It’s getting hard to keep the Lower Merion Main Line grifters separate in people’s heads – I mean there is Josh Verne formerly of Gladwyne and Joseph LaForte late of Haverford, right? And there they were both were living in the Magic Kingdom of Lower Merion Township for a while, yes?
Anyway, it seems to be UPS. He did it again for Josh Verne. And on the new Nouveau Main Line, maybe they’re finally learning the lesson. If some of these people seem too good to be true, generally speaking, they might be?
Here’s the press release that was forwarded to me today:
Former Gladwyne Entrepreneur Charged with Bilking Investors Out of Millions of Dollars, Forging Documents, and Obstructing Justice
Friday, August 2, 2024
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that an indictment was unsealed against Josh S. Verne, 47, formerly of Gladwyne, PA, now a resident of Fort Lauderdale, FL, charging him with 28 separate federal crimes, including securities fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, witness retaliation, and witness intimidation.
According to the indictment, Verne carried out a series of schemes from at least in or about 2017 to 2020, through which he defrauded dozens of investors, prospective investors, employees, and business partners out of millions of dollars, forged documents, and obstructed justice by threatening, intimidating, and retaliating against others in connection with the federal criminal investigation.
The indictment alleges that Verne held himself out as a wealthy and successful businessman, entrepreneur, and investor, and that he carried out his fraudulent activities through a series of limited liability companies, of which he was the chief executive and over which he maintained control. It is alleged that, among other things, Verne falsely represented his prior business successes, falsely represented his personal net worth, falsely represented his own investments, and falsely represented the financial health of his companies and investments, in order to induce others to invest in or provide loans to him or his companies. For instance, according to the indictment, Verne provided an investor with a forged Goldman Sachs statement that showed family investment holdings for Verne of more than $50 million, when, in fact, Verne did not have an investment account at Goldman Sachs in his own name or in his family’s names, much less an account with a market value of more than $50 million.
It is further alleged that Verne misused business and investor funds to repay prior debts and to finance an affluent lifestyle he could not afford, such as personal expenses related to renovations to his showcase vacation property on the Jersey shore, travel on private jets, contributions to political candidates, personal charitable contributions, and country club payments. According to the indictment, in order to delay and prevent discovery by law enforcement of his own misconduct, Verne later sent bank and FedEx confirmations purporting to confirm delivery of funds to investors to whom he had promised repayment; the bank and FedEx confirmations were false and fraudulent.
The indictment further alleges that Verne stole the identity of a former employee from his company, forging the employee’s signature on a sales agreement to disguise an unauthorized sale of the employee’s shares of stock. According to the indictment, Verne obtained $150,000 from the unauthorized sale and used those funds to make payments to himself and to a prior investor.
Finally, the indictment alleges that, after Verne met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and learned details about the investigation, Verne obstructed justice by contacting the former employee and threatening to divulge false, embarrassing information about him because the employee provided information to law enforcement.
Verne was arrested today in Fort Lauderdale. He is expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia next week for an arraignment.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 532 years in prison (including a mandatory minimum of two years in prison to run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment), three years of supervised release, a $21,250,000 fine, and a $2,800 special assessment.
If you, your family member, or anyone that you know believes they may have been a victim of these crimes and would like to report the information, please contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 215-418-4000 and reference “Josh S. Verne.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Paul G. Shapiro and Jerome M. Maiatico. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Philadelphia Regional Office investigated civil securities fraud charges against Verne, which are pending.
An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This is every family’s nightmare. You entrust the care of a loved one to a retirement community/facility. And tragedy strikes.
This started YESTERDAY. And in this heat, whether or not she was an independent living the media reports and the police reports both infer cognitive issues. She was seen leaving, didn’t they think to keep tabs on a brand new person unfamiliar with the area IN THIS HEAT?
Main Line Media News and others reported that she had been seen by someone’s housekeeper yesterday and declined help on Morris? Imagine if someone had just called the police? The nouveau Main Line is full of busy bodies and no one noticed her???
She was found on Garden Lane in Bryn Mawr. That is quite the walk from Waverly Heights. Waverly Road across big roads like Conshohocken State Road, up to Morris, down Morris, crossing over other streets like Old Gulph Road, to I guess Carisbrooke Road to Garden Lane. That is about 3 miles, maybe slightly less. But this isn’t a straight shot. These are roads that are windy, often busy, and hilly in places.
Are we also wound up in our lives that no one else saw an elderly woman during brutally hot weather? How long was she gone before Waverly Heights called the police? This comment below (next) from Lower Merion Police Department’s Facebook page indicates she had just been moved from Colorado.
Apparently she has family in Chester County. I am so terribly sorry for them and sad. I have known many who have lived at Waverly Heights quite happily and this chain of events shocks me as much as everything else. For what this place costs, you would never expect this.
She was so new, not driving that anyone has mentioned, and it was brutally hot. If she wasn’t happy being there as well as so new to area and again so hot, they should have kept more of an eye on her or assigned her a walking buddy or something don’t you think?
A friend of mine sent me a photo they took quite recently of SunTop in Ardmore. It looks like it’s under construction again? Correcting past mistakes? Or maintenance?
SunTop places have had fires over the years, but I have not heard of any for years have you? It’s very weird the way Frank Lloyd Wright houses all over the country have had fires over the years. And this location is no exception. The first one at SunTop was 1941.
I’ve checked with someone I know in the area and they thought there was no fire of a recent vintage, but these houses have required repairs etc. especially since some of the restoration might not have been historically accurate or in some cases, interior rooms were rearranged like I read in an old article.
So it looks like restoration is what is happening with this house and then I found similar on Google of all places with a note to respect someone’s property.
SunTop is a Frank Lloyd Wright creation that has had a complicated history at best with Lower Merion Township.
It as called “the Ardmore experiment” was built in 1939 as a potential solution for multi family housing. One of the units had a fire in 1941, but wartime shortages during World War II meant repairs didn’t happen.
Of course, Lower Merion being Lower Merion rewrote their codes, and SunTop suddenly became non conforming as a use in a single family zone in 1951. Ironic considering all the multi family cram plans they approve in the present, right? Sorry had to say that as it has given me a chuckle looking at this.
An owner in the 1950s of SunTop was denied a zoning variance in 1957 to restore the fire damaged property. Finally in 1965 a zoning was amended or something so restoration could occur. It seems like in 1989 another renovation occurred to correct mistakes from the 1960s. In 2003 there was another renovation judged from media reports.
They are actually super cool houses and were ahead of their time. They just don’t seem particularly durable. The only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Malibu, CA burned down in 2018 wildfires.
Now my friend who did the SunTop drive by recently, loves the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. He has tried to see as many of Wright’s structures as possible over time. SunTop appears in a catalog he has devoted to the homes.
So I was never a huge Frank Lloyd Wright aficionado but I have always been intrigued by what he had the foresight to see in Ardmore, PA. Their design works for multi family housing. Imagine if something like this could ever be designed instead of the awful rape of the land we see now.
The thing about Wright’s designs is much like Wharton Esherick, his designs involved and seemingly enveloped nature. Both Esherick and Wright also have things in common with George Nakashima and his legacy – furniture and buildings on his property. I think Nakashima’s furniture is beautiful and I have always wished I would find an Esherick print at a garage sale.
Billboards are not dead in Bryn Mawr. This affects Lower Merion and Haverford Townships.
This has been going on since 2009.
15 damn years.
I doubt very much the Billboard Baron would want billboards on the lawn of his Gladwyne McMansion, but maybe that’s the place where they ought to go, huh?
So I received an email from the current 5th ward commissioner in Haverford Township Laura Cavendish. Her predecessors, the late Andy Lewis and Jeff Heilmann also both fought billboards alongside their residents and constituents.
From Commissioner Laura Cavendish we have sadly learned that the billboard issue is active again, and it has never actually died as an issue in Haverford and Lower Merion Townships . I’m really glad that she sent the update, because her Lower Merion counterpart has been seemingly silent on the issue, hasn’t he? But hey if there are babies to be kissed or photo ops cutting ribbons to be had, he’s your guy.
Here is what the email I received said:
April 24, 2024
Dear Ward 5 Residents,
It was great to see so many of you at the polls yesterday. I shared with some of you a letter which I am now sharing here.
I wanted to provide an update on the Township’s active litigation against four proposed billboards in Haverford, two of which would be located on Lancaster Avenue in Ward 5. For about 20 years, Haverford and Lower Merion have been fighting Catalyst, a company which has proposed four large billboards in Haverford Township. Two of these sites are located on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, across from the Acme and near Our Mother of Good Counsel church in Haverford Township; two others are located on West Chester Pike.
In 2020, the Court of Common Pleas directed the two townships and Catalyst to come to a settlement. Since that time, Haverford has been working with Catalyst to identify a settlement that would reduce the number of billboard sites proposed by Catalyst and prevent future billboards anywhere in the Township.
As background, the township is legally required to zone an area that permits a billboard. A settlement would mean creating zoning for one, smaller digital billboard, most likely located near the entrance to I-476 on West Chester Pike. Additionally, Lower Merion would likely place a billboard along I-76 as part of the settlement, expressly for the purpose of taking the Lancaster Avenue sites off the table. If no settlement is reached, and the case goes back before the Court of Common Pleas, the judge would likely allow billboards on all four (or more) sites in Haverford, including the two sites on Lancaster.
Large billboards along Lancaster in Bryn Mawr would be viewed by drivers, pedestrians, shoppers, church goers, and so many others in our community. The right settlement would permanently prevent future billboards in the Township, rather than leaving the decision to a judge. Declining to settle would require spending more taxpayer dollars to appeal this case and the township would likely lose. The outcome could be multiple billboards throughout Haverford Township.
While I am strongly opposed to billboards in Haverford Township, given the history of this case and the potential for reducing damaging billboard blight, I will support the right settlement with Catalyst. I believe a settlement will protect Lancaster Avenue and Haverford Township permanently, as well as prevent billboards along our narrow residential thoroughfare in the heart of Bryn Mawr.
Please reach out if you would like to talk or learn more about this important issue.
This billboard company dude is the same one who has been littering our Chester County communities with these billboards as well.
It really is a crappy thing that our communities get saddled with these signs so he can make a profit. Because that’s all that this is about is money and when you meet people like this or you run into people like this, you have to ask once in a while when is there enough money? When do you perhaps need to think about what the right thing to do is?
First billboard hearing 2009
It’s time for the Billboard Baron to leave Bryn Mawr and all of these other communities alone. I hope these communities, and there respective municipalities still have some fight left in them. After all, there are a lot of us, myself included, who first stood up in 2009 when this all started. A lot of us have given up years to fight these blights on our communities.
I opened with that snippet from the Lower Merion School District meeting.
Why?
Because it has sent off a tsunami of social media speculation. I can’t resist and I have to memorialize some of it. It’s fascinating.
When I started seeing things appear on social media yesterday, I actually reached out to Natural Lands. They told me what was appearing on Facebook wasn’t true. I have no reason to doubt them. Because if Lower Merion School District is in the middle of a delicate transaction, no one might know anything yet.
They actually responded on social media:
I’m going with nothing to see here with Oakwell until there is actually something to see. Large real estate transactions, especially when you’re talking about hopefully a preservationist can be quite delicate, so in my opinion it’s time to put the egos aside and sit on the gotcha moments for now.
Like I said, sometimes the side show is more interesting than the circus. What is gained out of this game of gotcha?
Apparently Lower Merion School District has had a change of heart? I will believe it when the deal is inked but I am cautiously optimistic.
Truthfully, I had stopped following much of what was going on at Oakwell, because some of the volunteers involved with the Save Oakwell I found to be so distracting as individuals, that it made it hard to follow the actual issue. That being said I would occasionally get my updates from other friends I have that have been involved with this since the beginning.
Oakwell is next door to Stoneleigh. Originally was part of Stoneleigh land before we all came along. I remember going to some nonprofit thing there years ago I think with my mother, it was a garden thing. It’s been too many years to remember what.
I wonder what the prior owner thinks? I wonder because he is the one who set this all in motion in the first place isn’t he?
And then you have to wonder who is the new potential owner? When this all first started, Villanova University was buying it. Then came the whole thing with Lower Merion School District.
So who is the potential new owner the latest superintendent of the Lower Merion School District mentioned? Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is nothing is finalized and if there is a new owner brewing, it has to be voted on by the school board. In public.
So I wouldn’t be quick to believe everything you read on Facebook just yet, and I am saying that as someone who has pretty goddamn good sources.
I think at best we are cautiously optimistic. I hope it’s saved so that tea pavilion survives because that’s actually rare to see one pretty much intact. Given the history of the property, of course what would be awesome is if it could be added to Stoneleigh but I don’t know that that is happening and we just have to wait and see at this point.
Just pray, it isn’t some predatory developer. One of the biggest problems in this area when it comes to saving gardens and preserving things is, there are no more Ernesta Drinker Ballards around.
Video came from dad and Philadelphia Magazine posted it. Dad got video from LMPD apparently.
Just when I thought Lower Merion couldn’t get any more ridiculous…well it IS a full moon…but I digress…. Anyway, a Kimco Realty babe at Suburban Square (using that term very loosely) called the police on GIRL SCOUTS SELLING GIRL SCOUT COOKIES IN A LITTLE RED WAGON in Suburban Square ! Picture of a red wagon below for illustration.
Yes, this really happened. So imagine my horror when I saw this in Philadelphia Magazine and a big HT and thank you to Victor Fiorello for covering this :
Suburban Square Calls Cops on Girl Scout Cookie Sales
It’s that time of year: Girl Scout cookie season! ….Most of these Girl Scout cookie sales you see go off without a hitch. But that wasn’t the case on a winter Wednesday earlier this month at Suburban Square. That’s the very Main Line-y shopping center in Ardmore.
Ardmore resident Eric Lowry showed up outside the Starbucks at Suburban Square with his 13-year-old daughter…Between his two daughters, Lowry has been helping sell Girl Scout cookies for close to 10 years. And he says he’d never been told that the girls couldn’t sell wherever they chose to. They’d even sold at Suburban Square in the past.
But on this particular day, an executive with the Suburban Square management group, Kimco Realty, approached Lowry and his daughter and asked them to move. “They said we had to stop selling cookies because we were standing on private property,” Lowry tells me, insisting that the specific spot they were on was not private property, but public. “They threatened to call the police as some kind of intimidation tactic.” Lowry flat-out refused to move and dutifully documented the encounter on his cell-phone camera.
At some point thereafter, the Suburban Square executive relocated to a different part of Suburban Square. There, she spoke with officers from the Lower Merion police department who had arrived on the scene. As seen on police body-cam footage that Lowry later obtained and published on YouTube (yes, this guy actually jumped through the required hoops to obtain body-cam footage from the cops), the Suburban Square executive explained her dilemma to police.
Part of that dilemma, it becomes apparent, is that Lowry’s Girl Scout cookie setup was outside of Starbucks. And Starbucks is a Suburban Square tenant that sells cookies, so the Girl Scout cookies were presumably creating a business conflict. She said that Starbucks was “freaking out.” (A manager at that Starbucks told me they have no comment on the matter.)
And Starbucks is TOTALLY part of this and they don’t want to comment? The big enormous coffee company couldn’t handle little GIRL SCOUTS pulling a little red wagon? They viewed them as competition we guess? Yo David and Goliath, Starbucks? Remember how that sitch turned out? I will be honest, I do not buy anything from Starbucks and have not for years. Their coffee always tastes burnt and they are overpriced on everything.
So Starbucks is no stranger to controversy from coast to coast, and aren’t saying anything according to Philadelphia Magazine. If I still lived in Lower Merion, truthfully I would put THAT Starbucks and Suburban Square on my skip it list. (They get all touchy when you say “boycott” so I would merely spend my money elsewhere as a personal choice.)
Part of the problem I have with this after watching that video that Philadelphia Magazine got from the dad (body cam footage I guess which is technically public information if you want to pay for it, which is what the dad did), is the whole misconception by Kimco’s doofy chick on camera talking about the sidewalks as if it was their private street? Really? I thought St. James place in Ardmore has been a public street in Lower Merion Township since the 1930s? And sidewalks are not public any longer? And Coulter Avenue is a public street too, right? Does Kimco own the Lower Merion roads/ streets now? Very confusing and am I suffering from bobble head disease? I sure hope not.
Of course what really piqued my interest here, is I actually know who the dad is. I knew Eric Lowry peripherally from when I was active in Ardmore and lived in Lower Merion Township. He’s a very nice man with a nice family. Active in the community. Helpful. And he is a very peaceful person, so Ms. Kimco 2024 must have been something special for him to go buy body cam footage etc. (Lower Merion charges for the privilege and it’s more than the cost of a couple of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.) Also if Ms. Kimco 2024 was recorded by him during their interaction, there is no expectation of privacy in a public space and that took place on a public sidewalk. I guess she gets that now?
Of course also as per Philadelphia Magazine, now Kimco seems to have issued a cover their ass statement. They will give them a booth but they have to fill out a form? Does everyone do this with Girl Scouts? I simply don’t know but honestly? Those people were hostile towards kids selling cookies? The hell with them. I feel utterly disgusted by this example of stupid human tricks.
Please note, I do not have a problem with Lower Merion Police Department here. I feel for the officers that had to deal with the Kimco people. Lower Merion Police Department did not cause this, Ms. Kimco Realty 2024 and apparently Starbucks did. And as for Kimco, their statement to Philadelphia Magazine IMHO is not an apology, and there should be one. That entire Girl Scout Troop in my humble opinion deserves an apology spa day in Suburban Square with lunch on Kimco as far as I am concerned. And Kimco can certainly afford it.
This just blows my mind completely. It’s mean. Again, no tables or booths, they were pulling a little red wagon. It doesn’t get cuter than that.
Support your local Girl Scouts and help these kids meet their cookie goals. And support your local coffee shop and let chain Starbucks sit. And maybe trade in Suburban Square for Main Street Ardmore which is always more user friendly.
Again, please support Girl Scouts selling Girl Scout Cookies. It’s as American as Apple Pie. Calling the police on little girls selling Girl Scout cookies is NOT.
And I will tell you that if you don’t wish to bring Girl Scout cookies into your own house because you don’t eat them or whatever you can buy them as a donation and the Girl Scout troops will give them to people who need a little extra treat in the community.
This opinion is brought to you by the First Amendment.
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.
I really can’t even with this bullshit. And it is bullshit and it’s a hate crime… and once again, it’s happening in Lower Merion Township.
This hit social media today and late last night and somebody has been going around sticking stickers on stuff in grocery stores, and then this case the person who posted this photo who also did alert the store, and I thinkq the police said it was the Narberth ACME in Narberth, PA. Of course, this is the same vicinity where that female doctor set that grandmother’s porch on fire.
I don’t know how this is a township where all you see are #HateHasNOHome signs , yet you see this as well.
I’m going to allow the words of a resident to speak for themselves, because I think they are quite profound and on point:
It’s unpopular to say what you think or have an opinion. It will always make you unpopular with someone… and while I am sickened by the slaughter of Palestinian children. I think we are beyond an eye for an eye and I long for another solution or response to Hamas’ unthinkable attacks.
I am equally appalled by the antisemetism and blatant hatred shown for Jews and Israelis and the obvious ignorance of so many protestors. This example here is in our neighborhood. This is our grocery store. If you see someone acting out like this please call them out. They need an education — and some humanity. There is no place for this in our community. We can’t tolerate it.
This ugly ugly war in the Middle East has so much hate going around communities in our area and across the country that it just gives you pause. The holidays are upon us, and that would be Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, and however you celebrate.
I would say, why can’t we all get along but I know we all can’t get along. I haven’t seen this hatred displayed in Chester County yet. Maybe it’s because we are more of a melting pot out here, I don’t know. All I know is I’m glad that where I live this isn’t happening yet, but I am ashamed of where I used to call home has these incidents.
Please stop madness like this. And if you know anything about this, please call the police.
Harriton House was a slice of heaven for me for me and many people for more than 40 years. I started to visit Harriton when I was 12. I am now 59.
Harriton became a historic destination of some note all because of the former Executive Director Bruce Cooper Gill. He gave them what? 45 years of his life? Did they ever even honor him appropriately for essentially making Harriton amazing and into Harriton? He gave them decades of his life and HE is the reason people discovered this place. And with him, you knew how every penny was spent, didn’t you? And when you made a donation large or small, he took the time to personally say thank you, didn’t he?
What Harriton House USED to look like before the historically accurate fence disappeared.
That lack of style in ED transition appalled many people, didn’t it? (“ED” not for erectile dysfunction but rather Executive Director.) They wondered then what the board of the Harriton Association and the successor ED was thinking? Especially the President of the Board? So what are they thinking now? I mean you have to wonder about things given how it just doesn’t look so hot over there, so many trees were removed etc, right? It looks sloppy over there. Kind of like a sock that really needs darning, right?
Below enjoy photos of how wonderful the flowers once looked at Harriton and there were once community gardens too. So much has changed, hopefully these photos remind people of what could be again with different leadership.
So many questions now exist about Harriton House and the Harriton Association don’t they? Four employees if you count the lawn tractor guy who lives in one of rental structures, right? Remember when they were going to have a new website in 2023? It’s August, 2023…don’t rush…
I can’t see the differences in The Harriton Association’s filings because the latest IRS Form 990 that is available online is from 2020 for calendar year 2019. (See CAUSEIQ.com, GuideStar, ProPublica, etc.) So I have to wonder where their finances are today? Donations up or down? Are the events making enough money under new ED? Who paid for the “field trip” today?
How is taking all employees on a field trip actual “continuing education”? In my opinion, the answer is it is not. Welsh settlers, Quakers, and Pennsylvania Germans are rather different. So while it is a nice sentiment it feels like Harriton is not really “open” as it should be.
The Goschenhoppen Folk Festival is amazing. No one needs an excuse to check it out. But why can’t a small non-profit encourage their employees to go on their own time?
(I do feel however, that the Goschenhoppen Historians Christmas Market is even BETTER. definitely check THAT out!)
The events under new ED have been a snooze fest and I truly hope they improve because Harriton was always such a gem. So maybe lack of activity at the old farmstead is why the field trip for grown ups?
Maybe Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov can wax poetic about things at Harriton? Isn’t he the commissioner who attends their board meetings? Speaking of board meetings, what about board minutes, where are theirs kept publicly? They are a non-profit organization so who has them? Have they changed their bylaws over the past couple of years? Are things being run properly in as far as a non-profit goes? Is there proper financial oversight and accountability? Is there oversight in general?
Maybe my concerns in the end will amount to nothing, I surely hope so. But I remain steadfast in my opinion that the Harriton Association needs some shaking up on the board including a new president of the board, and that this current ED is simply not the right fit. Being a historical reenactor does not make them a good ED does it? More to running a historic site than playing dress up around the region right?
Thank goodness my rights which were assisted in happening once upon a time by Harriton’s Charles Thomson allow me to express my opinions.
