Tag Archives: swedesford road

while you were sleeping (in west whiteland)

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Ok so you know all those tumble down and rotting houses that once belonged to Church Farms School but haven’t in forever on Swedesford Road? The ghost houses?

Well guess what is up on the West Whiteland Planning Commission tomorrow? A Utopian (sarcasm) Old People’s Community where they are. Read the AGENDA (which I will post for you and you are welcome.)

But here, allow me to post these screenshots:

Yep. That’s a lot of development. Now I do not object to a senior community because it doesn’t put more kids in the jam packed school districts out here. BUT I do object to the DENSITY. Our area is going to explode already. And this? Oy vey think of the traffic this will add? And if you have ever driven around the Bermuda Triangle of Senior Living in West Chester East Goshen etc area, you know.

So anyway, time to start reading all of the agendas again. Over-development and squeeze them in like lemmings is the name of the game in Chester County. Can I say once again over-development is RUINING Chester County? We are so Bensalem…King of Prussia….Cherry Hill, NJ….

Sigh.

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ghost houses of swedesford road: more photos

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The other day I wrote another post about the ghost houses Swedesford Road and how they continue to deteriorate .

A reader sent me photos. Looks like late fall or winter before snow. And I thought I should be clear that these USED to be owned by Church Farms School but now? Some developer or commercial real estate entity. No clue who.

Is this demolition by neglect? Well what do you think? Sure isn’t preservation is it? Wouldn’t you think West Whiteland would want these structures secured?

It is a shame that they’ve been allowed to rot. Now what?

ghost houses of swedesford road continue to deteriorate

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In 2019 I wrote about the little houses along Swedesford Road that just sit and rot.

We passed by them yesterday in the car, and one looks like the roof has completely caved in on. I wasn’t able to get many photos so I just clicked a couple with my phone.

These are sweet little houses. They used to be faculty housing for Church Farms School I believe years ago. And when you think of all the crap that is getting built in the category of new development even just up the road, it’s almost wasteful that these houses were never fixed up and had people in them again. I still think if any of them were salvageable and they were stored them they could sell them and families would move in there.

Thanks for stopping by.

new life for an old barn

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It used to be a big red barn. Marooned on the corner of Planebrook and Swedesford in Malvern. I have posted about it before.

Well look at it now. It has been completely restored and adapted to office space. I am not crazy about the brown siding, because I loved the big red barn of it all. but I applaud whomever bought it and gave it new life.

“that” stretch of swedesford road….

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swedesford 3So these are just a handful of snap shots taken quickly as a passenger in a car of that stretch of Swedesford Road that seems frozen in time and fading fast.  I would really like to take more photos, as I find this all fascinating.swedesford 6

Anyway, any knowledge which can be shared of the farms, or anything else right here would be appreciated. The history is so rich and with each farm that fails or development that breaks ground, more bits of Chester County disappear. I know you can’t save every old house, but it would be nice to have photos and bits of the history….

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ghostly neighborhood

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This is something I have been curious about. I think I have mentioned it before- this abandoned neighborhood on Swedesford Road.

This neighborhood fascinates me. Time has stood still, someone must have bought it. Anyway it’s like a ghost town.

UPDATE:

One of my regular readers wrote to me in an e-mail just now:

Those homes are the former staff homes for Church Farm School when it was run as a farm too.

The land behind them is part of the new 700 plus acre Chester County park whenever they make it useable.
It was part of the large development deal for Church Farm after the original developer (forgot name) lost money and bowed out.

The county park is another story. It’s been in ‘development’ for years. Apparently no money.

Meanwhile, a whole generation has grown up without being able to use it as a park.

Another Chester County boondoggle.

So I guess this was part of that Rouse deal back in the day then? So if municipalities own the park land, who owns these abandoned houses now?

Ok keep those e-mails and comments coming this is fascinating stuff!

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adaptive reuse?

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Will the big red barn on the corner of Planebrook and Swedesford in East Whiteland rise again?  In February I was wondering the fate of this really big, red barn, and look at what I snapped yesterday:

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So nice to see since an apparent adaptive reuse in progress, especially East Whiteland seems to have preservation issues (as in actually seeing that things are preserved).

Things I do not like in East Whiteland right now include the closing of the movie theater in Frazer for a used car or car dealership, the replacement adult whatever toy store next to the King Street Grill, the closing of Newbury Gifts  in May and the Wedding Touch closing on April 27th.

The commercial district of East Whiteland along Lancaster Avenue is a hodge podge, and if they cared, it could at least look better.  If all these “high end” stores are either in the Vahalla know as Uptown Worthington (whose advertising on their website is well worth mocking it is so absurd) or coming to Uptown Worthington, hello, has anyone looked at Route 30 as it runs through East Whiteland?  What is decent is drowned out by seriously ugly so why not improve it?  Why not attempt to attract other than car dealerships, mobile home parks, self storage and adult novelty stores? And yes I know those aren’t the ONLY things along Route 30 in East Whiteland, but that is what the public perception is.

Soon Uptown Worthington will be as crowded as Mall World in Exton so why not start thinking about giving people attractive shopping alternatives and fix it up on Route 30? To me it just seems to be common sense to draw on the popularity of Uptown Worthington and Mall World in Exton and to make the in-between look better and have stores people would like to patronize, preferably independent retailers and not more big box stores. I am not saying some new urbanist fairy tale of a walkable business district (it would never happen safely here), but a more cohesive and better looking few miles.

Also on my wish list for East Whiteland? I would love to see Linden Hall and Loch Aerie preserved too.

I would also really appreciate  it if Whitelands Chiropractic on the corner of Church and Lancaster in Frazer would trim the complete bent elbow of hedges so drivers could see better from both roads.

Business districts are important.  Uniformity and neatness and design of business districts are equally important.