Today the bulldozers have arrived at 400 S. Leopard Road in Berwyn, Chester County and Easttown Township. We have been living this since the first fire in 2024. Charged with arson in one fire here is still Kathryn Calmus Frankel. She was charged in the new year with a dangerous fire in York County, PA. She was also charged with some sort of fire in Delaware County (Radnor Township.) I am uncertain as to which prison she is located in – I presume York County which is county of latest arson.
Frankel has not been tried in any of these cases as of yet, although I did notice this on the Delaware County, PA docket:
Is there a chance she pleads on all of these cases? Who knows. The media down here has not followed up and we haven’t heard anything out of the various District Attorneys’ offices about that have we?
I am so sad that this quirky old house is becoming something we will maybe remember for a while and then forget as ashes to ashes dust to dust…and we know a McMansion shall replace part of our Chester County history, but two brutal fires have killed this piece of history.
This is yet another reason why this country needs better mental health services.
Here is one more photo and then to follow current dockets from 3 counties and a couple of prior posts.
Bye house. You were once beautiful, quirky, and loved even by strangers driving by.
‼️MISSING‼️: Rep. Lisa Borowski Lisa Borowski for State Representative. We suspect she is probably on her knees somewhere doing whatever is asked of her by Johnny Frack as this is what she does- whatever she is told. (I hope the pats on the head don’t mess up her hair.)
Lisa Borowski is a co-sponsor of horrible data center loving PA HB 2151, and was for quite a while a co-sponsor of last year’s disaster of a data center bill HB 502, until she slithered away like the snake 🐍 in the grass that she is (or muppet weasel take your pick.)
This is Lisa’s habitual political M.O. —whatever is best for Lisa. She would not and cannot be counted on to defend Delco residents on pipelines, hydrogen hubs, warehouses, or wanton development (even in Radnor Township which also doesn’t like being tagged by this lowly blogher much to my great amusement!) so unless public pressure comes to bear she will sit there on data center bills like Joshie’s good little girl.
It’s time to innundate Radnor’s fave political muppet. Call her, if they don’t pick up the phone, leave a message. DO NOT USE FOUL LANGUAGE NO MATTER WHAT – among other things, her staff doesn’t deserve it. They can’t help it if she is inept and a political striver. (I had to laugh just now because for some reason when I started to write striver, it wanted it to be stripper🤣)
If you live in her district, you also should find people to primary her and run against her who are decent candidates. After all if she can’t stand up for everyday Pennsylvanians in solidarity of getting rid of data center threats, you can’t trust her for anything. People should want someone who works for them not for themselves and special interest groups right?
STATE REP. LISA BOROWSKI 168TH DISTRICT/DELCO CO-SPONSOR OF BAD DATA CENTER BILL PA HB2151 LAST SEEN AT PHOTO OPS IN RADNOR TOWNSHIP Call 484-427-2884 or 717-772-2005 1-833-787-5039
Oh, and Lisa? The First Amendment protects my right to criticize you as now a state politician because you are no better than you were as a local politician.
I have been in love with North Wayne, PA for years. It’s an amazing and historic area, and ironically was a quasi planned development in the late19th century. The North Wayne Historic District is actually a national historic district. Most houses were built between1881 and 1925, and include notable examples of Shingle Style, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival architecture. Among the famous area architects who contributed to this were the Quaker Price brothers (William and Frank, who also did a lot of Rose Tree in Media.)
Allow me to share something I wrote many years ago in 2011:
Allow me to quote myself but click on the above link for photos I took years ago as well:
I first became a fan of North Wayne when I was a kid. The fanciful Victorian architecture in particular had me at hello, just like Cape May, NJ.
North Wayne has grand Victorian homes with sweeping porches and smaller homes of a more fanciful bungalow style. Many of these homes have been lovingly restored. You see Queen Anne, Second Empire, Tudor, shingle style, stick style, craftsman, and colonial revival homes dot the streets neatly laid out on a grid pattern.
Like many other towns on the Main Line, Wayne popped as the Pennsylvania Railroad developed and connected Philadelphia to points west–Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. The Main Line itself received its now famous name as a result of this train line.
Wayne as we see it today can be ironically described as an early planned development. Streets were orderly and on a grid. Houses were large, but convenient to downtown Philadelphia. They embraced the Victorian sensibilities and importance of hearth and home, yet were so modern. Steam heat, the train, public water and sewer, electricity, indoor plumbing, paved roads. There were even swimming pools–like the famous Wayne Natatorium.
The Wayne Natatorium, which was recognized in the fall of 2010 with a historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, was located in North Wayne on what we know today as Willow Avenue. Among the largest open-air, in-ground swimming pools in the United States, and some still argue the world, this Victorian folly existed between 1895 and 1903. It was 500 feet by 100 feet and played host to national swim meets during its existence. And in the winter, when this fresh water pool froze over? There was ice-skating and winter carnivals held under colorful lights.
The area in which the Wayne Natatorium sits is in North Wayne, but outside the boundaries of the historic district. The historic district in North Wayne only extends so far, and doesn’t encompass a lot of the more modest streets with working class roots that abut the Wayne train station, and I think that is a mistake. For example, if it hadn’t been for vigilant neighbors who live on some of the streets NOT in the historic district, 236 North Aberdeen Ave. might have been lost a couple of years ago to ill-fitting new development.
What was so special about 236 North Aberdeen Ave.? It was the home of builder Jonathan Lengel. Lengel was a builder who brought a lot of the whimsical architectural visions of such greats as David Knickerbocker Boyd. Lengel was responsible for the construction on some very interesting Radnor landmarks.
North Wayne not only boasts the homes out of the imagination of David Knickerbocker Boyd but also among others, the Price brothers–William and Frank Price, Philadelphia Quakers who were originally protégées of Frank Furness before venturing out on their own starting in 1881…..Radnor residents, take the time to become more active with your local Radnor Historical Society and get to know your local streets. They are delightful and charming, offering a real sense of community. Get out of your cars and walk these streets if you haven’t in a while. You’ll be glad you did.
Yes, I mentioned the Wayne Natatorium. I raised the money, found the non-profit sponsor and got the PA Historical Marker approved years ago in 2010. And guess what? Didn’t live there. I just loved the quirky history. See next link to learn about the Wayne Natatorium.
Both organizations continue to do their thing, although I wish they would be less insular and more active.
One house that got torn down just outside the historic district of North Wayne a few years ago was the one built by Jonathan Lengel for his own family on N. Aberdeen. I had helped stop the demolition a bunch of years ago, but Radnor Township didn’t give a damn a few years ago and down it came. I wrote about it:
Here are some photos I took of North Wayne from around 2007:
Oh and what else did I do back in the day for North Wayne? Well I got stormwater improvements out of Septa and some safety issues addressed with a giant drainage pipe that frequently flooded out parts of Pennsylvania Avenue.
How did I do that? The lead engineer for Septa at the time was a super nice man named Jeff Knueppel. (Yes, the one guy in recent past who was eventually the general manager of Septa before the wheels fell off and people like former politician or perennial politician Leslie Richards came to be there.) Jeff Knueppel was a great General Manager and accessible to the public. But I digress.
Anyway, I had written an editorial for Main Line Media News when Tom Murray was the editor, and Jeff Knueppel read it and contacted me. At the time, Wayne train station and their parking lot was getting a makeover. Jeff Knueppel said the budget had room for added stormwater infrastructure underneath the parking lot, and they did some stuff with the embankment facing Pennsylvania Avenue and put a grate over the giant pipe to keep dogs, cats, and kids out of it (which had been a problem.) Next photo is what this looked like before Septa added the grate cover thing and did improvements.
So this was something I did with my writing and activism because it was the right thing to do.
I used to belong to the Radnor Historical Society because I loved North Wayne so much. (I am thinking of rejoining, actually.)
Anyway…. before Christmas I was over there and I took photos of some of the houses on Poplar Avenue because it is one of my favorite streets back in North Wayne. In an other life, I almost lived in North Wayne, a couple of streets removed from there.
Now I hadn’t posted most of these photos yet because I had not gone through them and was editing a lot of December photos and still am from volunteer non-profit photo taking amounting to a few hundred photos. When I started going through the photos from Wayne, I shared one particular house on my blog’s Facebook page:
The ONLY thing I said of the above house is “this house in North Wayne could be fabulous….”
Nothing else. It’s one of my favorites and is one that I have watched for YEARS. For years it has gone through phases where it was tidier and repairs were happening but over the past couple of years in particular it has devolved into this. Here are photos going back to 2007 where you could see the house, 2012 when there was gardening going on, and 2017 when it started to slide into the condition you see today in 2025. These photos incidentally are from Google:
This house was fabulous and could be again if the decay is stopped. It was built around 1905-1906 by Jonathan Lengel whom I mentioned earlier in this post. Here is a screen shot from Radnor Historical Society of Poplar:
So yeah…I posted about this house because it is one of the quirky houses of Wayne I think are so cool. But of course the moral judgement squad of a lack of reading comprehension on Facebook jumped on my back:
So yeah, I love the judgmental who can’t read. Literally ALL I said was the house could be fabulous. The Judgey Judgersons came from West Goshen, Downingtown, Malvern, and I don’t know where else…but none from near this house in North Wayne. As a matter of fact a woman who grew up across from there left a comment saying the house was once fabulous.
All of these people completely missed what the post was about and decided I was targeting whomever lives there. I mean HUH? I was talking about the house, no clue who lives there or what is going on. All I said is the house could be fabulous.
But if we are going to talk about the deterioration, it is happening. Like I said, I have been watching this house from the early 2000s. For a while it looked like repairs were happening, and gardening was happening so it was a shock when I went down this block this holiday season and saw it. This is a neighborhood of old house proud and other houses disappeared for McMansions literally have appeared across the street and down.
I was not doing anything other that taking photos on a public street. I wasn’t peering in windows although with this down on her luck North Wayne house the windows aren’t clear on the second floor. I saw it when I was taking photos and chose not to take that photo. But if the inside indeed resembles the outside then whomever knows the owner maybe should help them?
I am sick of people who lack basic reading comprehension and interpolate whatever is on their mind, not mine, as my actual thoughts or reason for writing about something. This happens with almost everything and it’s old. I am not going to stop writing and people did this when I started writing about Loch Aerie before she was restored, and even more recently the Joseph Price House in Exton.
Get. Over. Yourselves.
No one has to read what I write, and no one has to comment on my blog’s Facebook page or here. And if you don’t even know what it is you are bitching about, it’s even more pathetic.
I am talking old houses here, in an area I find immensely special in spite of the crazy municipality it is in. And Jonathan Lengel? The guy who built the house I spoke of having the ability to be fabulous? In the area he was also responsible for The Saturday Club, Waldheim mansion – (VFMA’s Sullivan Hall, torn down in 2001), Walmarthon estate (Now still there minus historic log cabin), and Waynewood Hotel – (Still standing AKA Wayne Hotel.)
Check out the history in North Wayne and better yet check out the Radnor Historical Society at Finley House. The Finley House is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. 113 West Beechtree Lane, Wayne PA. They also have amazing photo archives. (https://radnorhistory.org/archive/photos/)
I take photos. A majority involves old and often historic houses.
Ciao haters. Go look at some cool old houses and enrich your sense of why they are important.
Yeah….so Villanova held a meeting with neighbors over at Cabrini. I actually am glad they did it, except listen to a snippet of the presentation and I have to ask if this Villanova official has ever visited Villa Blue Tarp in Mount Pleasant?
This neighborhood is mostly Chester County/Tredyffrin, but a part of it is also Upper Merion/Montgomery County. The Tredyfrin part of it has some seriously ridiculous off campus party pits. Forget about are the houses safe for the students to live in, will the neighbors ever have peace? The lady speaking at Cabrini I’m sure has the best of intentions, but she has zero clue or doesn’t want to have a clue of what actually goes on in off campus party pits in Mount Pleasant, which is close Cabrini.
Neighbors also reported the following who were at the meeting:
FYI Traffic is going to be awful when Villanova opens the Cabrini campus next year!!!
Villanova says they have purchased six large buses. Shuttle service will leave Cabrini campus every 5-10 minutes 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM.
400 on campus student vehicles. 600 staff and commuter vehicles. Who knows how many Ubers and Doordash type vehicles, right?
That’s a lot, isn’t it?
They are permitted on campus at any time. The King of Prussia and Eagle Road entrances will close at 10:30 PM and reopen at 6:30 AM.
All traffic during this time will enter and exit on Upper Gulph.
I am very glad I don’t live near there. And with Villanova going to Cabrini and Valley Forge Military failing, and who knows what’s happening to that land, how will Radnor and Tredyffrin be protecting their residents through this?
I am glad that Cabrini is not going to be a giant parcel for residential McMansion development, but all the same, Villanova doesn’t have a good track record with their off-campus students, so what’s it going to be like over there?
Also to be considered is the practicality of the traffic implications on a lot of these roads, which are overtaxed and overburdened already.
Buckle up residents, you can hope this will all go smoothly, but I predict a lot of bumps in the road.
And speaking of Villanova, what are they doing with their main campus area property (or properties?) that back up to Aldwyn Lane? And doesn’t the university own properties on Aldwyn Lane? Is Radnor protecting their residents over there or ignoring them?
This is going to be interesting for sure, right? It’s their own version of Happy Valley without the great ice cream right?
Wow. They dressed up the area and now they’re going. I’m always sad when a small business doesn’t make it.
I will not say I was a customer of this business because I wasn’t, but they put a lot of work and their whole heart into it and it’s a bummer.
Vanner House is sadly, toast.
I literally just had never had the time to make it down there. And one reason why I was glad they were there is I love that location. I love those old buildings. Years ago when there was a rent sign up there for residential living I went and looked at the property and it was just so cool even if it’s sat smack on Conestoga Road.
I don’t know if everyone remembers but Savvy Main Line did a big article on them. Here is the link:
Again, I’m sad to see a small business close. Retail for the independent individual person is tough. If you’re a big box store, it can be tough, but it’s not this kind of tough.
So another one bites the dust. Maybe if Pennsylvania and these various municipalities made it more attractive for small businesses to stay they would be able to. 
I am guessing that this event tonight is the Swan song for the store as far as things like that⬇️
I mean seriously WTF? Is this someone with a beef against Villanova University or Radnor Police Department? Or do they just want to terrify parents of students and the community at large?
It came in at 11:30 AM for Austin Hall and people were at mass in the chapel according to NBC10!
And the headlines are pouring in. It’s official: Villanova University was “swatted.”
What does that mean? That means false reports were called in causing all of this activity. As per NBC 10 and 6 ABC the two channels I was watching, the call came into the 911 Call Center in Delaware County.
But what I am learning from people who live in close enough proximity to Villanova that they should’ve been the alerted the same time as the on campus population , yet they say that was not necessarily so?
I have spoken to some neighbors down there and I was told basically they found out after everyone else and they’re not happy. It’s not easy being a neighbor of that school. I don’t know how much of a delay there was, or if it’s more a misperception than fact, but it needs to be addressed publicly and rather soon.
Villanova has a security model where they have their own police force and there was quite the contretemps over that. I think it was about 2016. Police Superintendent at that point was Bill Colarulo and he didn’t think it was a good idea. And residents definitely weren’t happy.
Neighbors are not happy. Did not receive alerts. I heard the news from another friend.
Wonder if Stoneleigh was alerted and the houses on and off County Line Road?
So apparently, when I asked kind of how long it was, I was told:
After the fact and an hour late.
Ouch. Residents and taxpayers of Radnor also asking how much this cost Radnor Township today. I don’t know that they’ll ever get the true numbers but is it safe to say at least $50,000 if not more? I mean it was a massive response from multiple municipalities not just in Delaware County, but all over.
This is not Radnor’s fault this happened. But if it ends up, there was a delay between Villanova University, and any kind of notifications to the public, who obviously are close by, that’s a problem. People have already been concerned over the years of how Villanova has handled sexual assaults and other things, haven’t they? Please, by all means correct me if I’m wrong.
Right now all I have are questions, and so do neighbors closest to the school. Far too many people are being left with an uneasy feeling after this exercise today that wasn’t an exercise, or reality, it was in fact a hoax.
I’m hoping that Radnor, Villanova University, and the district attorney of Delaware County and other agencies will address this so if this is a misperception, it is cleared up immediately.
Now let’s talk about who did this. I think they will find whoever it is. It might take time because the call came into a call center. And once you sift through that information, law-enforcement will next have to go to phone providers and that requires paperwork and fees and like a subpoena or something. You see telecommunications companies tell you they cooperate with law-enforcement, but basically they cooperate for a price. I actually know this personally.
People think those calls are anonymous, but actually they aren’t. And people do get caught and charged. And when they get caught here, it won’t be some minor in fraction, I think something like this probably rises to the category of terroristic threats, or something.
I don’t know what the motivation would be for someone to do this other than to freak out and immediate community, a university campus, and tons of parents dropping their kids off for their first year of college. It’s not funny.
I think the police did an amazing job. I think Villanova got to stress test their plans, and that’s a hard situation. You have people getting these alerts on campus they’re outside for a mass for the beginning of school and then all of a sudden people are running and chairs are getting knocked over. People could’ve gotten hurt any single way you slice this.
And when I think of the people, I know personally, who did not find out at first who had kids stuck in businesses up close to campus on Route 30, and people who are just trying to come home and people who were home, wondering if they were safe is simply not acceptable.
Governor Josh Shapiro stated that this act of swatting Villanova University on move in day was a cruel hoax, and he reminded everyone that this is actually an illegal act. He has instructed the Pennsylvania State Police to help in whatever way they can to find whoever it is who did this. he and other today also reported that what happened today regardless of whether it was real or a hoax was every parent’s nightmare.
If there’s anyone out there who knows who might have done this, they really need to go to law-enforcement. And I can’t help but wonder if every parent who dropped a kid off at that school today is not having a second thought or two, along with every parent everywhere that’s doing the same thing right now.
Now they’re saying it’s a hoax? If so, whoever perpetrated it should go to jail.
This is crazy. It’s move-in day at Villanova University. I don’t know but I would be hard-pressed not to pack up my freshman and take them back home. People are saying oh they’re shocked that someone got on campus.
For real?
You can get on campus easily enough, especially on move-in day maybe not with a car but all you have to do is walk on campus. It’s not a gated community.
Of course you see the unfortunate tweet as my friend said from Villanova about where are people living this year.
All I can say is, I hope everything ends OK and the students are safe. Who would think that you would find that at Villanova University in the heart of the Main Line ?
The media is saying, there are no reported victims at this time, and that came from Radnor police.
So if you want to visit the 2025 Time Machine for the Main Line, you will remember back towards the winter into the early spring there was a lot of chatter about the much lauded Agnes Irwin School in Radnor Township right? Nasty glare bomb lights? A dog and pony show at a Radnor Township meeting by the school and a former member of the police force now Agnes Irwin security living in a house the school owns that used to belong to someone’s parents I went to school with many moons ago? (Ahh yes I remember it well….or so the line from an old show tune goes….)
I don’t think very much happened with regard to the lights. And I don’t think Radnor Township backed up the neighbors much at all?
Anyway, around that time, it also came out that they were proposing turf fields. I should say proposing turf fields again, because Agnes Irwin has run into issues before having to do with turf fields haven’t they? All you have to do is go do an archive search of Main Line Media News…. or ask people who remember.
So if you are a neighbor of Agnes Irwin, are they treating you the neighbors with respect? I mean it’s been bad enough the past couple/few years as parking everywhere seems to have become normal rather than occasional, correct?
I do not recall that the lights seemed particularly better now? I mean you would hope by now they would’ve at least changed the kind of bulbs so it was less glare bomb right? All should be shaded down too, right?
So with the lights, etc. that’s one giant demerit for them in the environmentally, friendly aspect isn’t it? Isn’t it well documented what lights do to the flight paths of migrating birds and nature? And interrupting human sleep cycles?
So now everything is all torn up because they’re putting in turf fields. I also seemed to recall that the turf field they are creating on the playing fields that run alongside the one side of those residential streets off of Conestoga they abut goes to the creek, doesn’t it? We all know what it takes to “recycle” turf fields, correct? Isn’t it like places where they just dump the old rolls of turf they don’t like really recycle them per se do they?
Artificial turf can contain PFAS right? It also breaks down over time, releasing microplastic particles into the environment. Irwins has been saying that their turf is carbon neutral? OK so that might mean they’re using recycled plastic maybe? It still doesn’t negate all the other potential issues, does it? Sorry not sorry I don’t believe the carbon neutral turf actually helps the environment or mitigates climate change. My opinion is that this is the Emperor’s New Sporty Clothes. But you can bet that it’s really really expensive, right?
It’s ridiculously hard to recycle artificial turf. That is the reality. It ends up in landfills, doesn’t it? If you Google, you can see pictures of like fields or piles of it in landfills.
Something else is it contributes to something they call “heat island effects.” So it’s not real, it’s fake so as opposed to grass, it absorbs and retains more heat. Which means that Agnes Irwin is going to possibly heat up residential neighbors as well isn’t it?
Artificial turf also contributes to loss of habitat for nature and wildlife. Turf doesn’t need to be watered per se, but again what happens when water even rains runs off turf? Pollutants, right?
So Agnes Irwin is trying to build its legacy to itself. In my humble opinion, they’re desperately trying to compete with the other private schools in the vicinity. Can they compete? I don’t know. My opinion remains that their obsession over the years with turf fields says to me they are concerned with the wrong things. Athletics are great, but is there a true balance with academics?
And if you notice in one of the pictures that were taken from a public road with no trespassing, you will notice there’s a split rail fence between the school and the public streets and neighbors, right?
I think that the school needs to put up a more permanent kind of fence which cuts down on cut throughs. You know like a 6 foot wrought iron looking fence and screening landscaping that is properly and consistently maintained? The reality is them putting in fields like this means they’re going to have to make them pay because they are that expensive.
Other schools with fields like this will often rent their fields, I think they should spare the neighbors by putting up a more permanent fence so the neighbors don’t have any more unintended consequences to deal with and they do already having a private school as a neighbor.
So a good fence might make for good neighbors right? (And it would cut down on those pesky cut through and parking all over neighborhood streets, wouldn’t it?)
Agnes Irwin has its turf fields being built, so now it’s time for them to stop being selfish jerks to the neighbors and do better, don’t you agree?
As for Radnor Township, people are complaining that they changed the route of the Garrett Hill 4th of July parade when hello perspective? This is kind of the stuff that matters in the bigger picture, isn’t it? I mean to me the whole thing with these turf fields / glare bomb lights and Radnor Township kind of reminds me of all they haven’t done in North /West Wayne about stormwater management over the years , doesn’t it?
And no matter what you think, these fields are not environmentally friendly, and shame on those involved. And at the end of the day, turf fields also aren’t particularly easy on human joints are they?
Just another rather predictable and to a contentious issue in Radnor. It makes you wonder when residents will actually matter again or should I say all residents?
Savvy’s screenshot gave me pause. Watched the meeting video and then saw a familiar face….
Well in addition to the malarkey over books courtesy of this Mike Lake at Radnor Township School District School Board Meetings, he apparently has an erstwhile assistant? Gosh we’ve all seen her at meetings out here, haven’t we? Radnor residents, we apologize that the dead baby book banning poster toting woman from Great Valley is assisting the foaming at the mouth book banning man in your township now.
Her name is Fenicia Redman and people in Great Valley are rolling their eyes, right? Yeah we remember her and her dead baby posters etc., don’t we? Taxpayers go to pay for her nonsense until the courts eventually dismissed what she was attempting. She wanted the samey same books banned in Great Valley. (And remarkably her GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/5j8tn5 is still up AND Mike Lake donated to it.)
So Mr. Lake, the thing is the police in East Whiteland actually investigated and well ummm….d’oh there was nothing actionable, was there? I mean dude you can ask East Whiteland Police yourself, ok?
So now Fenicia (who tried to get in my face at a historical marker ceremony in September, 2023, because she wanted me to KNOW her and she will tell you that I told her to her face with supervisors, residents, and a state rep right there that I still had NO desire to know her) is being a busy bee in Radnor? Bzzzzzzz and the most important take away? She LOST here in Chester County in the Great Valley School District.
So I noticed in the Savvy Main Line screenshot a woman holding signs. And I looked at the video. I thought nahhh it can’t be, but it was, sadly. I doubt she moved to Radnor Township (although people out here could be hopeful, right?) so I would say she is merely lending her chaos expertise as it were.
Look, this whole thing year after year is ridiculous. It is not up to these people to decide for everyone and everyone’s kids. And I always wonder whose sexuality are they worried about when they go on these crusades?
Anyway, birds of a putrid feather and all that. Barf.
Just remember: she LOST in Great Valley. Here’s hoping Radnor Township School District School Board remember where they left their balls?
