A cautionary tale of when a municipality becomes a developer’s whore.
foxcatcher farm 2015
A cautionary tale of when a municipality becomes a developer’s whore.
Tag Archives: toll brothers
why development in chester county needs to slow down…or “oh look a crop of tyvek , stucco, and vinyl!”
foxcatcher farm now
The ugliness of it is astounding. It’s like looking at overpriced tyvek wrapped tenanment housing.
This is the former Foxcatcher Farm today. There are all these houses crammed together and on the tops of some hills there are giant McMansions in progress crammed close together. So many of the trees are gone it’s staggering.
This is why people fight Toll Brothers and their ilk from coming into their communities.
I am a realist and I no longer expect large parcels of land like this to stay as intact estates as the years go by, but if this isn’t a reason that screams for more control on developers and development within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania I don’t know what does.
And it’s funny as you go past this debacle in Newtown Township, Delaware County, and you go into Radnor Hunt you notice every year how much more of the land is being developed within the Radnor Hunt area, don’t you? I wonder how many years longer the actual fox hunts near Radnor Hunt will be able to take place?
Change is inevitable, but this is a case of where change is kind of sad.
development…..
Intersection of Chester Springs Rd. and Eagle Farms Rd. (I have a picture of a barn there somewhere.) Apparently this is another fine Toll Brothers project? People say that barn will soon be history, but I don’t know….sigh….sure hope this municipality is staying on top of permits and stuff, right?
cautious optimism? or fear of the future?
Ever since I came to Chester County I have loved this house alone in its own meadow and field on Ship Road in Exton. So I decided to put a photo I took recently up on the Chester County Ramblings Facebook page and a friend of mine told me it was a house on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the Benjamin Jacobs House .
I had noticed it has had a realtor sign outside and I thought was being listed by those folks formerly known as Prudential and now Berkshire Hathaway (their new signs are supposed to stand out as per their ads but I find the color scheme makes them not particularly remarkable).
The area in which the house sits is one that contains a lot of land being cherry picked for development (has been that way for decades at this point) …or if you go down Swedesford there I think it is you see a row of cute little houses abandoned by time and man and getting more vine-covered by the year. I believe this parcel is listed by some commercial firm and well people have to make a living and feed their family, but still, I somewhat disappointed to find familiar names on commercial real estate signs for parcels of land that will kill more open space in Chester County, but that is the reaction I tend to have when I see beautiful land being opened up for development like this. Every time I go by this stretch of houses as a passenger in a car I don’t have a camera with me.
Seriously? Go check out this PECO link to available land in Chester County. It is a sobering list of available land parcels and isn’t all of Chester County out there for sale. (Again see PECO Land Database Chester County )
Anyway, the Benjamin Jacobs House has been part of the Church Farms School land parcels. It was even mentioned in the Downingtown Area Historical Society Newsletter of April 3, 2014 . That house and the family from which it gets its name are steeped in Chester County history.
The Benjamin Jacobs House was built around 1790. Here is the description off of Zillow which feeds I am sure from listings like the one on Realtor.com :
The Benjamin Jacobs House circa 1790 posted on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique architectural details. Surrounded by Chester County Park grounds the 2.6 acre setting is truly beautiful with 100+ year old trees and views of the Great Valley. This wonderful estate offers many potential uses as permitted by the zoning code including; Guesthouse, Inn, Cultural Studio, Eating/Drinking
Establishment, Professional Office and many more. Though in need of renovation the solid stonestructure presents; a dramatic front to back foyer, two large formal rooms with marble fireplaces, a
step down family room with an angular bay seating area, spacious kitchen, study and a main level laundry room. The upper floors include 2 bedrooms with fireplaces plus 3-5 additional bedrooms and 2 baths. Other important features include covered porches, arched windows, two staircases, deep window sills,
hardwood flooring, period trim and many historic details throughout. Come see this awesome piece of history and appreciate all of its potential. Call today for your personal appointment
Read more on REALTOR.com: 375 N Ship Rd, Exton, PA 19341 – Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing – realtor.com®
Follow us: @REALTORdotcom on Twitter | Realtor.com on Facebook
It is all those “wonderful” zoning possibilities that makes me worry. Just because something is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Circa 1984 see Benjamin Jacobs House West Whiteland ) , it doesn’t make it bulletproof. Take for example another listing close by belonging to same realty office I think.
613 E Swedesford Road Exton, PA 19341 (Once known as the Fox Chase Inn and put on the National Register of Historic Places also in 1984.) The photo I will use of the front is a Wikipedia Commons File. I have one of it somewhere in photos I took but can’t lay my hands on it right now.
This house is not faring as well as the Benjamin Jacobs House. As are evidenced in the interior photos this realtor has on this listing (and here is the description):
Fox Chase Inn, listed on the National Historic Register, Circa 1765, the first true licensed Tavern in West Whiteland Township. This wonderful piece of history offers many possible uses including; Cultural studio, Guesthouse, Inn, Eating/Drinking establishment, Professional business offices, Home office and many other permissible opportunities. The sale includes a historic circa 1823 stone barn 74′ x 44′ plus a large 72′ x33′ addition. Offering 2500+ sf. the Inn includes; a welcoming front porch, a historic full wall cooking fireplace, deep stone window sills as
well as period trim and details. Ready for renovation this prime 2.6 acre location offers high exposure on Swedesford Road that is surrounded by acres of dedicated park grounds and open space. This property is being sold As is Please do not walk the site without an appointment
Read more on REALTOR.com: 613 E Swedesford Rd, Exton, PA 19341 – Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing – realtor.com®
Follow us: @REALTORdotcom on Twitter | Realtor.com on Facebook
The problems with these listings is my preservationists heart is reading a sub-text. Maybe the sub-text isn’t there but what I feel is that people wouldn’t blink if these buildings weren’t there, or if their interiors were to become truly modern commercial without the proper nods to restoration and preservation of the periods in which they were constructed.
Now the Benjamin Jacobs House was a bit of a regional media sensation circa 1988 to 1990. This was when Willard Rouse was battling to develop adjacent land. The articles are from the Philadelphia Inquirer which at that time had a fabulous Chester County Bureau. Of course, that no longer exists today in the eviscerated version of a once great paper and it is out loss because there is so much not being told out here in Chester County because no newspaper has enough staff.
Here are excerpts:
(Article #1 Inquirer March 1988 )
Over 195 years, the Benjamin Jacobs House on Ship Road has been home to a judge, to farm families and to boarding students from the Church Farm School, which used the house as a dormitory.
The house would take on still another identity under plans by Rouse & Associates, which has proposed restoring the structure for use as project headquarters during the development of 1,325 acres adjacent to the Church Farm School….The first inhabitant of the house, built in 1793, was Benjamin Jacobs, a surveyor and lawyer who was an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Chester County in the latter part of the 18th century.
(Article # 2 Inquirer March 1990 )
Wanting To Be On History’s Side Plans Are To Restore Several Historic Buildings And Incorporate Them Into The Churchill Project.
By Suzanne Gordon, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 10, 1990
I seem to remember from somewhere that this was a development battle that got really, really ugly. I think simple economics of the times also played a big role. But this battle for land out here was big enough that it was mentioned in obituaries too. Even Mr. Rouse’s.
I was much younger when this battle was playing out in Chester County. So I do not really know the outcome of the land battle and who in the end now owns the Benjamin Jacobs House. What I do know in spite of what this battle did dividing people and communities, is that you would be better off with someone like Willard Rouse in your community versus a lot of other developers who are still gobbling up chunks and chunks of Chester County with zero attempts at historic preservation. Today it is your basic rape and pillage of beautiful land.
So when I am told a really fascinating old house is “under contract” I hope for the best. After all both the Benjamin Jacobs House and the Fox Chase Inn play a vital part in local history.
Here’s hoping they stand a better chance than Loch Aerie and Linden Hall which are both sitting like ghosts of their former selves on Route 30 in Frazer. At least Loch Aerie has a caretaker living there, Linden Hall is just rotting and although I can’t say for sure, from the photos I have taken it sure looks like the building envelope has been pierced by vines and such. And then there is the Ebenezer AME Church on Bacton Hill Road.
A lot of people don’t realize that Exton didn’t used to be one big development like the King of Prussia area. And I hope by pointing out gems like the Benjamin Jacobs House and the Fox Chase Inn, people wake up to that again.
I find a common recurring theme in my own writing: the preservation of Chester County before it’s too late. Pick a municipality, all seem to have something going on. I am not trying to deliberately pick on certain municipalities, but some of them talk about historic preservation and land preservation and that is it. I also hope that by writing about these preservation issues it will spur those who can afford to be really generous to become champions of the land once again.
I know that people everywhere are worried about large land parcels in Chester County, and the more rural they go, the less is known about what will happen. I had one person say to me recently about land I guess towards the northwest quadrant of the county where they said the land was the “perfect storm” for a developer: open farmland and glorious woods and no wetlands to speak of.
Can we save every old house and every old farm? I wish, but the realist in me says no. It is just so darn concerning that a county known for agriculture and beauty just seems to be growing piles of Lego-like structures wrapped in Tyvec without a thought as to our future.
The moral of this long-winded fable is simple: wherever you are in the county, please support land and historic preservation efforts. They are so crucial.
Thanks for stopping by
MORE media is covering barn-gate in upper uwchlan! save picking in rural chester county!
I have been horribly sick all week so I completely missed the fact that The Daily Local has also picked up on The Smithfield Barn!
I am thrilled. The article is fair and unfortunately (once again) Upper Uwchlan doesn’t really sound so nice, do they?
UPPER UWCHLAN – The Smithfield Barn, a spot where residents can pick through antiques, toys, furniture and collectibles at barn sales, has been asked by the township to stop the sales.
According to Phil Smith, owner of the Smithfield Barn at 425 Little Conestoga Road, the township made the request at the end of November because it said he was running a business on a property zoned residential.
Smith said the barn sales are held occasionally, once or twice a month in the spring and fall, and should not be considered a business.
“There’s no heating or air conditioning, it’s a barn,” said Smith.
However, the township disputes the claim that sales are held only “occasionally.”
Township Manager Cary Vargo said it had become apparent the sales were happening more frequently.
In October, Vargo said, the township’s zoning officer spoke with Smith and advised him “it was a retail establishment.”
“It was clearly a successful business,” said Vargo, who added the township believed sales were held nearly every weekend.
The meeting was followed up with an official letter in November telling Smith to stop the sales or be fined $500 a day, Smith said.
Smith said the barn sales, which he said are similar to garage sales, have been going on for nearly five years without objection from the township.
I have only posted an excerpt. Read the whole article and comments.
All of the people leaving comments on this have been IN support of the barn except for a poster named “Elizabeth McGill”. Her comment profile on the Daily Local shows a photo of an older lady who looks like a cookie baking, scarf knitting grandma. Her profile description says she became a widow in July after being married fifty years. Her comments, however, are negative and also untrue. She says (and I quote):
I was there last summer looking for unique antique treasures. All I found was junk obviously obtained through “dumpster diving.” His garage sale/store is open to the public every day in fair weather….What if your next door neighbor turned his house into a strip club, gas station, or retail store? This man is operating a store in a residential area. If anything goes, and everyone is allowed to do this, fine. But don’t blame the township for ‘sticking their nose’ into THEIR business which is enforcing the rules
Since when are their rules for yard sales, garage sales, and barn sales? And wow has this lady every been to the super fabulous and super popular Clover Market? You go there and you will see sometimes priced at hundreds of dollars things like the ones you might find at the barn for literally pennies.
How can you compare a barn sale or garage sale to a strip club? Unless of course designer stripper poles are developer add on options in these “communities” gobbling up farm land in Chester County LOL? And how can this woman outright fib and say the barn is open “every day in Fair weather”? The Smith family lives on that property and just because a barn door is open, it doesn’t make it a barn sale day does it?
It’s like the rumor that was heard when this barn-gate issue first surfaced that a complaint was supposedly made from Green Valley Road. At first I could not figure out what road this was. Then I looked at the map. It is the little spit of road that is in front of the barn, but isn’t Little Conestoga Road. It sort of dead ends a bit past the edge of the Smithfield Farm property. It looks like it runs to the Frame property. But the thing is this, those are the most immediate neighbors of the barn, aren’t they? And these are the people who are supportive of the Smith family so who would start such a rumor?
But back to this whole negative comment thing.
When I asked Kristin at the barn if she knew who this woman might be, do you know what she said? Not what you might think for someone who is in a sense under siege from the township she calls home. What she said to me was (and I quote):
We live in a world filled with hatred and poverty and crime, but someone attacks the barn for in essence recycling. That makes me feel bad because I feel sad for her.
You see, that is a prime example of the kind of people the Smiths are. They are good people who even now when someone is literally casting stones at them would turn the other cheek and feel badly and feel concern for this person leaving comments like this.
Good people like the Smiths deserve better than they are getting. The residents of Upper Uwchlan deserve better.
Barn sales and yard sales are part of Chester County life and a lot of fun. Picking is as American as Apple pie and fireworks on the 4th of July! They should be allowed to continue. And this is a very nice family that I feel is being victimized by local government most unfairly.
Please help Save The Barn! Barn Picking hurts no one. And again I say there are a lot of very poor people in parts of Chester County who need places like the Smithfield Barn so they can just get stuff for their homes – you know the basics like a kitchen table and chairs that aren’t over priced?
Save picking in rural Pennsylvania. It is as American as Apple Pie. Contact Upper Uwchlan or your favorite TV station or heck even American Pickers or the Institute for Justice and tell them the Smithfield Barn and their OCCASIONAL barn sales should live on just the way they are until the Smith family doesn’t want to do it any more.
The Smithfield Barn is not a retail store and if you suddenly need a zoning variance for yard sales, garage sales, and barn sales wow so Big Brother and how is that even American?
Upper Uwchlan
Guy A. Donatelli Chairperson 78 Stonehedge Drive Glenmoore, PA 19343
GDonatelli@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
Catherine A. Tomlinson Vice-Chairperson 788 North Reeds Road Downingtown, PA 19335
CTomlinson@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
Kevin C. Kerr Supervisor 16 Heron Hill Drive Downingtown, PA 19335
KKerr@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
140 Pottstown Pike Chester Springs, PA 19425 Phone: (610) 458-9400 Fax: (610) 458-0307
Cary Vargo Township Manager (610) 646-7008
cvargo@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
media picks up on smithfield barn
Yep. The media is onto the Smithfield Barn story. Upper Uwchlan may wish to stop playing possum on this one, huh?
They wait how many years before suddenly deciding to make a move on the Smithfield Barn on Little Conestoga Road? Their employees and employees of local school districts all shop there (I have seen them with my own eyes – always amusing when you see a school bus stop so the driver can go picking). So yes, apparently I am not the only one who finds this move on their part suspect yes? Especially given, shall we say, the “development” of it all next door and across the street from Smithfield Farm?
I wrote a post on December 27th about this and it has now surpassed in readership even the posts about Justice for Argus & Fiona. After I wrote the story a lot of interest cropped up. From media and people all across the country. And I was inundated with comments and messages, including ones that were interpreted by many to be distinctly unpleasant. Makes you wonder if that is how they roll over there in that township of Upper Uwchlan? Sheesh, even those who are not fans of media and bloggers in West Vincent weren’t so bad.
And yes the media is interested. And yes the first media story broke today. It is by Tim Lake of PaNewz.com .
PANewz.com: Pa Picker’s country barn sale shut down by township as McMansions move in
Phil Smith is a self-described ‘Picker’ whose popular Smithfield Farm ‘Barn Sale’ has been shut down by his local Pa government
-1870s-era barn is filled with 30 years of ‘picking’ around old homes, estate sales and farms of Pa
–Antiques, toys, glassware, collectibles, junk all sold in vintage Pa stone barn that drew buyers from eastern Pa, many other states
-Regular barn sales created ‘old timey’ social life in rapidly developing, former farm community now jokingly referred to as ‘McMansionville’
-Upper Uwchlan Township says Smithfield Farm was violating zoning regulations by operating as a business in a residential district, five years after barn sales began
-Timing of notice suspect because new ‘McMansion’ housing development was just approved for across the road from Smithfield Farm
Smithfield Farm has a classic Pa stone barn first constructed around 1841 and later expanded in the 1870s. Smith says many people stopped at his barn sales just to get a glimpse inside the old barn. On sale days, items would fill the front lawn and the doors were flung open to reveal all the antiques, toys, furniture, collectibles, glassware and junk inside. The barn is alongside Little Conestoga Road and the Pa Turnpike in Chester County, Pa.
….Smith says he was a ‘picker’ long before the TV show ‘American Pickers’ made the practice wildly popular. Narrow pathways wind through the large barn, crammed with all kinds of useful antiques and household items and not so useful collectibles too…..Smithfield Barn is so crammed with collectibles that shoppers had to walk through narrow paths throughout the barn to find merchandise. After five years of barn sales, the owners received a letter from Upper Uwchlan Township ordering them to stop the barn sales or face a $500 per day fine. The township cited the barn sales as a zoning violation for operating a business in a residential district. Smithfield Farm contains about 14 acres in an area enclosed by a ‘Farm to Market’ type road and the Pa Turnpike. Timing of the violation letter is suspect because the township had just approved a large new development of what local’s jokingly call ‘McMansions’, across the road. The development of about 60 large homes will bring much needed road improvements, a large sewage treatment facility and a new park….Smithfield Farm is more than just a country barn sale. The original farmhouse was converted to a Victorian-style house that once held a boarding school. The farm was originally in the Abrams-Fetters family, one of the oldest family names in the area formerly known as Uwchland. It’s a vintage landmark among new homes in the former farm community…..Upper Uwchlan Township contains the picturesque village of Eagle that was once home to the iconic Simpson’s Store, a relic of the past with a pot belly coal stove and farm merchandise. It was demolished several years ago to make way for a large shopping center, bank, and retail shops. … Around the village, more than 10,000 housing units have either been built or are scheduled to be built in Upper Uwchlan. With the rapidly changing nature of this once rural farm community, the days of old fashioned barn sales may be gone for good….Without a formal complaint, Smith and Nowak are concerned that the new housing development, which will likely resemble this Toll Brothers community a half mile way, may have spurred the decision to halt the barn sales.
Hmmm file under do not ask for whom the bell “Tolls”, it “Tolls” for thee?
I was waiting for Upper Uwchlan officials to really comment, but all I see are sound bytes from the township inspector Al Gaspari. Guess he is the fall guy and is that penance of a sort? Wasn’t he in the middle of that scandal with the Township Manager being fired, and the missing rent money from the township owned farmhouse debacle not so long ago?
Anyway, Tim Lake is a seasoned journalist and former news anchor of a local affiliate of a major news network, so I would say maybe my suspicions weren’t so unrealistic if he took on the story?
And well there are other media folks nosing around who think something funky is a foot so is everyone wrong? Does Upper Uwchlan have a cut and dry case or cut and dry reasons for doing this? Or is it just more about municipal greed and future development ratables and such? And how can Al Gaspari stretch the truth quite a bit by exaggerating how often the barn is actually open for barn sales? Upper Uwchlan and he would have you THINK they are open like every day and every weekend, but that is not true. I mean it is six shades of creepy and makes you wonder does Upper Uwchlan keep a log of the people who visit the Smiths and their immediate neighbors too? So 1950s cold war era McCarthyism of them, right?
But how would we know exactly what the motivation is? Upper Uwchlan hasn’t exactly been forthcoming have they? But not being forthcoming isn’t exactly new behavior for Upper Uwchlan officials is it?
Yes….Upper Uwchlan is no stranger to strange goings on:
Daily Local: Upper Uwchlan fires its manager
By DANIELLE LYNCH, Staff Writer Posted: 03/06/12, 10:34 PM EST
UPPER UWCHLAN — Township supervisors announced the firing of Township Manager John Roughan Jr. at a standing-room-only meeting Monday night.
Roughan reacted Tuesday by saying he enjoyed his time working for Upper Uwchlan.
“I’m proud of what I accomplished there,” said Roughan, who began working for the township in October 1988. “I met some great people.”
The board’s decision to terminate Roughan falls on the heels of a controversial rental agreement on the Upland Farms property….Controversy over the Upland Farms agreement sparked in early February after township supervisors approved an occupancy agreement that requires Al Gaspari, the township’s code enforcement officer, to pay $400 a month to the township and “perform necessary upkeep and repairs on the property and coordinate capital repairs.”
Then in mid-February, former township Supervisor Don Carlson said there was already a rental agreement in place for the house in the 300 block of Route 100. The previous agreement was signed by Gaspari and Roughan in May 2004.
The farm site is still owned by Pulte Homes and is awaiting formal transfer to the township for use of taxpayer-owned open space….. the 56-acre site has a home, a barn and outbuildings.
Daily Local: Upper Uwchlan officials appoint new manager
By ERIC S. SMITH, Staff Writer Posted: 03/07/12, 12:13
UPPER UWCHLAN — After going more than seven months without a township manager, township supervisors unanimously appointed a new manager Monday night.
The board selected Cary Vargo to fill a spot vacated in March after the board fired John Roughan Jr. His annual salary rate will be $95,000 for a 90-day probationary period, after which his pay rate would jump to $100,000 a year.
Vargo comes to Upper Uwchlan after serving as township manager in Thornbury for more than two years. Prior to that, Vargo served as a Coatesville police corporal. He had served on the force for eight years.
“I was interested in serving a quality community that was a little closer to home,” said Vargo, who resides in Amity Township, Berks County…..In February, the board passed an occupancy agreement allowing Al Gaspari, the township’s code enforcement officer, to stay there as long as he paid $400 a month and performed “necessary upkeep and repairs on the property and coordinate capital repairs.”
After this agreement passed, Don Carlson, who served as a township supervisor from 1994 until 2005, announced that an agreement had already been in place since 2004 for Gaspari to use the residence at a cost of $500 per month. The 2004 agreement was signed by both Gapsari and Roughan.
The 2004 agreement stipulates: “There will be a 10 percent penalty assessed for rent payment received the 10th day of the month.
“This agreement recognizes that the house will cost an average of $300 per month in utilities. The township will review utilities on a semiannual basis. You (Gaspari) may be liable for any utilities above a six-month period ($1,800).”
The board later brought in Bob Bezgin, a certified public accountant, to perform an audit on rent transactions from May 2004 until December 2008. Bezgin found that only $8,000 of the $28,000 owed was paid by Gaspari. But Gaspari and Roughan had amended the agreement to account for the work done on the property by Gaspari.
Therefore, the board required Gaspari pay back $11,085.84 that it deems he owes in back rent.
Daily Local Editorial: Township should clear the air over firing of manager
The Upper Uwchlan Board of Supervisors fired the longtime township manager on Monday. But the action by the three-member member board, instead of bringing to a close the troublesome situation surrounding the house at Upland Farms and its occupancy by a township employee, has had the opposite effect of raising more questions.
John Roughan worked at the township since 1988 and steered it through a period of intense development. Like any government administrator, especially in a “small town” setting such as Upper Uwchlan, Roughan has his supporters and critics. But we think it only fair to the residents of the township and those who do business there that the supervisors lay out a case in public against him if they are to have any hope of putting the crisis behind them.
Transparency is among the functions of government that we value as highly as accountability and responsibility. When pubic officials lay their cards on the table as openly as possible and give the public the ability to make up its own mind, then we have representative democracy in action. When they do not, it works against that goal…..Controversy over the Upland Farms agreement sparked in early February after township supervisors approved an occupancy agreement that requires Al Gaspari, the township’s code enforcement officer, to pay $400 a month to the township and “perform necessary upkeep and repairs on the property and coordinate capital repairs.”
Then in mid-February, former township Supervisor Don Carlson said there was already a rental agreement in place for the house in the 300 block of Route 100. The previous agreement was signed by Gaspari and Roughan in May 2004, but payments appear to have stopped coming into township coffers along the way, and Gaspari seems to have been living on the property rent-free for some months.
So I am of the opinion (once again) that things are not necessarily as they seem in Upper Uwchlan and can’t you agree something is fishy?
Here’s hoping a lot more bog turtles and whatnot are found, right? After all, if this is the future of formerly bucolic parts of Chester County, well I am so sorry but do we all live out here so we can look at plastic houses all crammed together?
Remember my photos taken from the hot air balloon America 1 on Septermber 11, 2012? I took photos of development from the air? The photos I snapped were quite close to the Smithfield Barn of pre-existing development as we took off from a field in Upper Uwchlan. And I remember smelling that rotten septic smell when we landed in a septic field of another development. Is that what we are to be reduced to soon? That the only open space we have left in Chester County are septic fields of plastic mushroom house developments?
In my opinion (which I am entitled to) Upper Uwchlan destroyed the village of Eagle. But they got a nice township building, right? Don’t let them destroy the Smithfield Barn too. This is about development, isn’t it?
Barn sales and yard sales are part of Chester County life and a lot of fun. They should be allowed to continue. And this is a very nice family that I feel is being victimized by local government most unfairly. Please help Save The Barn! Barn Picking hurts no one. And there are a lot of very poor people in that part of Chester County who need places like the Smithfield Barn so they can just get stuff for their homes – you know the basics like a kitchen table and chairs that aren’t over priced?
Guy A. Donatelli Chairperson 78 Stonehedge Drive Glenmoore, PA 19343
GDonatelli@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
Catherine A. Tomlinson Vice-Chairperson 788 North Reeds Road Downingtown, PA 19335
CTomlinson@upperuwchlan-pa.gov
Kevin C. Kerr Supervisor 16 Heron Hill Drive Downingtown, PA 19335
140 Pottstown Pike Chester Springs, PA 19425 Phone: (610) 458-9400 Fax: (610) 458-0307
Cary Vargo Township Manager (610) 646-7008
forgotten farmhouse
Yesterday we stopped at the Smithfield Barn for a little treasure hunting and then wound our way back through Chester Springs to do other stuff. We decided to take some twisty windy country roads for the heck of it and ended up on one of the many dirt roads in Chester County after going by a barn I had photographed in 2009 but had not been able to back track and rediscover since!
The irony is yesterday I still did not know where exactly I was, or in what municipality (I should have written down roads!), but as we came out of the dirt part of this particular road we happened upon a forgotten farmhouse. It also had crumbling ruins of barns and outbuildings.
Can anyone tell me where I was and what the deal is with this boarded up farmhouse? I would love to know the history here. I have been told that I was at “Eagle Farms” and it all used to be working farms back there. I was also told just today that open space beauty killer Toll Brothers bought back there and other entities like Pulte and Jack Lowe and wow really? Is it that I got a photo of what might not exist much longer and be replaced by more plastic houses?
Oh ok let me know what else I need to know or what fellow readers might find interesting.
nothing says “forest” like cutting down the trees…
So if you drive around Malvern and are familiar with Forest Lane, parts of it are indeed quite wooded and lovely. It seems like the road runs between East Goshen and Willistown Townships. Unfortunately down towards what I believe is just Willistown, there has been a lot of building – Bentley Homes has been super-sizing and Main Line McMansioning. They are currently advertising 830 Forest Lane on their website. Ironically they call it “The Evergreen”. Kindly note there is barely a tree in site.
Across the street from these Bentley homes still remain some of the homes built less recently on Forest. There are some truly lovely homes. And as you proceed down Forest towards Sugartown you head into woods. I think some smidgen of them are conserved, but I am not sure.
817 Forest Lane is a home that was in the woods and for sale for years. It almost had the look of abandonment it looked so unloved.
A smaller house built at the end of the 1950’s it had that look like Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch was the architect. Definitely a retro mid-century modern, it did however fit into the woods. The house itself needed a major overhaul and who knows if it was actually salvageable. I think if someone had a little imagination the house could have been cool.
However, the chatter on this always was whomever owned it had moved some place else and were holding out for a developer. It had once been listed at a ridiculous pie in the sky price, and the price had been chiseled back over time. It had been listed with descriptions like:
AN INVESTORS DREAM! Oversized 2.10 acre lot in highly desirable Malvern. The potential of this superb lot is limited by your imagination. Tear down and build the home of your dreams in serene wooded splendor. Home is located across the the street from conserved trust land and surrounded by newly-constructed, luxuriously-appointed homes. Owner will do no repairs. This home/lot is being sold “AS IS.”
Yes, it screamed “developer buy me”. Of course reading the ad you did not realize it was an odd pie shaped lot. But note the term “serene wooded splendor”. Unfortunately what I drove by the other day is more aptly described as “rape of the forest.”
Now I get the former owners so allowed this home to rot and lot to get way overgrown, so I accept the eventuality of the house being saved was slim. I also accept that there was nothing much architecturally special about this mid-century woods dwelling house, but still when I drove by the other day all I could think was there goes more of the woods.
I did a little Internet research and according to Realtor.com the home sold for $285,250 on February 4, 2013. That coincides with when it appeared someone was actually cleaning up debris around the property.
Apparently the destiny of a good part of Forest Lane is new construction. That is a pity because once the fabulous open space and woods that make people love the road are gone, they are gone. Cut down enough woods and you change the eco system too.
Once again I ask the residents of Chester County if you really want to have so much development? Part of the extreme beauty of this county is the landscape which used to be far more wooded and wild than it is. Farmland is also what makes the county unique and beautiful. That is also disappearing far too quickly.
I am of course totally confused by what I see on Forest because this land is located in Willistown Township which I thought was all big on land conservation and protecting the environment? If as a novice and non-resident you look at their municipal website, what is it you see first when you look at their website? The moving banner of photography that shows woods and nature, don’t you?
Glad I can’t see this from my window, but it is sad to note that nothing says “forest” like cutting down the trees….to me this is very sad…trees that tall take sooooo long to grow and it is not like all of them are dying or something. I am sure the neighbors are thrilled they will no longer have to look at basically an abandoned house, but still I lament the loss of those trees. Some municipalities might refer to these as “heritage trees”.
Is new construction and multiple developments of homogenous Tyvec wrapped boxes the new “heritage” ?
this is progress?
Once again I turn to why we need to stand up for the land. We do not need so much development. We have a lot to consider and once open space is gone, it is gone for good.
Moderation is the word that should be used when it comes to development, only that never happens. There are way too many giant developments. Let’s hit the pause button and see what our infrastructure and natural water sources and so on and so forth can actually tolerate for a while.
But that never happens, does it?
Case in point is the great mistake of Delaware County. Newtown Township approved the giant Toll Brothers plan now in progress on the old DuPont Estate formerly known as Foxcatcher farm on Goshen Road and Route 252 in Newtown Square.
An entire little Stepford City, composed of around 450 homes and amenities (i.e. other structures) will rise from where there was the gentle rise of hills, fields, forest. Of course I wonder about all the natural water sources on the property and will they be preserved and cared for? Will they have a septic system like Byers Station where the septic fields smell a good part of the year?
Most of the old and historic buildings and houses on the estate were bulldozed for this “progress”. They will now build Tyvec McMansions with preposterously pretentious names like “Liseter- The Bryn Mawr Collection”.
Newtown Square is also facing development from that “Ellis Preserve” site which was formerly the Ellis School and ARCO Chemical and other things. I think all in all Newtown Township officials haven’t a clue as to what they have done and in 20 years there will be regrets, and lots and lots of unmanageable traffic and other issues.
Of course no one realistically expected the DuPont Estate to survive intact. After all, once crazy John went to prison for shooting Dave Shultz how much interest did the family have in dealing with all this? There were three challenges to the will of John DuPont, but never a mention I could find of preserving part of the estate in any way.
So now we are where we are today. I think Newtown Township Officials 
should have fought for a less dense plan, but hey they will learn.
Look at the photos. Look at the savagery of development. Look at all the clear cutting of practically every standing tree and blade of grass and for what? For plastic houses that will not survive the test of time? I have said it before and I will say it again: this land looks raped.
I am so glad this isn’t too close to where I live. But this is the case in point as to why the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to update the Municipalities Planning Code and give municipalities the power to legally hit the pause button on development —- a temporary moratorium as it were.
A few years ago a bill known as HB 904 was proposed in 2007 and 2009 – it was even discussed in an Inquirer article. Lobbyists from the building industry and developers and other groups killed this bill.
Anyway, the photos speak volumes, don’t they?