You remember for years if you’ve been following my blog that I was concerned about what we know as Indian Run Farm or Ashbridge house in Exton. It literally sat shrink, wrapped in plastic for years.
I was honestly afraid it’s not so long that it would never be restored. I’m pleased to say it has been. It’s more of a modern interpretation than the old farmhouse at once was inside but it’s still has its pieces of the past and I think it works. I still do not like the new development that was built around it because that’s not my jam and there’s too much of that Cran plant stuff everywhere but I think the old gal doesn’t look bad now and here are some interior pictures a friend of mine took:
Below, this are the posts I wrote over the years about this place, because I really was afraid it was going to either rot or get torn down. I will admit, I am beyond pleasantly surprised, and I’m very happy I just wish they were less townhouse apartment things around it.
Indian Run Farm A/K/A Ashbridge House. Recent photo, reader submitted, taken September 3,2020
So…. I am trying not to be like totally “what the hell are they doing to Ashbridge House at Indian Run Farm” but is this a historic reservation? I ask because given the storms this summer and the age of this historically classified structure, what in the hell are they doing? I can understand rotting wooden porches being removed and it looks like concrete is being used to shore up walls, but wow this is startling isn’t it?
I grew up in old, occasionally historically classified houses (the house I was born in was built in 1811 in Society Hill and was historically classified in Philadelphia). West Whiteland has said all along it is to be preserved. So I am still going with that, even if it looks terrible right now.
Reader submitted photo dated September 3, 2020.
According to a 2003 Pottstown Mercury Article this was to be preserved all along, but it’s a long time since 2003. It’s now 2020 (AKA the year from hell):
Now picture another moment. A small group of scrape-kneed youngsters sat on a vantage point overlooking that same valley, many years later, pondering their destiny along with other important matters such as, perhaps, how to avoid the chore of picking the cherries ripening on the trees for their ambitious and hard-working father.
These children looked down on a two-lane Route 30 close to where it crossed Route 100, from a hilltop that no longer exists. And where there is now a new Nissan dealership, they once ran a cider stand without any particular parental oversight, selling the sweet juice from their own orchard along with vegetables from their garden, and lived carefree lives of exploration and discovery in a time when, “there weren’t any rules.”
Would that we could all be granted a childhood such as these children shared.
Then walk with these same children, now adults, among the shrink-wrapped architectural remnants of their youth, and share the memory of that time in that place on a bitter and wind-whipped day that fails to wrest from them any of the joy of those times spent together there. The centerpiece of that time was this collection of stone buildings; that springhouse, the great barn, the animals that lived, were loved and died and were buried here; those special trees; all are almost holy to them, and all will continue to speak to us of the way things were, once upon a time.
Because, whatever feelings any of us may have about “development,” we can’t be sorry that this pocket of history will be preserved much as it was in the thick of the present, so that busy shoppers can pause and view it, walk within its whispered past, and perhaps grasp something of what it all means.
Ashbridge House Exton Main Street 2017
I have been watching this house a few years. I have photos of 2018, 2019, and the generously shared 2020 photos. The reason I am concerned is because of how exposed everything is. However, it also looks like things are being shored up with concrete. So I am going to hold my breath and share photos. I will remind people I covered this in March 2018 and March 2019.
I remain curious as to what was saved or will be saved on the inside. Thanks for stopping by.
I took the above photo of Ashbridge House located in West Whiteland at Exton Main Street in Exton in 2017.
It’s been mothballed for years in plastic since the mall was built. It’s another Chester County property with quite the history.
They even have a sign up in Exton Main Street about it:
Supposedly this house is being restored. I don’t know exactly which decade that’s going to occur in however, do you? I found this 2017 West Whiteland Planning Commission document (CLICK HERE) which indicates it would be preserved in the middle of hundreds of new apartments. (Also check out the Daily Local Article from May, 2017 and a blurb on the WCHE website from the same time.)
Hundreds. Because you know there aren’t enough apartments and townhouses and carriage houses being built in West Whiteland Township now are there?
That’s crazy. Obviously it was approved. Click HERE to see a list of developments in various stages in West Whiteland. Suffice it to say, I thought the list of developments in East Whiteland were bad enough. And I can’t say for sure that these lists are current as to what development is planned where.
But I digress.
Here we are in March, 2019 right? So a couple of weeks ago I guess it is now, I was over at Exton Main Street with my husband. I can tell you I was stunned by the way Ashbridge House and the outbuildings looked.
Ashbridge House in Exton. 2019.
When exactly is the preservation going to finally begin? Is it just me or do others of you out there think it’s never going to happen and someday will just hear how the house mysteriously fell down?
Ashbridge House in Exton. 2019.
I just don’t understand. I don’t understand why people no longer seem to care about historic preservation in a county that used to be known for it.
If you are interested in Ashbridge house, I have found a couple videos:
Ashbridge house in Exton. 2017.
