Tag Archives: Hershey’s Mill

the old hershey’s mill is looking just glorious!

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Two years ago I wrote about the old Hershey’s Mill starting to get a rehab facelift. Last November I posted photos from the rehab in progress. Well today we drove by on our way home, (and sorry I didn’t get the best photos but I got a couple of photos) and I am so happy to see that beautiful old structure with new life.

The new owners have taken great care with her restoration and she looks glorious! I really hope East Goshen historical commission gives them some kind of an award, they deserve it!

I hope the family will be really happy there and now let’s hope East Goshen Township gets a move on with making a park or whatever they are doing with what was the old pond and other things next-door. Because I have to tell you if I had spent all that money on that rehab of that beautiful old structure, it’s a little jarring to look at the undoneness of next door which is the township’s responsibility.

And speaking of East Goshen have they taken eminent domain off of the table for the Hicks Farm? I’m still wondering how I can take so long to unravel an eminent domain taking.

Anyway, bravo to the restoration minded owners of the old Hershey’s Mill. In an age where everyone tears down rather than restores, this is the most wondrous site!

Happy Father’s Day!

beautiful progress

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In June of 2020 much to my delight, I discovered the old Hershey’s Mill at Hershey’s Mill Road and Green Hill Road in West Chester (East Goshen) was getting a new lease on life.

We passed by last week again, and the restoration continues! This is so refreshing and lovely to see! I wrote about it again at the beginning of 2021.

The work whomever owns this property now has put into this place is remarkable.

Anyway, just thought I would share. It’s really cool!

the old hershey’s mill continues to come back to life!

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In June of 2020 much to my delight, I discovered the old Hershey’s Mill at Hershey’s Mill Road and Green Hill Road was getting a new lease on life.

We passed by today and the restoration continues! This is so refreshing and lovely to see!

Restoration is possible with unique old buildings. We can’t wait to see it completely restored!

chester county vatican?

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Ok, I am sorry but it is a little freaky amusing to discover that Immaculata has its OWN zip code.

I used to joke about Hershey’s Mill being the retirement Vatican of Chester County because it is like its own city-state with its own roads, security (complete with sirens), personal entrance to the mall where the Giant is, etcetera.

So I read a blip on Malvern Patch about Immaculata and their acceptance letter tweets and went to check out their twitter page. It says:

Immaculata, PA? HUH?  It might be Malvern, some call it Frazer, but is Immaculata in fact Chester County’s true Vatican? In Chester County do all institutions get their own zip codes? Wow Cabrini College and Eastern University, which are in Radnor and St. David’s PA respectively are going to get jealous and make demands on Delaware County!   Do we think Cabrini, PA and Eastern, PA have nice rings to it?

Immaculata lists their legal mailing address as: Immaculata University | 1145 King Road, Immaculata, PA. 19345

So does that mean that people who live in the residential neighborhoods along King Road adjacent to the school don’t live in Malvern, PA (zip code 19355) they live in Immaculata, PA (zip code 19345)? So does Immaculata have their own post office and police force and fire departments and all the other services that create a city-state, borough, township?  Where is their town hall?  When do they have supervisor meetings?

Is this because Cheyney has their own zip code too?

I find this all VERY confusing.  Hope the schools have paid for this privilege as opposed to taxpayer dollars funding their independent zip code. With the U.S. Postal service in such a shambles is this in fact just a way for them to generate revenue? But again, what about those people near Immaculata, on the same road and in the same area as Immaculata who think they live in Malvern, PA East Whiteland Township?

Are they in fact living in Immaculata, PA?

But hey, maybe if they are handing out zip codes I can apply for one and we can all live in chestercountyramblings, PA?  It might be fun and there would be lots of great recipes and photos of barns!!

Are we to assume vanity zip codes are the new vanity plate?

Happy Friday people!

no, east goshen residents don’t want to have THAT kind of glow.

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In a prior post about doings in Chester County, I touched upon a very scary thing: the discovery of radioactive materials in trash that they are saying came from the Hershey’s Mill City-State in East Goshen/West Chester:

Radioactive material came from West Chester trash

Published: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 By Daily Local News Staff

NORRISTOWN — The Department of Environmental Protection is asking anyone who knows the history of an antique medical kit found in a West Chester trash bin to contact the agency’s Bureau of Radiation Protection.
“The radioactive material may have been contained in the kit for more than 80 years,” Bureau Director David Allard said. “The metal box likely came from a basement, an attic or a collector’s stash. Anyone who tampered with it or stored it for a long time may have been exposed to high levels of radiation.”
The material was found Jan. 19, when a load of construction debris set off radiation alarms at Waste Management Inc.’s Norristown transfer station. The company deployed a health physicist to recover the radioactive material, identified as approximately one curie of radium-226. Exposure to one curie of radium-226 is equivalent to having more than 100 CT scans at once, and it has the potential to create skin burns within a few hours of contact. …DEP health physicists worked with Waste Management to properly evaluate and store the radium, and traced its source to a roll-off container that had come from the Hershey’s Mill retirement community in West Chester.
The radium-226 was contained in four capsules inside a small lead safe marked “Radium Chemical Co., Inc.” The safe and some antique surgical equipment were stored inside a larger, locking metal box, which had been pried open.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOX! (Credit: William Bender The Daily Delco Philly.com)

Ok, so look, this is the stuff that freaks people out with good reason – it’s very, very dangerous to handle this stuff, be exposed, knowingly or unwittingly expose others.  Take me for example: I am a breast cancer survivor of eight months yesterday.  However, it has not yet been enough time since I finished my treatment that I am even allowed to be near anything that smacks of radiation, or even get my teeth x-rayed.

So naturally, given my personal experience I think of all those people living in Hershey’s Mill, some of whom are say, bound to be people being treated for something where exposure to radiation could be potentially very harmful to them?

No one knows where this stuff came from, and my guess is some resident in Hershey’s Mill forgot they had something like that and chucked it.  Of course, can it be considered that someone thought no one would check all the trash cans and receptacles inside the City-State compound that is Hershey’s Mill and dumped it there?

Either way, it’s no joke.  If someone knows something, pick up the phone and contact the authorities.  This is not something to look the other way on. NBC10 and other media sources are saying the DEP is now in on this.  West Chester Patch discusses it HERE.

Here’s hoping Hershey’s Mill can shed some light on this….after all the great, expansive boundaries of Hershey’s Mill touch other residential areas and I am hoping they are going to be really good neighbors here.  Even State Rep. Dan Truitt (whomever he is, haven’t had the pleasure of an introduction) has put out an alert on this.

I am not trying to be an oh-my-God alarmist here, but seriously?  This is not the warm glow anyone wants or needs.

Here is what Bill Bender from The Daily News has to say about this in his Philly.com blog The Daily Delco:

           It’s not every day we get a press release like this:

The state Department of Environmental Protection is seeking information about an antique medical kit found last month at Waste Management Inc.’s Norristown transfer station. Why? Because it contained enough radium to melt your face off. OK, not that much, but a lot…..”One curie” doesn’t sound like much to me. Oh wait, according to the DEP, direct exposure to the radium could lead to skin burns within hours and would be like “having more than 100 CT scans at once.”

In other words, it’s almost as good as the acid being sold at Drexel these days.

Here’s what East Goshen has sent out to residents: