County History Documentation
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An 1983 report to Delaware County Council by the Delaware County Planning Department surveyed 53 possible historic sites and features within the Borough, including the following, which are available in Adobe Acrobat Reader format, please click here
(note to reader: the following text was processed with OCR software from a hard copy, and may contain some typographical errors.)
Delaware County Council
Frank J. Lynch,. Chairman
Wayne Curtis Weldon, Vice—Chairman
Nicholas F. Catania
Edwin B. Erickson
Thomas 13. Hayward
Delaware County Planning Department
John E. Pickett, Director, County Planning
Nancy V. Webster, Senior Planner
Megan R. Miller, Secretary
The Delaware County Planning Department also acknowledges
the cooperation and assistance of many individuals who contri-
buted valuable information to the preparation of this report,
including:
Robin deCampi
Anna Dickson
Carl Chandler
Ciro lannucci
and
individual property owners
REPORT OF THE FINDINGS
OF THE
DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY
FOR
CHESTER HEIGHTS BOROUGH
Delaware County Planning Department
June 1983
Prepared as part of the Comprehensive Historic Resources
Survey being conducted by the Delaware County Planning Department
in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Historic Pre—
servation. Partial funding was provided by the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission, utilizing grant—in-aid funds
from the U. S. Department of the Interior.
Funding for photographic components was obtained through
a grant from the Atlantic—Richfield Foundation, Inc.
SITE ELIGIBILITIES
Upon completion of the Comprehensive Historic Resources Survey
in Chester Heights Borough, the following buildings have been deemed
eligible for registration on the basis of architectural and/or hist-
orical significance and physical .integrity.,,
National Register
1. Chamber1ain-Penne1~l House, here listed as “Hill of Skye,”
- 045—CS—3 - (12—27-77)
2. “Forge Hill,” 045-CS-8 (3-7-73)
3. “Little Forge Hill,” 045-CS-9, as a mini-district with “Forge
Hill,” because of its close connections with that site, as
well as with early industrial and transportation history
4. “FOX Crest,” 045-CS-28, as an-excellent example of colonial
and Victorian style combined, reflecting the resort history
of the area
5. The George Drayton House, 045-CS-35, for noteworthy architectural
detail, integrity,—and extant materials
6. St. Thomas the Apostle Church, rectory, barns, and root cellar,
as intact Victorian Gothic complex with long and important
Catholic history, (-also related to the Ivy Mills Historic
District, NR 8-21-72) -
7. Chester Heights Camp Meeting, O45-CS-37,. noteworthy site of
Victorian institutional and residential structures, mostly
Carpenter Gothic. Has exceptional integrity and detail.
DISTRICT NOMINATION, as many residential units owned by- in-
dividual families.
State Resister (Further research may prove these sites worthy of
Na1ionaI~Register status)
1. “Sprucehaven Farm,” 045-CS-34, for reflection on farmstead growth
and integrity, especially of outbuildings
2. “Hammanasett,” 045-CS-4, as an example of A.J. Downing architecture
and for its exquisite landscaped estate -
3. Ludgren Mills complex, reflecting important manufacturing center
operated in three centuries. To include:
“Stonehaven,” 045-CS-5-1
Griffith House, 045—CS-53
former mill, 045-cS-52
(and related structures in Aston Township~
4. “Logtown Inn,” 045-CS-26, as an important local inn and town center
5. Woolman Homestead, 045-CS-46, as a typical early settler homestead
6. “Rose Hill,” 045-CS--48, as a fine example of Victorian- summer hotel
and adaptive reuse~
7. Hannum House, 045-CS-42, as an architecturally interesting homestead
with several growth periods
8. Woods’ “Home Farm,” 045-CS-21, as the dairy farm from which
Wawa, Inc. developed
Although there are two clusters of significant structures, in the
former Logtown area and along Valleybrook Road from St. Thomas to the
Llewellyn Road, both areas have infill and changes which appear to
preclude district grouping.
- THEMATIC GROUPINGS
The Delaware County Planning Department intends to computerize
this study’s findings according to land usage, architectural type,
physical plan, construction taterial, and age of each structure -docu-
mented by this survey. Such a data base will be able to produce mean-
ingful comparisons with a variety of criteria. The groupings given -
here will be chronological. - -
I. 17TH CENTURY
Extant examples:
Hannum House (#42)
Groff House (#36)
Geigle Farm (#50)
Too far inland to attract Swedish settlers and with no recorded
Lenni Lenape village sites, Chester Heights’ first permanent residents
came under Penn. These settlers were predominantly English and Quaker
and brought with them their vernacular traditions. Although the land
had been surveyed during the 1680’s, it is not certain how promptly
this area, then Aston Township, was- settled.
Valleybrook Road (“the Chelsea Road”)
was laid out by 1690 and
families had moved inland up the creek valleys to take up their tracts.
River tier residents invested in sites along the creeks~ for example,
miller Caleb Pusey investigated and bought a millseat location which he
later sold to the Thatcher family (see #8 & #9). Contemporary accounts
indicate that most of these early structures were built of log. Un-
fortunately, few known examples survive anywhere in the county.
Of the extant structures which be of 17th century origin, all
have had major renovations and alterations. The back wing of the
Hannum hOuse (#42) is a stone “trinity” (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
i.e. three-storey, single room~pn each floor) banked house modernized
within recent memory. The Grog house (#36) is a Second Empire resi-
dence built around a reputed 17th century two-storey stone Penn plan.
This section is virtually impossible to date, having been thoroughly
adapted when the ]~er section was built. One log survivor exists as
part of the Geigle farm (#50) but its subsequent alterations leave
‘little of the original layout.
II. 18TH CENTURY
Extant examples:
“Hill of Skye” (#3)
32 Bodley Road (#46)
“Sprucehaven Farm “~. (#34)
“Fox Crest” (#28)
Toll house (#25)
Logtown Inn (#26)
“Home Farm” (#21)
Griffith house (#53)
Springhouse (#33)
“Walnut Hill” (#2)
“Locust Hill” (#7)
“Forge Hill” (#8)
“Little Forge Hill” (#9)
Peters tenant house (#43)
“Stonehaven” (#51)
Westlake Plastics (#52)
The area at the intersection of Baltimore Pike (U.S Route 1)
and Valleybrook Road (Route 261) was settled by the early 18th cen-
tury: its name of “Logtown” persisted because of the concentration
of 18th and 19th century log houses - all of which are now gone
However, a number of stone structures are left from Logtown’s colon-
ial period, and shall be examined in sequence. Another 18th century
hamlet, never named but existing around and because of the Griffith-
Lundgren Mills, also has surviving buildings. These two sites plus
scattered farmsteads reflect the colonial economic scene.
The earliest structure recorded is the 1722 red and black brick -
residence of John Chamberlain (#3); the only other brick structure is
the 1752 section of 32 Badley Road (#46). Both are center hall plan,
but the earlier structure is single pile. The 1729 section of the
Bodley Road house is the only surviving log example and was probably
built as a kitchen wing.
All the other 18th century examples are stone- - coursed fieldstone,
with the later facades of dressed fieldstone-. Four are Penn plan:and
construction dates span the century. “Sprucehaven Farm’s” (#34) old-
est section is c. 1734; the Logtown Inn (#26) is c. 1750; and both
“Walnut Hill” (#2) and “Forge Hill” (#8) are c. 1780.
Many of these early homes had additions made as soon as the
settlers’ time and financial circumstances permitted. With rare ex-
ceptions, additions were made horizontally, with T or L plans becoming
popular only in the mid-l9th century. At least two have stone kitchen
additions of a leanto type which probably replaced earlier log wings
(#3 and #7).
There are four extant I plan residences in Chester Heights, all of
which appear to have been erected by 1750. “Hill of Skye” (#3) was
built in 1722, “Fox Crest” (#28) c. 1740, “Locust Hill” (#7) about the
- same time, and the tollhouse (#25) c. 1750. The earlier three were
all major residences, while the latter may have been a tenant house;by
1750 the double pile house was growing in popularity.
The three-bay Georgian type is reFresented by two structures: the
1752 section of Bodley Road (#46) and ‘Little Forge Hill” (#9), built
c. 179G. The five-bay Georgian exists in “Forge Hill” (#8) by 1790,
“Stonehaven” (#51) in 1798, and the Wood “Home Farm” (#21) by
1812 While this sample is not large enough to validate conclu-
sions, it would appear that the five-bay is definitely a later
refinement.
The Peters tenant house (#43) is Georgian, but originally a
duplex. The original Lundgren mill, now part of Westlake Plastics
(#52) has been altered during the 19th and early 20th centuries,
as has the old springhouse (#33) off Ivy Mills. As vernacular
types, they are interesting and need to be compared to those extant
in other townships.
III. EARLY 19TH CENTURY -
Extant examples:
Hannum House (#42)
“Home Farm” (#21)
Logtown House (#30)
“Sprucehaven Farm” (#34)
Tipton residence (#20)
Federal farmhouse (#23)
Most of the buildings erected in Delaware County until about
1875 were built by owners and/or their relatives. This lack of wide
construction expertise reinforced a natural conservatism and led to
a continuation of tried-and-true house types. Thus, the five-bay
Georgian is continued in the 1811 Hannum House (#42), the 1812
“Home Farm” (#21), and the 1814 Logtown House (#30).
Although the Federal style was known and built in the towns
from 1780 on, very few examples exist in the countryside before 1830.
Vernacular interpretations of Federal then appear in stone at “Spruce-
haven Farm” (#34) and in log?/frame as tenant houses to the “Home
Farm” on Wawa Road ~#20 & #23).
IV. VICTORIAN
Extant examples:
Darlington Center for the Arts (#6)
George ~Drayton house (#35)
“Rose Hill” (#48)
St. Thomas the Apostle church (#31)
“Hammanasett (#4)
Octarora Railroad line
“Fox Crest” (#28)
Smithbridge Village complex (#38)
Chester Heights Camp Meeting complex (#37)
Groff House (#36)
St. Thomas’ manse (#32)
Shisler Nurseries (#47)
Darlington Creamery (#5)
“Burnbank Cottage” (#16)
Loose home (#39)
N. Powell home (#40)
With the improvement of the Baltimore
Turnpike (U.S. Route- 1)-
and the development of the Octarora line of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road in mid-century,- the wooded hills of Chester Heights became more
accessible to non-residents. A number of prosperous professionals
established summer homes and transformed active farms into estates
such as “Creek Farm” (#6) and “Hammanasett” (#4). The railroad en
couraged industrial development, as at the Dayton and Sharpless lum-
beryard (#38), the Victorian Plush Mills :2 (#52), and the prize-
winning Darlington Creamery (#5). Throughout the summer, excursionists
came to the Methodist Camp Meetings (#37)and, by the 1880’s, to -
scattered summer resort hotels.
While all these new visitors did not alter the agrarian base of
Chester Heights, the prosperity did bring new construction and alter-
ation to standing structures. The George ‘Drayton home (#35) was
renovated c. 1850, with Roman arch windows and doors, and again in
1881, reflecting the steady gain in economic and social prestige of
the family. St. Thomas the Apostle was built in 1852, although it
has the oldest (1729) Catholic congregation in Pennsylvania; the
growth of the parish with the expansion of the area mills required it
to move from St. Mary’s Chapel in the Willcox family mansion (see Con-
cord). The-striking altar and flanking chapels of St. Thomas are
original
“Hammanasett” (#4) was built in 1856 as a summer residence,
copying plans from A.J. Downing’s The Architecture of Country Houses
by Dr. Charles Meigs. He and his neighbor at “Hill of Skye, Mark
Pennell, were ardent horsemen and founders of the Rose Tree Hunt.
The Gothic style was popular, not only for churches, but for
residences such as “Fox Crest” (#28), whose large front section was
added c. 1860 by county political leader John Powell. This structure
is quite similar in all details to Lower Chichester’s Olcott mansion,
now the office for Lawncroft Cemetery. Both are fine examples of
Victorian Gothic. Humbler renditions of the same style are the frame
farmhouse, now Shisler Nurseries (#47),and the Chester Heights Camp
Meeting buildings, whose original 1872 chapel and many of the cottages
are charming vernacular variations on the Gothic theme.
One extant example of the Second Empire exists, the Groff house
(36) just north of the railroad. It is a middle-class mansard with
attractive patterned shingle roof and period foundation plantings.
The Queen Anne style is exemplified in “Rose ‘Hill” (#48), built
in 1850 but updated with turréts and decorative conceits for the resort
trade. This hotel was eventually bought by the Bond Baking Company as
a summer retreat for its executives. Homes growing up around the vil-
lage of Chester Heights shared the Queen Anne predilections, such as
the Loose home (#39), the house at Ivy Mills and Valleybrook, and the
residence between the Drayton house and the Wilson Brothers Auction.
Another Queen Anne country estate example is “Burnbank Cottage” (#16),
really quite a large asymetrical residence and dependencies with tur-
rets, jerkinhead roofs, and fishscale shingles.
V. ~20TH CENTURY -
Extant examples:
- Station Road enclave (#14 & #15)
Chester Heights School (#41)
“Red Roof” - - (#17 & #18)
“Blossom Hill” (#22)
“White Oak” (#24)
:Hurricane Hollow” (#19)
The 20th century history of Chester Heights is to a large degree
a history of the Wawa Dairies. The actual plant is just over
the boundary into Middletown Township, but the corporate offices and
family estates lie in Chester Heights. The home of George Wood, ”Red
Roof” (#17 & #18), has-become the Wawa, Inc. offices while retaining
the impressive Colonial Revival style. “Blossom Hill” (#22) is a
Tudor Revival mansion of meticulous detailing built in 1916, while -
“White Oak” .(#24) reflects 1938 French Revival. As the Wood family --
grew and acquired surrounding properties, it had architect Martyn
Kneedler, later the partner of C. Clark Zantzinger, renovate the -
structures. He rebuilt a fire-gutted colonial farm into “Hurricane
Hollow” (#19) and rehabilitated “Forge Hill” (#8), “Little Forge Hill”
(#9), and possibly-other area residences.
The population growth of the area caused the construction of a
new 1910 Chester Heights School (#41) on the site of the 18th century
Martin’s School The enclave of homes on Station Road southwest of
the station were mostly built in the first two decades of this century
Formed as a separate borough in 1949, Chester Heights has had
little postwar subdivision until recent years. The Valleybrook town-
house complex doubled the borough’s population in 1980 and a large
retiriiriie~it community complex has been proposed on the “Walnut Hill”
(#2) farm site.
VI. ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES
No prehistory sites are known or recorded for this area, but a
small Indian camp site was recorded c. 1770-1820, used by one family
only, on the George Drayton farm. The Logtown area is known to have
been used the night of Sept. 11, 1777 by the American army retreating
from Brandywine and a dressing station for the wounded located here,
but the precise site is unknown.
The two extant mill sites offer more promise. The Peters’
fulling, grist, and saw mills on Green Creek operated c. 1750 to c.
1910 and were last known as the “Forest Queen Mills” under Charles J.
Johnson. The race, mill sites, and’ foundations of two mills and an-
cillary buildings are still visible, in addition to two tenanthouses
still used as residences. The Griffith-Lundgren mills on Lenni Road
at Chester Creek’s East Branch were in operation ftom c. 1776 to World
War I. A great flood in 1913 took out the dam and much of the complex,
but one mill, two residences, the race, and a storehouse still stand.
The locations of other structures have been mapped.
VII. FURTHER RESEARCH
This survey is not an in-depth research project for each site
but rather an overall look at the built environment extant in Ches-
ter Heights Borough. Further information will undoubtedly come to
light and, although the information’ given here has been checked to
the best of our ability in a short time, it may need correction. Ver-
ification and amplification of the material presented here is desi-
rable, especially through chain of title searches, primary sources,
and further architectural examinations.
PROPERTIES SURVEYED -
The following properties and/or structures, listed by
street address, were surveyed by DCPD staff during 1982—83
as part of the comprehensive historic ‘resources study. Field
notes and photographs are available for consultation at the
Delaware County Planning Department, Media, PA.
Of the one hundred seventy—six structures so examined,
twenty—two (22) properties and one district were written up
and submitted to the Pennsylvania Bureau for Historic Pre-
servation in Harrisburg. These selected sites are marked
with an asterisk and were chosen as the most historically and/
or architecturally significant structures extant.
Baltimore Pike (U.S. Route 1)
“Forge Hill” (Wood)
“Forge Hill” root cellar
* “Little Forge Hill” (Wood)
* “Locust Hill” (Hamilton)
“Locust Hill” barn & springhouse
Darlington Center for the Arts (Sophocles).
* - “Hill of -Skye” (Dickson)
* “Walnut Hill” house & barn (Levin & Kraft)
* -“Fox Crest” residence & restaurant (lannucci)
Bodley Rd.
* 32 (Nelson)
Darlington Rd.
Darlington Cremery ruins -
* “Harnmanassett” (Dohan) -
“Hanimanassett” landscaped gardens
Ivy Mills Rd.
springhouse (Kerr)
Lenni Rd.
* at Chester Creek (Schoonmaker)
Westlaice Plastics, former mill
* 64 (Pincin)
695 (Geigle)
697 (Silling)
- Llewellyn Rd. -
at Lenni Rd. (Shisler Nurseries)
* “Rose Hill”: residence—school, carriage house & pumphouse (Fager) -
at Valley Brook Rd., former school -
Chester Heights Surveyed Properties
Page2 -
Mattson Rd.
above Chester Creek, house & barn
Red Roof Rd. -
“Burnbank Cottage” & carriage barn
“Red Roof” stables
“Red Roof”, Wawa Inc. headquarters
Smithbridge Rd.
* Chester Heights Camp ‘Meeting: church, dormitories, mess
hail, auditorium, band shell plus ca. 50 separate
cottages with privies
- S.H. Loose home and barn
Norman Powell home & barn
“Smithbridge Village”, formerly PRR buildings, station &
the Drayton - Sharpless Lumber Co.
Stat-ion- Rd.
1882 steel bridge
former church/school (Kindt) -
former PRR station
PRR trestles
barn ruins -
- Alternatives Center & barn
1926 house (G. Wilicox)
1914 house
Queen Anne house (M. Wilicox)
Stoney B-ank Rd.
NE corner at Baltimore Pike, Pratt store
school ruins near #29
Valley Brook Rd. -
stone sheds
tenant house (Jackson/Hathaway)
clapboard house opp. Logtown Inn
* Logtown Inn (Raynor/Gibson) -
* Logtown House (Hobaugh)
old roadbed of Baltimore Pike
* former tolihouse (Leavitt)
* St. Thomas the Apostle church & cemetery
St. Thomas’s manse, rootcellar, & barns
SW corner, at Ivy Mills Rd.
* “Sprucehaven Farm” with carriage shed, root cellar & barn
(diCampi)
* George Drayton House, with carriage barn, tenant house &
privy (Tucker)
Queen Anne house & carriage house
Groff House (G. Wilson)
* Hannum House, springhouse & barn (Calvin E. Powell)
at Bodley Rd., mill ruins
427 -
* “16 Laboratories”, Peters tenant house (Breneman)
Chester Heights Surveyed Properties
Page 3
Wawa Rd.
— “Hurrjcan Hollow” (R. Wood)
1912 bridge
tenant house & barn
* Wood’s “Home Farm”
clapboard Federal house (Tipton)
* “Blossom Hill” (G. Wood)
“Blossom Hill” ‘stables
garage/residence
E of Summit Lane, shingled Federal house & springhouse
* 111, “White Oak” (G. G. Schroeder, Jr.)
Map Key to Historic and Architectural Resources in
Chester Heights Borough
1. Stoney Bank School ruins, 29 Stoney Bank Rd.
2. “Walnut Hill”, private road off Baltimore Pike
3. “Hill of Skye”, off Baltimore Pike at Valley Brook Rd.
4. “Hamanassett”, off Darlington Rd. near Baltimore Pike
5. Darlington Creamery ruins, Darlington Rd.
6. Darlington Center for the Arts, “Creek Farm”, Baltimore Pike
7. D., -Hamilton--house, Baltimore Pike
8. “Forge Hill”, off Baltimore Pike at Chester Creek
9. “Little Forge Hill”, off Baltimore Pike at Chester Creek
10. 1882 bridge, Station Rd. at Chester Creek
11. P. Kindt residence, Station Rd.
12. Octarora railrca~ trestles, PRR
13. former station, Octarora line, PRR & Station Rd.
14. Alternative Center, off Station Rd.
15. dairy barns’ ruins, Station Rd.
16. “Burnbank Cottage”, of f Red Roof Drive
17. Stables to “Red Roof”
18. “Red Roof”, Wawa Inc. headquarters
19. “Hurricane Hollow”, Wawa Rd.
20. Tipton residence, Wawa Rd.
21. Wood “Home Farm”, off Wawa Rd.
22. “Blossom Hill”, off Wawa Rd.
23. Federal farmhouse, Wawa Rd. S. side E. of Summit Lane
24. “White Oak”, ill Wawa Rd.
25. Leavitt property (former tollhouse), off Valley Brook Rd.
26. Logtown Inn (Suzannah Taylor house), Valley Brook Rd.
27. Clapboard House, Valley Brook Rd.
2,8. “Fox Crest”, Baltimore Pike -
29. former roadbed of Baltimore Pike
30. Logtown House, Valley Brook Rd.
31. Church of St. Thomas the Apostle (Catholic) and cemetery,
Valley Brook Rd.
32. manse for St. Thomas, Valley Brook Rd.
33. springhouse~to “Sprucehaven Farm”, off Ivy Mills Rd~
34. “Sprucehaven Farm”, Valley Brook Rd.
35. George Drayton House, Valley Brook Rd.
36. Groff House, Valley Brook Rd. at PRR
37. Chester Heights Camp Meeting (75 structures), off Valley
Brook and Smithbridge Rds.
38. “Smithbridge Village”, Smithbridge Rd.
39. S. H. Loose home, Smithbridge Rd.
40. Norman Powell home, Smjthbridge Rd.
41. Chester Heights School, Llewellyn & Valley Brook Rds.
42. Calvin E. Powell house, Valley Brook Rd.
43. Peters tenant house, 429 Valley Brook Rd.
44. 427 Valley Brook Rd. -
45. Peters’ Mill ruins, Valley Brook & Bodley Rds.
46. Woolman Homestead, 32 Bodley Rd.
47. Shisler Landscaping & Nursery, Llewellyn & Lenni Rds.
48. “Rose Hill”, Llewellyn Rd.
49. “High Crest Farm”, 697 Lenni Rd.
50. 695 Lenni Rd.
51. Lundgren Mansion, “Stonehaven”, 64 Lenni Rd.
52. Westlake Plastics, Lenni Rd.
53. William Griffith house, Lenni Rd. at Chester Creek