Above you see the bank machine in the Giant on Boot Road in West Chester. It’s the Giant that locals say is in the Bermuda Triangle of retirement homes (Hershey’s Mill, Bellingham, Wellington).
Anyway, it’s an interior bank machine next to a micro branch of PNC Bank. Sometimes it’s busy and when it’s busy you either wait your turn or come back later.
Today I was depositing a check at the bank machine, and I was literally endorsing the check over to the bank so I could pop it into the machine, when all of a sudden I felt someone right upon me and behind me. That is a slightly disconcerting feeling let alone taking into consideration the fact I was standing at a bank machine with my wallet out.
So this older gent – I would say the late 60s early 70s – is literally right on top of me. Startled I turned and looked at him. He was close enough that I could smell his breath.
“I’m in a hurry. You don’t mind if I jump ahead while you are doing that do you?” He says.
I think my mouth must’ve hung open first and I paused before I answered, and I looked at him and I said “Why yes , I do mind.”
He then says “Well calm down sweetheart!”
Alrighty. I just turned my back to him and kept my mouth clamped firmly shot. I was honestly afraid of what might come out if I responded.
Let’s start with the fact that I’m not his sweetheart, and he’s completely ignorant.
The second thing is I patiently wait my turn whenever someone’s ahead of me at the bank machine, it’s what you do. And I don’t stand on top of them, I give them space and privacy because that’s what you’re supposed to do , it’s a banking transaction.
I don’t know what it is about people at interior location bank machines. But they seem to think normal rules don’t apply.
I think there should be signs at these interior machines like they have for pharmacy lines where they ask people to keep it respectful distance between the current customer and themselves.
I have run into this problem before at this particular bank machine. Last time it was a huffy and shouting woman who told me she was important and she was in a hurry and I should move over for her. Literally.
(You will note as to not embarrass this man’s family I did not post a picture of him. Just the bank machine so you could see the space.)
I sometimes wonder where basic manners have gone. And why people can’t respect the personal space of others when they expect you to respect their’s.
The final thought is this had that man done that at a bank machine in Center City Philadelphia, I probably would have stepped on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach and asked questions later because I would’ve been even more concerned I was about to be mugged or something.
There is no accounting for rude behavior I suppose. At any age. if I had been feeling witty I probably would’ve turned him and said “Oh grandpa please!”
Life is sometimes this windy path that takes you away from people, and then leads you back to them.
From the time we are little children, people are in and out of our lives for any multitude of reasons. Life takes us in different directions, quite literally. People move, start families in other places, and get busy with the every day of their lives.
All of a sudden, years have past, and you still think of those people, but then you are busy too, so you don’t reconnect even if you think of these people.
And then, just like that, something happens, and you are back in each other’s lives and that is such a neat thing when it happens.
It happened to me today. A four hour conversation with one of my oldest friends from high school. Yes, those Shipley connections and friends I have written about before. That school gave me a wonderful foundation and the best relationships in my life, truly. This woman and I were thick as proverbial thieves for years, and then life just took us in diffferent directions, on different paths.
I will tell you how it came to be, this phone call today….
Recently the younger brother of a friend died of leukemia. I have now lost several people I knew, admired, and cared about to virulent forms of leukemia. This man was the brother of my friend I spoke with today. He fought this disease so valiantly and was so positive.
He passed away and the first thing I thought of was my friend, one of his siblings. So I looked up her address and sent her a note. We had not spoken in a few years, but how could I not? She was the one who introduced me to all her siblings, and well I have these memories of her brother as a little kid because of her. He was this funny, very bright burning ball of energy with a very funny sense of humor. And a very messy bedroom. Truthfully, all of her siblings were truly nice and interesting, even as kids.
When he got older he went to boarding school and then off to college, so I did not really know him for many years, and was just getting to know him as an adult with his own family when he got sick. In the intervening years, his one sister who was my friend and I grew apart. And it was for no other reason than time and distance. She was in another state far enough away starting a family that we just lost touch, and became disconnected.
Yesterday in the mail, was a note for me. Handwriting I had not seen in so many, many years. It was from my friend. I opened it, read it, and wept, It was so good to hear from her and she is so sad about her brother.
So today she called. And it was like high school again. It was such a marathon phone call that in the back of my mind I was waiting for one of our parents to pick up another phone in the respective houses and yell at us to get off the phone and do our homework.
Speaking with her, the years melted away like no time had past even if so many years actually had. But that in and of itself is the value of real friendship – it is O.K. the time has passed, and now it is time to catch up.
This is my friend who introduced me to Chester County more than any other person had when I was a young adult. She went to West Chester University and for a few years she lived in Malvern Borough too. So speaking with her today after all this time, made me so happy, because when I moved out here I started to think about her a lot. Every time I drive by Raintree in Malvern Borough I remember when she and another friend shared a condo there. Or when I drive way down King until it almost meets Lancaster Ave and remember the places she was a hostess and waitress while in school.
Back in the day we would go to the restaurant festival in West Chester, the “Gobble Off” that used to be at what was the Bar and Restaurant the night before Thanksgiving with other friends, hanging out at WCU’s the Rat before she graduated, hanging out with people at the Marshalton Triathalon, dancing at Lionshare and Main Lion and more.
We were also roommates at the beach in the summer for a while. We had a lot of fun together.
And then she moved and the years passed and we lived kind of separate lives, connecting here or there with a random phone call or letter.
When you meet people who are so disappointing, you remember the friends like this. I am a fortunate women to have so many of my old friends still in my life. Thanks to her brothers we are reconnected. That makes me happy. I wish her one brother was still with us to know, but somehow I would like to think he does.
Described as an enclave of “luxury” town homes, with views of an exclusive golf course anyone has yet to see how storm water runoff will affect and whose memberships are not exactly included with the purchase price of the townhouses. (Yes holy run on sentence Batman but I don’t know how else to say it.)
You see photos of rolling Chester County fields with nature, only there is no nature at Linden Hall. Only a crumbling historic carriage stop and inn that sits and rots unrestored, even though the original developer (Benson or whomever) who sold Pulte the townhouse land and approvals promised to restore but thus far has not. All that has happened is a version of construction fencing has been erected to surround it. (Maybe with black plastic fabric fencing around it we won’t notice the building rotting, right?)
This video says that this development is 3.5 miles from a Septa Station. I assume they mean Eston which already has parking issues? And you get to that station from congested route 100 right? Or you have to invent a space at Malvern station?
The video proclaims 4 miles from Main Street at Exton and 10 miles from the King of Prussia Mall because God forbid people support local, small businesses, right?
And my favorite, they tout the Great Valley “School System”. Of course no one ever talks about the effect a rampant increase in development has on a school district which eventually affects our taxes and our kids, do they? And before all the PTA cheerleaders gather up their pom poms against me, that is NOT a slam at the school district, that is a very grim reality which is inevitable.
But overall what bothers me the most is here is yet another developer touting our beautiful Chester County they are carving up into plastic houses one acre at a time. The site these townhouses are on once supported quite an ecosystem. Foxes and birds and rabbits and so on. I know the neighbors behind Linden Hall are very unhappy and worried how this development will affect their property values down the line.
The price points are not affordable for those who would need affordable housing. The quality is not so spectacular that the exteriors won’t wear quickly after a few Chester County winters. And the way they describe them, well you don’t realize if you are looking at a development essentially sitting on a highway. No matter what you do to them they are sitting on a major thoroughfare. And it’s not pretty.
Ok this brings me to the impetus behind this post:
….“The quality of the experience of being in Boulder, part of it has to do with being able to go to this meadow and it isn’t just littered with human beings,” said Steve Pomerance, a former city councilman who moved here from Connecticut in the 1960s….These days, you can find a Steve Pomerance in cities across the country — people who moved somewhere before it exploded and now worry that growth is killing the place they love.
….But a growing body of economic literature suggests that anti-growth sentiment, when multiplied across countless unheralded local development battles, is a major factor in creating a stagnant and less equal American economy….
Zoning restrictions have been around for decades but really took off during the 1960s, when the combination of inner-city race riots and “white flight” from cities led to heavily zoned suburbs…To most people, zoning and land-use regulations might conjure up little more than images of late-night City Council meetings full of gadflies and minutiae. But these laws go a long way toward determining some fundamental aspects of life: what American neighborhoods look like, who gets to live where and what schools their children attend.
And when zoning laws get out of hand, economists say, the damage to the American economy and society can be profound. Studies have shown that laws aimed at things like “maintaining neighborhood character” or limiting how many unrelated people can live together in the same house contribute to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They also exacerbate inequality by restricting the housing supply in places where demand is greatest.
This article is written by someone who doesn’t get the realities of rampant development. Nor does the author mention the fact that a lot of these developments are built just to build, not because there is an actual need.
The author of this article of this article also does not get how these developers are actually contributing to what he seemingly despises. As in these developers are actually contributing to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They are in fact limiting the housing supply by their very price points. How many families of multiple people and kids are going to look at condos for example that are studios and one bedrooms and if not rentals start at mid 500,000s? How many agricultural, factory, or service related workers are going to be able to afford Linden Hall or Atwater or so on or be encouraged to buy there?
And look at all the zoning together. That is developments in progress in one area, regardless of municipality, along with other development in various states of approval. A sleeper to watch for in East Whiteland would be that thing a developer named Farley got approved a while back, remember? A multi acre parcel that is accessed off a property on 352 that looks like a hoarding situation that goes up into woods and would be shoehorned in between Immaculata and the William Henry apartments for lack of a better description? So you have the increasing traffic nightmare on Route 30 by Linden Hall which will only get worse with completion of neighboring projects like off of Frame Ave and Planebrook Rd. Can you imagine adding this 352/Sproul to that? And the effect it will have potentially on King Road? Let alone what one more project so close together would have on the ecosystem of the area AND the school district!
See that is the problem with all these developments, developers, and the factual analysis this New York Times writer Conor Dougherty thinks he has done. The reality is we do NOT live in a bubble. We are connected. Developers envision and present these projects as stand alone things with no real time or effort put into the relationships between projects. It starts when you see the plans presented at a local municipal meeting.
These projects are depicted all by themselves with nothing around them, or nothing around them realistic to human or other scale. They do traffic studies when no one is around, they don’t really look at what a large uptick in population will do to anything from roads, to hospitals, to school,districts, to the environment. They do not care about us, they just want to build, get their money, and get out. So pardon the hell out of us Conor Dougherty if we want to preserve the character of where we live and do not want our school districts, property values, and our shrinking open space detrimentally affected. And his affordable housing argument doesn’t wash at least around here because they are not building affordable housing. These developers truthfully don’t give a rat’s fanny about actual affordable housing. None of this is about actually helping others, it’s about lining their pockets at the expense of many communities.
Chester County is at risk. I am not sure why Chester County even has a county planning department because everything getting built is about the dollars developers get from density. Our open space and communities and agricultural heritage are seriously at risk. That doesn’t anyone make sny person saying that some kind of NIMBY ….it is the truth. Why is it that the rights of those who already live in an area seem so less important than what politicians and developers want? Look at Embreyville and Bryn Coed – what happens to those areas if development gets approved for maximum capacity? Embreyville is already in play, and Bryn Coed is only a matter of time, right?
Community preservation and open space preservation aren’t dirty words. They should be our right as residents of this beautiful county we call home.
Happy July 4th. Our forefathers fought for our freedoms and apparently we are still fighting for our rights.
Quaker Hill in the Borough of West Chester is changing forever. The Hickman came tumbling down for progress. I am still sad, and yes I actually spoke with people from the Hickman a while back about this. I still just can’t help but wonder if a more clever architect could’ve done some kind of an adaptive reuse to preserve at least part of the building, or a façade? But we will never know because the walls have come tumbling down.
These photos taken over the past couple of days come courtesy of my friend Catherine Quillman the historian, artist, and writer.
I will note that some speedy von commenter from the Hickman posted a comment that the Hickman wasn’t closed. Never said it was. I only have been commenting (lamenting) the loss of another old building that might have been saved, preserved, or re-purposed in some way.
How do you write about a man that everyone described as amazing, kind , giving and generous just for starters?
Suffice it to say that it was really difficult and so wonderful all at the same time to dig into the life of the amazing Dick Yoder, former Mayor of West Chester and institution at West Chester University who passed away a few days ago.
To take this journey, I was guided not only by my editor Lance at Vista.Today but by many present and former West Chester notables like current Mayor Carolyn Comitta (and Tom Comitta!) and former Mayor Tom Chambers and Chairman of the Chester County GOP Val DiGiorgio,, Gneneral Manager Bill Mason of WCHE 1520 AM, and former West Chester Borough Manager Ernie McNeely.
What a guy Dick Yoder was! I wish I had met him. I hope my words do him justice. I am only featuring an excerpt of my article here – please visit Vista.Today to read it in its entirety.
Richard “Dick” Yoder, a native West Chester son and two-term Mayor of West Chester, passed away last Sunday, May 1. He was 79 years old.
….Yoder ran for West Chester Mayor in 2001 and again in 2005. He was elected both times. After reaching the eight-year term limit, Yoder he was succeeded by Carolyn Comitta in 2010.
Mayor Comitta, who served on Borough Council during Yoder’s tenure as mayor, credited Yoder as her inspiration to seek higher public office.
“When I was thinking of running for mayor I met with him regularly at Gramm’s Kitchen. We would have lunch and I would ask what it was like to be mayor; what makes a good mayor. He was always generous with his time,” Comitta said. “After I was elected, I continued to have lunch with him regularly. I continued to learn.”
…..Former West Chester Mayor Tom Chambers issued a brief statement about the loss of his dear friend Dick Yoder:
“Dick and I were both born and raised in West Chester and I have known his family practically all my life. We were personal friends. We were also fellow former members of the U.S. Marine Corps……I have lost a good friend and comrade. My condolences and heartfelt sympathy go out to his wife, Jean, and his great family. It was my privilege to have known him and I am grateful that he counted me as one of his many good friends.”
Ernie McNeely, Borough Manager during most of Yoder’s tenure and current Township Manager of Lower Merion, described Yoder as a true gentleman.
“Dick Yoder was a dedicated public servant. He transcended any political label as Mayor of West Chester and had broad support from all parts of the community,” said Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Republican Party of Chester County, echoing McNeely’s comments…..WCHE General Manager Bill Mason described Dick Yoder as Mr. West Chester. “It was literally god, country, family, and West Chester,” Mason said. “To meet him was to become a friend. He was beloved by everyone he came in contact with.”
Also check out this video tribute done in 2015 when he received Citizen of the Year from The Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce:
New pipelines crossing Chester County:
What can we do to protect our health and environment?
Thursday, Mar 10, 7:00 pm
West Chester Borough Hall
401 E. Gay St, West Chester, PA 19380
Learn and ask questions about:
pipeline safety
risk of environmental catastrophe
impact of increased gas infrastructure on climate change
options for homeowners living near pipeline right of ways
Speakers:
Lynda Farrell – Pipeline Safety Coalition
Eric Friedman – Concerned Delco Homeowner
Justin Wasser – Sierra Club, Dirty Fuels Campaign
There have been over 200 pipeline failures in the US, Sunoco has been responsible for 18 in PA.
Our concerns regarding the hazards of these pipelines to our environment and the safety of our citizens are compelling. They include compromise of air quality from the flare stacks, water pollution from leaking pipelines which cross many of our County’s streams,the increased risks of leaks and ruptures and the acceleration of climate change through the use of these fossil fuels. The already understaffed PA Department of Environmental Protection(DEP) has been charged with monitoring many of these hazards for which they are not equipped.
Lynda Farrell, the head of the Pipeline Safety Coalition, is the most qualified and experienced person in our County to address our concerns and what future action will be necessary to halt this pipeline proliferation. She has been involved in the fight since 2008 and has played a major role in educating our citizens including numerous landowners facing new pipelines crossing their property,frequently very close to their homes.
WEST CHESTER >> A developer who fell in love with the Farmers and Mechanics building while he was still in high school is about to begin renovating the historic structure at Market and High streets in the borough’s central business district.
A. Thomas Myles IV and three partners in the Myles Development Co. plan to turn the building into a boutique hotel with 40 rooms, a restaurant on the first floor and a rooftop bar.
Myles bought the building in November 2013 for $3.2 million, and he expects to spend $8 million to $8.5 million on the renovations….Work, which will include extensive interior renovations to turn former offices into hotel rooms and restaurant space as well as pointing and cleaning the outside facade, will begin next week. It is expected to be completed in the spring of 2017, Myles said Monday.
Couldn’t you just jump for joy if you are preservation minded? (Check out these cool photos from Thomas Myles website HERE.)
Thomas Myles is home grown – a 1990 graduate of Bishop Shanahan and according to the Daily Local his love affair with this building started in high school. (Thank goodness people like him still live in Pennsylvania.)
If Mr. Myles has the time, we have lots of buildings that need saving – cue in addition, Loch Aerie and Linden Hall in East Whiteland, for example.
I am so happy to read this in the paper as I recall what could have been the fate of this glorious building. (read this old article penned by my pal historian, artist and author Catherine Quillman.) In 1997 one of the times the building was sold, the prognosis was somewhat grim for Farmers and Mechanics (see article from Philadelphia Inquirer archives.) We had a little hope in 2014 when the idea of converting this building to a hotel appeared in the Daily Local. But then I lost track of the issue of this great building and was so pleasantly surprised to read today’s article.
Farmers and Mechanic West Chester PA Post Card Circa 1907 (from eBay)
The Farmers and Mechanics Building is West Chester Borough’s historic “skyscraper” . Completed in 1908 in 1908 it is described everywhere as a “six-story skyscraper building, with a basement and penthouse in the Classical Revival style.”
The top floor of the Farmers and Mechanic Building once even featured a roof top garden. The exterior is faced in Indiana limestone and yellow hard face brick, with terra cotta decorative details. A fun fact is that in 1918 when the Boy Scouts were founded in Chester County, the Farmers and Mechanics Building apparently became their headquarters.
During World War II, the building was used to watch for German planes. (Seriously) I have seen Chester County Historical Society photos of people up in what looks like a cupola in the roof watching for planes during World War II.
This is just so cool. And actual adaptive reuse. A historic building preserved. YIPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can we have a little more of that please in Chester County? And hey other developers? See? You don’t have to be so stuck on crappy new construction development. there is life other than Tyvec and slap dash construction. You can actually try adaptive reuse. Imagine that, right?
My friend Peggy took these photos last evening in West Chester! She gave me permission to share with all of you! I totally spaced and forgot they were coming. What a sight! What gorgeous horses and look how cute the Dalmatian is!
I used to love seeing them at Devon Horse Show. I remember because they were so big the ground around the ring would shake when they came rolling in.
From the time I was a girl, Chester County Day is something my family just always did every October. It is always a gorgeous day and well, who needs a better excuse to travel through Chester County when fall foliage is exploding? Pack a picnic lunch and have a splendid day.
This year the tour launches at the Radnor Hunt Club and heads into the Borough of West Chester. If you have never taken the time to do this tour, I do not see any better year to start a new tradition on the 75th anniversary of a fine Chester County tradition!
See press release below. Tickets should be ordered early and in advance.
Longest Running House Tour in the Nation – Chester County Day – Celebrates 75 Years
West Chester, PA – Chester County Day originated in 1936, when Mrs. William A. Limberger and her fellow members of the Women’s Auxiliary to Chester County Hospital hosted “West Chester Day,” a house tour that for $1.00 allowed admittance to 22 homes. Now the longest running house tour in the United States, Chester County Day has benefited Chester County Hospital from the start.
Over its 75 years, the tour has been designed to feature the four quadrants of Chester County with each section taking turns being featured on “The Day.” However, this year, the event planners are returning to its 1936 roots and focusing their attention on the Borough of West Chester. With hundreds of years of history, the Borough is the perfect spot to celebrate the 75th year, and everyone is welcome to celebrate the anniversary of this Chester County tradition on Saturday, October 3.
The Day begins with the pageantry and excitement of a fox hunt. The Radnor Hunt will set off promptly at 9 am on its beautiful grounds. Afterward, a short drive to the Borough of West Chester will lead you to the start of the 75th Chester County Day tour. Located on West Chester’s oldest road, High Street, visit the oldest inhabited structure in the Borough, which was built in 1712 and then renovated by a well-known author in the 1920’s. Stroll through the neighborhoods of the north section of West Chester to visit charming mansions where your imagination can take you to a bygone era of the Great Gatsby lifestyle. Stop by the home of former builder Henry Price, and then see how a newly constructed home fits into the historic mix on East Marshall Street. Listen for the sound of the horse-drawn carriages as they make their way through the shaded and wide streets of the north end of town. Swing by the West Chester Public Library, one of the Borough’s most impressive public buildings, built in 1888 in Queen Anne style.
Continue your tour on South New Street and tour a historic bank barn and manor house, where you will be enchanted by the magnificent trees, pond, historical buildings and serene atmosphere, all while refueling yourself with one of Arianna’s Gourmet Café’s boxed lunches. From there, visit a nearby horse farm, a spectacular house and restored mill overlooking Crum Creek. See Historic Sugartown, a rural crossroads village dating from the late 18th century. Stop by the General Store, Carriage Museum and a book bindery. If you arrive hungry, Arianna’s offers a second refreshment stop here with additional delicious boxed lunches.
Whether you begin with the first house on the tour or start with the final home in the tour – your day will be full and filled with the beauty and history of Chester County hundreds of years in the making.
$100 VIP Tickets, which includes a VIP Reception and Preview Cocktail party at historic Vickers Restaurant on Sunday, September 27 and a private tour of a special VIP house with a gourmet boxed lunch served by White Horse Tavern.
CONTACT: 610-431-5328
MORE INFO: Organized by The Women’s Auxiliary to the Chester County Hospital, Chester County Day is a 75-year autumn tradition. Proceeds from the tour benefit the Women’s Auxiliary pledge for the Cardiac Catheterization Lab project, a $4.8 million replacement project for Interventional Laboratory 3. This room is used for complex ablation cases, laser peripheral vascular intervention and other complex peripheral vascular procedures. Learn more at one of the free public preview lectures throughout the county. For a list of dates and locations, or to download a podcast visit: www.ChesterCountyDay.com
Apparently on Saturday, the Hickman Friends Senior community will have a neighborhood block party, complete with a band. That is nice and very pro-community BUT in the Borough of West Chester there is also an upcoming ordinance hearing involving them on July 15th. I have to be honest I don’t feel so charitable about that.
Note this isn’t any old zoning variance, it is one of those infamous zoning overlays (I have an email from the honestly very nice people at Hickman on this). And the thing about these zoning overlays when they get added to the zoning code is that they can be applied to other areas of a community. They aren’t frozen in time and space over a couple blocks ONLY. Once they are there and on the books, they can be applied elsewhere.
If you want to see what a train wreck these kinds of overlays are in other communities look no further than all the infighting which has been occurring for years on the Main Line over them. Also in some cases (like Lower Merion Township where former Borough of West Chester Manager Ernie McNeely is now Township Manager) what has happened as far as actual development has been nothing but fighting and constant requests for amendments on these “zoning overlays” of mixed use nightmares AND each subsequent set of building plans seems worse than the last and each plan more horrific.
In my humble opinion these overlays are equivalent to special treatment of developers and well, residents in the path of these? They don’t get anything out of this deal except increased density and more parking issues, generally speaking.
I always thought the Sunshine Laws required a 30 day notice, but the public signs around this area in West Chester reportedly only went up on July 4th weekend and how does that work? Selective sunshine or something? West Chester would be better served by doing proper notifications but this is also one of the oldest tricks up municipal sleeves isn’t it? Shove through important changes in the dead of summer when no one is around or around the holidays at other times of the year?
At the opening of the post above is a rendering of the new building design which has people feeling uncomfortable which will require razing the Hickman’s original 19th century buildings ( Sharpless Hall after the Hickman’s two female Quaker founders)
The proposed three story structure will supposedly NOT have underground parking, but supposedly no off-street parking will be permitted? How will that work? I don’t have a horse in this race and I fortunately don’t live in the Borough of West Chester , but this whole Hickman situation seems a little hinky. And I feel quite badly saying that because the Hickman.org people are very nice and their hearts are in the right place because they want to be able to serve their residents more effectively, but this plan is BIG and well, it just seems like the wrong fit for the area in which they wish to place it. At least with the current design.
This project will as proposed take up a large part of the Hickman property and I guess involves also somehow the Friends School and the Friends Meeting House (which owns the 1920 Colonial Revival building not shown in these photos)? Numerous trees will be razed including a very large heritage oak tree? I thought big old trees like that were supposed to be protected?
OK look. You can’t save every old house or old structure. I am a realist. But this part of the borough known as Quaker Hill has a very unique history, and a lot of the history is told through the buildings, right? Wouldn’t an adaptive reuse of some sort in part be more appropriate? The design I’m looking at looks like an amusement park rendition of Colonial America as seen through the eyes of a developer who really has no feel for architectural integrity. I’m looking at this drawing, I have to ask where are the setbacks and human scale? This looks like another new building that is going to hulk over streets with a small town and historic feel.
I also can’t pretend that I think the whole idea of another community getting another giant zoning overlay added to their zoning code is progress. I think it’s more like dangerous.
In the interest of full disclosure, the people at the Hickman have invited me to come take a tour of the facility. And I plan to do that but I haven’t had the time just yet. And I know they won’t like me writing this blog post, but I’m sorry I don’t like the zoning overlays and what they do to communities. I do appreciate how they care for their residents. I also respect the Quaker values on which they were founded. I really do. BUT they are located in a very historic area of West Chester and I think they should be more preservation minded.
Quaker Hill in the Borough of West Chester is changing forever. The Hickman came tumbling down for progress. I am still sad, and yes I actually spoke with people from the Hickman a while back about this. I still just can’t help but wonder if a more clever architect could’ve done some kind of an adaptive reuse to preserve at least part of the building, or a façade? But we will never know because the walls have come tumbling down.
