This afternoon was the long awaited ribbon-cutting of the new West Whiteland Township Public Works complex on Valley Creek Boulevard.
It was a nice afternoon with members of the public and public works. Yes I was supposed to go…and I forgot. Life gets busy and I just plain forgot. Thanks to Bill Rettew of The Daily Local I have photos to share with everyone!
Congratulations West Whiteland Township!
I have literally lost count of how many times I have written about this house. I’m speaking about the Joseph Price House in West Whiteland Township, Chester County. Located at the corner of Clover Mill Road and S. Whitford Rd. in Exton the address is 401 Clover Mill Rd.
This is a historic asset that is rotting day by day, week by week, year by year. This home is owned by two older gentleman that I assume bought it as as an investment property only nothing has ever happened. It just rotted.
This house is known as a rural or Queen Ann Gothic. It was built in 1878 and altered in 1894. It is constructed of quarried green serpentine limestone that was quarried locally.
I have known of several people in the past few years who have tried to make a deal with the owners to buy it and save it.
It could have so many adaptive reuses, it could also be a single-family home again. I think it would make a great boutique bed and breakfast AND as there is one down the street so there is a market for this.
The urban explorer known as Abandoned Steve had written about this house in the fall and there was a video. The video has since disappeared.
I really wish the video had not disappeared because it gave an accurate account of what the interior of the house was like as well as the fact that it was not a secured location. Sure houses can be empty, but don’t they also legally have to be secure?
I received a tip from another urban explorer letting me know that the interior of the house seems to be getting cleaned out. Not necessarily cleaned up but cleaned out so that could mean any number of things.
At the top of the wish list is it’s being cleaned out to sell.
At the bottom of the wish list is it’s being cleaned out so someone can file a demolition permit.
Also on the list is just the thought wrinkling my brain is someone simply stealing from this house because it’s not secure? (I mean, obviously it’s not secure if urban explorers aren’t really having any difficulty entering the premises, right?)
Now, honestly? I would not enter the premises unless I had someone in an official capacity with me and I had permission. I’ve actually wanted to do that for years to photograph the inside before it disappears. Because I really feel unless something happens, it will disappear.
The Joseph Price House is a very unique and special piece of County history and architecture.
In the fall when I saw the video from Abandoned Steve Exploration, I forwarded that video to someone on the West Whiteland Historic Commission whose response was nothing short of snotful after I contacted them a week later to make sure they had received the video after not even receiving a courtesy acknowledgment of receipt of it. I found that rather disappointing personally, but hey, I tried. I do believe that that this historic commission overall is interested in preserving this property. Obviously I just contacted the wrong person.
There have been quite a few urban explorers in and out of this house. None of them want to see the house disappear. Every single one of them says how fabulous this house is and how it could be saved.
As a matter of fact, one has sent me video snippets and there are videos coming the third week in March called Abandoned Fantasies. They are combining actual footage of the house with software that shows you what the house might look like if it was renovated and restored. It takes urban exploration to the next level and I hope it encourages people to have a vision of what can happen if you restore an old house.
So I’m voicing concern yet again this morning about this beautiful house.
The Joseph Price House needs to be saved. It’s pretty much that simple.
#thisplacematters
If the house is being cleaned out for some reason, I hope the things that were original to the house like some of the furniture that I have seen in urban explorer videos and photographs are not just disappeared forever.
Irish Eyez ChesCo is reporting more pothole / sinkhole hell on the 30 Bypass.
This has been going on for weeks.
This has even been on the news.
So I don’t know what it’s gonna take to get PennDOT to actually do something but they can’t wait anymore. And I have to wonder about liability given how many people have reported the holes and road issues and they haven’t been fixed properly yet?
PennDOT really needs to get moving somebody could die here.
It’s another hot PennDOT mess.
I wrote a post last week about Tredyffrin.
So…a little follow up for the no-no queen and the ostrich collective…err I mean supervisors and staff in Tredyffrin. I don’t mean to be so municipally sarcastic but somehow Tredyffrin brings it out in me regarding the do nothing attitude of helping Mt. Pleasant and a lot of other stuff these days. But hey you now have an art committee to do I am not quite sure what, right?
Anyway, Erin McPherson, Tredyffrin’s director of planning and zoning seemed like she so couldn’t possibly about anything at last week’s meeting that I wondered if this brand new photo would encourage her to get out from behind her desk and lumber on over to Mt. Pleasant and see for herself? She can use Waze if she doesn’t know how to get there, or ask Manager Bill Martin because he definitely knows where Mt. Pleasant is located, right? He lives in the township, correct?
The next photo is from the summer of 2024 and I was wondering how Erin McPherson, Tredyffrin’s director of planning and zoning thought everyone was going to navigate this?
Tredyffrin Township, your slip is showing….again. And your zoning notices about developers wanting taller fences over on Vincent Road are also amusing…perhaps people really don’t want McMansions backing up to 252 after all?
Welcome to Tredyffrin where officials seem to drool and/or make excuses?
I don’t know the family, I didn’t know this gentleman but these are the people who we should celebrate MORE in Chester County.
We need to celebrate our real farmers who just get out there and do their thing to make all of our lives better without glam shots on tractors they don’t own and expensive publicists.
People whom I know described Fred de Long as an amazing man who contributed so much.
Requiescat in pace Mr. de Long.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/paoli-pa/conrad-delong-12211535
They lovingly called him Farmer Fred, and he turned Rushton Farm in Newtown Square into a national model of community supported agriculture.
by Gary Miles
Published Feb. 21, 2025, 3:34 p.m. ET
It came out again at the West Pikeland Township meeting this week that West Pikeland wants to dump the police department!!!
What???
Why??
And they have yet ANOTHER new manager which I didn’t realize until now! That nice lady who actually was intellegent is gone and before her was West Vincent’s old manager who then retired and went back to West Vincent as an interim manager.
So now it’s another manager and it’s probably the same bad zoning people that hold up everything in the township unless you know somebody who knows somebody, correct? And well the supervisors…yes them and why are they there exactly?
That township is run like somebody’s personal corner store, and I am allowed to have that opinion.
They don’t publicize anything.
They don’t record meetings.
Everything feels super secretive to residents, doesn’t it?
It is one of the most un-sunshine friendly municipalities in Chester County in my humble opinion.
Why is it they are trying to get rid of their police department?
And I know from people in the area, not necessarily that municipality, who say this has been going on for a while. Only no one wants to speak publicly about it.
People if you want to save your police force you need to talk publicly about it.
Has West Pikeland spoken to neighboring municipalities about merging forces?
Do all of these municipalities just think the Pennsylvania State Police can handle all of the local policing and the state policing? They can’t.
It’s time for a big spotlight on this municipality. The residents who live there deserve that much.
This is the municipality in which one of my favorite places in the world is located and that is Historic Yellow Springs Village.
I read some of the minutes of this Township, where they talk about the police and no resident wants their police department taken away so why are they doing it? Why don’t they do a referendum and let the voters decide because they are the ones footing the bill as taxpayers?
I don’t understand this trend of these municipalities. And it always seems to be in the ones that are super secretive like West Pikeland and Oxford Borough.
Residents of West Pikeland you have to shine a light, because none of us know what’s going on unless you tell us.
And if people want to save the police in West Pikeland, they have to be public and very vocal. Not one tiny sign on the edge of a road that if you blink you miss it:
I think it’s horrible, but I don’t live there.
Save West Pikeland Police (pass it on.)
Part of the February 18, 2025 board of supervisors meeting in Tredyffrin contained members of Mount Pleasant community coming forward and asking for help from their township. Tredyffrin Township…again…
First of all, I would like to commend the residents of Mount Pleasant for coming forward again. They have come forward so many times over the years and I have been following this issue personally for about 20 years now.
Second of all, I would like to know what the zoning gal in Tredyffrin actually does? all I really heard out of her mouth is what she couldn’t do or excuses. A no-no queen. What does it take for this employee paid by the taxpayers to get off her ass? This woman talks about needing evidence how much evidence does she need? How about she goes and looks for herself? How about she does her job?
It’s everywhere. People post photos on social media. They call the police. They contact the township.
This has literally been going on for years.
Why is it that the public has to carry the burden of proving all of this? Where has the Township manager been all of these years? And as far as the parking issues on the street? Maybe it’s time for a South Philly lawn chairs movement?
Years ago, when this Township did not, and at that point was not putting in a student housing ordinance I had friends that were homeowners that moved out of this township to other municipalities because of that.
And for the supervisor Carlotta Johnston-Pugh who wanted to know about just calling up Villanova University and finding out if it was a student house, is she for real? Everyone knows that for years Villanova really doesn’t have a clue as to where their kids are living off campus. And if Ms. Johnston-Pugh went there, did she show bias last night ?
Let’s talk about the latest off campus student house. Residents remarked a car from NY, CT, and I forget where. You can watch the video I have embedded. You know it would be really nice if municipalities paid attention to off-campus student housing and rentals the way they are supposed to wouldn’t it? So for what it’s worth for this to have 927 Mt. Pleasant to have become a student house it should have possibly gone through zoning except for the holes in the freaking ordinance that Tredyffrin that Tredyffrin has known about since they created this ordinance reluctantly years ago, correct? Does this house even have a certificate of occupancy as a rental?
Get off your asses, Tredyffrin Township supervisors and staff. Quit making excuses, saying what you can’t do, quit ignoring the people of Mt. Pleasant. Last night, Tredyffrin Township supervisors and staff, you were seen. Clearly. And get yourselves a new manager and zoning Chiquita. It’s well past time.
Above are screenshots of what was push button published on Vista Today by some woman named Ashley Pierce, who ironically has a full time gig as paid staff for the Western Chester County Chamber of Commerce in Coatesville.
I will now share with you all with the ACTUAL Daily Local News article written by Bill Rettew:
By Bill Rettew | wrettew@dailylocal.com | Daily Local News
UPDATED: February 14, 2025 at 12:08 PM EST
I would like to know WHERE in the Daily Local News article that Vista Today’s Ashley Pierce who works as paid full time staff (Communications and Membership Coordinator) at the Western Chester County Chamber of Commerce sees that the reporter actually said that West Whiteland blocked demolition and development of the decrepit Exton mall? Because someone with a communications position one would hope had a better grasp of just plain reading an article?
What happened last week was a public hearing for an ordinance amendment in West Whiteland pertaining to a West Whiteland Township zoning ordinance, correct?
Quite literally the recommended motion was to tweak the zoning, right? It was advertised etc properly, correct? Wasn’t it discussed at a meeting towards end of 2024? Aren’t municipalities allowed to tweak zoning? And again, where did West Whiteland say they were blocking a demolition or development? Where did the reporter in The Daily Local say that? Does Ashley Pierce have imaginary friends she plays with still too?
You know sometimes I think Vista Today and the various other publications under their umbrella are ok, but the thing is this; what are they actually writing and researching? Are they just a news aggregator? It’s confusing, right? When they first started they did have some original content but now not so much?
Here is how they self-describe (and visit American Community Journals their “parent” so to speak):
So they aim to make a positive impact? How is oddly interpolating what a local paper’s reporter wrote and not accurately representing what West Whiteland did a positive impact? Funny how a news aggregator is becoming the news but not necessarily perhaps how originally intended?
Here is a YouTube that Vista had in their piece:
And I found this video from a couple of months ago:
Now when this mall was in it’s heyday, I was on the Main Line. We went to King of Prussia or took the train into Philadelphia. I do remember coming out here for stores in a strip mall. It has been too long but it was I want to say it was when Exton Crossing was built because a friend of mine at the time had an older sister who when newly married was living in Exton Station which was new at the time and not completely built. I don’t remember what strip mall, honestly. I think maybe where the Kohl’s is today.
Anyway, I think Vista Today owes West Whiteland and the Daily Local reporter an apology. Maybe they should go for more original content versus sharing everything from everyone else all of the time?
Here are two recordings from the West Whiteland Zoom on this that were made the night of the contentious meeting:
And dayummmm, West Whiteland JUST put out a press release on this. After I share that I will post things I found pertaining to the Exton Mall in deeds etc. It’s not just one parcel. And do any of you see new ownership reflected yet? I didn’t so I guess it is still in process? Whatever, this is kind of mall drama and the sad thing is an ordinance change is not prohibiting development or a mall demolition is it? And a final note is simply to ask if it is well past time for the Building and Planning guy Weller to retire?
Thanks for stopping by.
Yeah that photo….but wait there are more….West Chester Borough…newer apartment building with “amenities.” I have to ask if trash is counted as an amenity?
Pretty damn gross.
So what would you do?
I would call the Borough of West Chester and Chester County Health Department, if the latter is not too busy screwing over church soup kitchens, right?
Tenants deserve protection and again, pretty gross, right?
Tell me again the fairy tale of how fabulous all these hulking box after box apartments are good for communities, ok?
Sign me thinking this is truly barftastic .
So there has been a decision in the Woodward case….so unless there is an appeal, I guess this is over?
