the area are to evacuate to East Whiteland Fire Company, 170 Planebrook Road, off Rt. 30 Frazer – evacuated roads include King Road, Ravine Road, Glen Loch Way and Lewis Lane. Residents needing assistance should call 610-344-5005. Motorists and pedestrians should avoid unnecessary travel within the perimeter of the area. Stay tuned to your local televison and radio network for updated information.”

~ WHYY August 3, 2011

So Johnson Matthey is still a site to watch so we assume Mr. Developer Man will have this just purchased the land at Phoenixville Pike and West King Road tested for toxic chemicals? Because there is that worry somewhat, right? Even if that goes industrial there?

So we really do need to think about this here. Traffic is already hard. There is RESIDENTIAL up and down King Road on BOTH sides of Phoenixville/Old Phoenixville Pikes.

There is residential already suffering on Ship Road.

And warehouses? Now they want to Amazon us over here? So other types of commercial real estate (offices)! aren’t moving so they are trying everywhere to dump it or convert it to residential and in Tredyffrin, to a school, but is residential really, really moving that fast? And then what’s left? Why warehouses and hydrogen hubs and data farms/data centers, right?

And where does that leave us suckers I mean residents? Those of us who lived here before developers, saw something juicy up the road or two roads over or three roads over or another township over?

What are our rights as residents of Chester County and these various municipalities? it’s like we have no rights and I don’t know about you, but I’m goddamn tired of it. We work hard to have our homes and to raise our families in a specific area and one by one every area is getting targeted by developers and none of these developers, or anything, other than predatory in my humble opinion, and I can have that humble opinion.

This is why, yet again, the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of freaking Pennsylvania needs to be updated COMPREHENSIVELY. I mean come on you. Lovely politicians in Harrisburg. You haven’t done a comprehensive update since 1969 and I know you’re saying why rush but your constituents are saying it’s time.

God damnit it’s every day some other developer or some other plan. It’s exhausting and depressing. So I wonder, did this particular developer run out of places to build in West Chester Borough so he’s coming over to this part of the county?

These developers don’t care about any of the communities they come into. They just care about their profit margins. Where we live are just lines on a balance sheet.

So I’m sure I don’t have to remind this developer that my opinions are courtesy of my First Amendment Rights and residents do have some rights all around this proposed location?

Chester County is dying people. Dying.

Overdevelopment of any kind in this county needs to be an election issue for 2024. On every level of elected office from Harrisburg, PA to Washington DC.

It . Needs. To. Stop.