Landenberg Life Landenberg Life
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Pottery by Lisa
Q & A with New Garden Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Weaver
The gathering fury of Rachel Broadbent
Landenberg Life
Landenberg Life Fall/Winter 2025
Letter from the Editor:
The Artists of Landenberg Studio Tour returns on Oct. 11 and 12, and this annual rite of passage is a great way to enjoy the arrival of autumn.
The event allows Landenberg residents and visitors a chance to enjoy a free, self-guided studio tour of nine artists, all located within a short drive of each other. Each stop will ensure that every attendee will explore a diverse panorama of original artwork and artisanship, featuring a total of 28 artists who will display—for sale— original paintings, jewelry, wood works, ceramics, fabric art, glass, note cards, prints and more.
In this edition of Landenberg Life, we profile one of those artists, detailing how artist Rachel Broadbent’s vision documents the impact of the larger world on us. We talk to Broadbent about how she creates awe-inspiring landscapes from her Landenberg studio.
In his story “The ticking tomb and other eerie encounters,” writer Ken Mammarella takes our readers on a spooky tour of a cemetery, a few buildings, a road, and a battlefield where supernatural elements have been felt in southern Chester County. Mammarella interviewed local author Kevin Lagowski about his new book about the eerie and supernatural legends of Chester County.
A few weeks before the opening of the 2025-2026 school year – the last at the current New Garden Elementary School – Principal Elizabeth Weaver sat down with Landenberg Life to share her excitement about the opening of the new school next August, the key principles of good citizenship that are taught to the school’s students, and a very special dinner group that she’s been a part of for many years.
We also highlight the Devereux Day Academy Landenberg, which offers an innovative special education program that helps students succeed. The Devereux Day Academy Landenberg’s program provides a wide variety of education and support services for students in grades K-8 with the following primary diagnoses: intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, emotional disturbance, learning disabilities and speech and language impairments. For the past year, Landenberg native Britni Doughten Fiscus and her husband, Nate have owned and operated Elk Creek Cattle Co. in nearby Oxford. It serves not only as a business, but as a daily classroom - and legacy - for their children.
We hope you enjoy the stories and photos in this edition of Landenberg Life, and we look forward to bringing you the next edition in the spring of 2026. Until then, enjoy the autumn in beautiful Landenberg.
Sincerely, Avery Lieberman Eaton averyl@chestercounty.com Stone Lieberman stone@chestercounty.com
Steve Hoffman, Editor editor@chestercounty.com 8
Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley
Cover Photo: Jim Coarse
|Landenberg Life Q & A|
Elizabeth Weaver Principal, New Garden Elementary School
A few weeks before the opening of the 2025-2026 academic year – the last at the current New Garden Elementary School – Principal Elizabeth Weaver sat down with Landenberg Life to share her excitement about the opening of the new school next August, the key principles of good citizenship that are taught to the school’s students, and a very special dinner group that she’s been a part of for many years.
Landenberg Life : Let’s begin by addressing what is without question the largest talking point of our conversation. At its July 2022 meeting, the Kennett Consolidated School District’s Board of Directors voted to have two schools reimagined: Greenwood Elementary School and New Garden Elementary School, with construction planned between January 2024 and August 2026 with a planned opening for both schools at the start of the 202627 academic year.
Elizabeth Weaver: It’s truly amazing. The construction is going extremely well, and I’ve been fortunate to be involved from the very beginning. I sat at the table when the board, the district office team, and our facilities teams were first discussing the idea of building two new elementary schools —talking about location, design, and, most importantly, purpose. Now, to watch it rise right in our own backyard has been incredible. From the leveling of the land to seeing walls go up, and now the details like tiles, flooring, and student cubbies, it’s all coming to life. Since June, I walk through a few times each week, and each time it looks more like a school ready for children. Having been a teacher in the district since 2006 and principal here since 2019, being part of this process is an absolute privilege.
image The new New Garden Elementary School will have a size of 105,000 square feet and will hold 30 general classrooms for a capacity of 660 students.
As we anticipate the opening of the new school, bring the readers of Landenberg Life up to date on the progress of construction on what will be the new New Garden Elementary School.
In many respects, the quality of a child’s education is reflective of what and how that child learns and is less dependent on the infrastructure of where she or he learns, but for the children of Landenberg, Avondale and Toughkenamon, having the benefit of this incredible new school will serve as a catalyst in their education, yes? In what way will the infrastructure of this new facility help students learn?
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for the start of the 2026-27 school year.
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
New Garden Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Weaver, beside the new elementary school, which is now under construction and is anticipated to open in time
Elizabeth Weaver
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Every conversation about the new school started with one question: “What do our students need as 21st-century learners?” That focus shaped everything. The building features bright, flexible classrooms with small breakout rooms, learning labs, and dedicated spaces for special education and inclusion. It also has a STEM room, art and music spaces, a media center, gym, and even outdoor learning areas like the courtyard and steps leading to the playground. Technology plays a big role, too. With a state-of-the-art wireless network and one-to-one laptops, teachers can maximize instructional time and focus on students. The entire design was guided by teachers across disciplines, ensuring the space supports personalized learning and helps every child grow, explore, and succeed.
I keep reading that the future of primary education will continue to rely heavily on STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The pessimist in my fears, however, that with all of this focus on preparing students for a technology-driven world, children will not be given free rein to develop their artistic side. Yes, the world
needs engineers and scientists, but it also needs artists and art teachers and sculptors and musicians and writers. How is your school addressing this?
At New Garden Elementary, we work hard to strike a balance. Of course, we want our students prepared for a technology-driven future, but we also make sure they have plenty of opportunities to be creative. Alongside strong STEM instruction, our students participate in art, music, instrumental programs, creative writing, and hands-on projects. The world needs scientists and engineers, and it needs artists, musicians, and writers. For us, technology is a tool that supports teachers and allows teachers to spend their time instructing students.
Our classrooms are designed for collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking, and we strive to personalize learning so every child can explore their strengths and passions. That balance—between innovation, creativity, and putting students at the forefront of instruction—is what prepares students to succeed in any path they choose.
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Elizabeth Weaver
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There is not an educator alive who is unable to point to a teacher or a mentor who helped inspire them to enter education as a career. Who was that person for you?
My mother worked as a secretary at Bishop Ford High School, where most of my siblings and I attended. She worked there for over 30 years, and everybody at the school called her “Ma.” She ran activities. It just felt right to spend my professional career in a school. To this day, when people ask me what I do as a job, I tell them, “I don’t have a job. I go to school every day.” This has become my calling.
Just prior to his start as the principal of Kennett High School, I interviewed your colleague Dr. Lorenzo DeAngelis for this magazine. During our conversation, he said, “The ultimate goal here is to help these kids become good citizens.” What are the edicts, goals and basic principles found in the curriculum at New Garden Elementary School that teach students to become good citizens?
At New Garden Elementary, we guide students in becoming good citizens through our school-wide BARK expectations: Be Kind, Act Responsibly, Respect the School
The school will offer students an expanded playground area as well as an additional play area within the school’s infrastructure.
Community, and Keep Safe. These core values are the foundation of our Positive Behavior School lessons. Beginning in the very first week of school, teachers explicitly model
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Elizabeth Weaver
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and teach what BARK looks like and sounds like in every area of our school — on the bus, in the classroom, the cafeteria, at recess, and in the hallways. Students are recognized and celebrated for demonstrating these behaviors through the BARK Bucks system, where every adult in the school community — teachers, instructional staff, custodial staff, cafeteria staff, and bus drivers — can acknowledge students for positive choices.
By embedding BARK into our daily routines and lessons, we foster a culture where kindness, responsibility, respect, and safety are not only school expectations but also essential qualities of good citizenship. At New Garden, we emphasize that we are all in this together — building a community where every student feels valued and empowered to contribute.
As we speak, we are only a few weeks away from the start of the 2025-26 academic year. You have been an educator in this school district since 2006, and the principal of New Garden Elementary School since 2019, so you have experienced several opening days. What do you look forward to most as a new school year starts, and is there any aspect of this coming school year that you are especially anticipating?
The night before the first day of school, there is no sleep but excitement. Right now, it’s quiet here, and I can’t wait for these hallways to be filled again with noise. This is the start of my seventh year as principal, and this is a special year – the last year of this building. This will be the year of celebrating last firsts. We have to recognize them and celebrate them, while at the same time look forward to what next year in the new school holds for us.
The new school will replace the current building, which was first opened in 1957.
The cost of the new building is estimated at $58.2 million, and is being design by Breslin Architects.
Elizabeth Weaver
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I constantly hear from parents who have sent their children through this school that everything about who their children are now has been first funneled through two portals: what they learn at home and what they learn here. A school is a village and it takes everyone, but teachers are perhaps the largest influence on these children.
I believe in our New Garden family, and together we always ask, “What is best for our students?” There’s a genuine spirit of collaboration here, shared across all disciplines, and a deep care among staff for one another, for our students, and for their families. That’s what makes New Garden special. Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.
What is your favorite spot in Landenberg?
New Garden Township Park, especially when I’m watching our kids play in their KAU softball games.
You host a dinner party and can invite anyone –famous or not, living or not. Who would you want to see around that table?
I’d invite my “Kindergarten Moms.” When my son, now 30, made his very first friends in kindergarten, the five of us moms – the mothers of my son’s friends - formed a bond, too. All these years later, we’re still close, and having them around the table would mean the most to me.
What item can always be found in your refrigerator? Several types of pasta.
To learn more about New Garden Elementary School, visit www.kcsd.org.
The groundbreaking for the new school took place on May 24, 2024.
~ Richard L. Gaw
|Landenberg Life Arts & Culture|
What began as a hobby ten years ago is now a full-time career for potterer Lisa Behm - an endless workshop of creation and joy
Starting with a ball of clay
By Gabbie Burton Contributing Writer
When Lisa Behm picked up pottery as a new hobby ten years ago, she couldn’t have anticipated the profound changes and inspiration it would bring into her life. What began as a simple hobby quickly grew into a second career as an artist.
“My dogs had died, my older children had all left our home and my youngest was about to leave home, and I needed an outlet,” Behm said.
After raising her four kids and with her youngest finishing high school, Behm started taking pottery classes in Kennett Square, while balancing her new hobby with her longtime career in early intervention and special education.
“I quickly became addicted and was running to the studio every chance I could between jobs and work,” said Behn, who lives in nearby Lincoln University. “I started wanting to do the art a lot more than I wanted to do work.”
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Photos by Gabbie Burton Behm is known for her whimsical characters, as well as her unique designs.
Lisa Behm of Pottery by Lisa in her home studio in nearby Lincoln University.
Pottery by Lisa Behm
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Despite the initial challenges and learning curves that come with the pottery, Behm was not deterred, crediting the community of artists she was surrounded by for supporting her process.
“A lot of people give up because it’s really hard and there is so much failure,” Behm said. “Starting off with a teacher in a very small class of only two other people was good guidance for me. It was also beneficial for me to have a place where I could just practice, practice, practice and fail, and have a whole community of people there with knowledge and ideas and teachers all around me.”
The appeal and endless opportunity of making something out of nothing is what captured and kept Behm’s interest in pottery. Even when things don’t always work the way she expected, she said that there is a sense of satisfaction in creating something original and a contagious sense of fun in her work.
“I just love that you can start with a ball of clay and then build it into something,” she said. “Working on the wheel
Behm’s studio serves as an ever-evolving workshop of projects.
is so satisfying that the clay just grows on the wheel and you shape it, and you can fail, and then you can pull it back up once you learn the skills. There’s a lot of learning that goes into figuring out how the glazes will work and how they are compatible with the clay.
“When you open the kiln, you’ve got all these fabulous colors that were not there when you began the process.”
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Pottery by Lisa Behm
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Husband-and-wife creatives
In 2020, when Behm retired, she and her husband, Dean built a home studio in their basement in New London so that she could continue her art through COVID-19 and grow her hobby into a second career - Pottery by Lisa. Even though her pottery is now her job, Behm still feels just as excited by it as she did when she just started.
“I do long, long hours in the studio,” Behm said. “I have to force myself to do other things like exercise and socialize because I could be down here from nine to six every day.”
Now ten years in, Behm sells her work on her website – everything from mugs, plates and bowls to whimsical yoga frogs and gnomes. Her pottery has enabled her to both explore her passion and reconnect with her artistic roots, and Behm is not the only one with a dedication to art in her family.
Dean is a woodworker who creates, displays and sells his work as Trewerk by DTB at some of the same shows and festivals as his wife. Behm shared that while the two
stay in their lane and stick to what they know best, they do collaborate, with Behm incorporating some of Dean’s woodwork as bases for some of her pieces and creating patterns to mimic wood grain.
Behm also shared that her mother, who recently passed away, was artistic as well, working as an interior designer with a talent for painting. Behm shared that she switched to purple bags for her orders to honor her mom’s favorite color.
“We have a tremendous collection of artwork in our house, and I grew up with a very famous sculptor who’s a dear friend of our family, so art has been a big part of our heritage,” she said, mentioning the family’s connection to Amir Nour, a Sudanese-American sculptor who has work on display in the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.
While Behm was introduced to many avenues of artistic expression in her youth, she is now continuing the legacy in passing that artistic heritage down in her family through her five grandchildren.
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Pottery by Lisa Behm
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“It’s fun with them coming here and playing with art,” she said. “The colors sometimes are inspired by the kids and things that they like and are interested in. We just made a mug with agave flowers on it because my grandson is totally obsessed with agave.”
While none of Behm’s grandchildren or her dad live in the area, she shared that she is grateful that her artistic career allows her to take time as needed to visit her family.
“I’m blessed that I can do this as a full-time job,” she said, “but my schedule also allows me to travel, and it also enables me to come back and get back to work.”
This flexibility of work enables Behm to travel around the world, serving as an additional source of inspiration in her work. While Behm was reluctant to name one location as her favorite, she eventually cited Greece and Hawaii as her top contenders.
“They have such wonderful, vibrant colors,” she said. “I also met a lot of ceramic artists in Hawaii, who were really interesting and inspirational.”
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Just bringing joy
While Behm has ample inspiration and creativity to draw from for her pieces, she keeps her work grounded in prioritizing her customers’ experience and interactions with her work.
“Whenever I’m making a piece, I’m always thinking of who might use it,” Behm said. “I’m thinking of how it’s going to feel when someone is drinking from the mug. For instance, how does the handle feel on one’s hands? How does the rim feel on the mouth? When I do colors and flowers on big pieces I’m thinking of who might want it or use it or enjoy it.”
Behind it all, what started as a hobby for Behm, has grown into a business with a simple goal of bringing joy and inspiration to herself and all those who encounter her art.
Behm began her work in pottery ten years ago and has since developed it into a fulltime career.
“I want it to be that favorite cup, or that favorite bowl, or that piece that just brings them joy,” she said.
To learn more about Pottery by Lisa, visit www.potterybylwb.com.
To learn more about Trewerk by DTB, visit www.trewerkbydtb.com.
jennyc499@gmail.com
Devereux Day Landenberg’s innovative program helps students Devereux Day Landenberg’s innovative program helps students
Devereux, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers of behavioral healthcare, has been delivering high-quality, innovative special education programming in Landenberg since 2023.
The Devereux Day Academy – Landenberg, an Approved Private School, serves students in grades K-8 with the following primary diagnoses: intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities and speech and language impairments.
The Day Academy’s core curriculum is aligned with the Pennsylvania Core Standards, as well as the curricula of Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services’ partner school districts. This alignment facilitates smooth transitions for students to and from the program, and their local schools.
“We are committed to meeting the unique needs of each student,” said Devereux Day Academy –Landenberg Education Director Deb Thompson, Ed.D. “Many students struggle socially and emotionally in school which, in turn, can lead to academic chal-
lenges. Students are referred to us by their home school districts because we offer the supports they need to help them overcome challenges and return to their local schools. These supports include smaller class sizes and dedicated staff who have the passion – and compassion – to help students succeed.”
Thompson credits Devereux Day Academy –Landenberg’s outstanding staff with helping students feel welcomed and supported.
“Our staff are incredible – they listen to, and support, our students and help them overcome whatever challenges they face,” Thompson explained. “We are like a family – we welcome everyone who walks through our doors.
“The Day Academy’s vision is to provide strategies and supports so our students are able to return to their home school districts successfully,” Thomson continued. “In the past year, several students have transitioned to their local school districts, and more are expected to return in the coming months.”
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Courtesy photo Devereux Day Academy – Landenberg staff helps ensure each student feels welcome.
Academy –innovative special education students succeed Day Academy –innovative special education students succeed
Devereux Day Academy Landenberg
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Offering five Approved Private Schools
As part of its continuum of care, Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services operates five Approved Private Schools in Chester County, including Devereux Day Academy – Landenberg, along with a Day Academy in Montgomery County.
The schools feature small class sizes, with a maximum of eight students per classroom. Classes are staffed with a special education teacher and a teacher assistant, and a full-time mental health specialist is on site.
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Courtesy Photo
Devereux Day Academy – Landenberg is located at 20 McMaster Blvd, Suites 3 and 4, in Landenberg.
Devereux Day Academy Landenberg
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Curriculum includes Pennsylvania standard (Common Core) and PSSA/Keystone program alignment. Academic extension activities include field trips and community-based instruction. The schools also offer career exploration and weekly transition activities.
Innovative programming meets students’ needs
Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services’ education offerings continue to evolve and expand based on the needs of students.
“We are excited to launch our new literacy program and enhance our career and technical programs,” shared Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services Director of Student Services Joseph Fullerton, Ed.D. “These initiatives will provide our students with the skills they need to secure employment in the community once they have moved on from Devereux.”
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Devereux Day Academy Landenberg
Devereux Vice President of Education Services Colleen Katzenmoyer, Ed.D., says collaboration and communication are critical to the success of the organization’s schools.
“All students have an Individualized Education Program, which maps out specific goals for academic and behavioral skill development,” said Katzenmoyer. “We collaborate closely with families and local school districts to ensure a smooth transition, equipping students with the tools they need to succeed when they return to their home schools and communities.”
Referring students to Devereux’s Day Academy
All Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services’ Approved Private Schools are licensed by the Pennsylvania State Board of Private Academic Schools and accept 4010 placements.
To make a referral, call (267) 418-9623, or email PAEducationReferrals@devereux.org.
Contact information for the Devereux Day Academy – Landenberg: Phone: (267) 892-1905 email: PAEducationReferrals@devereux.org
Address: 20 McMaster Blvd., Suites 3 and 4, Landenberg, PA
About Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services
Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services supports children, adolescents and young adults, from birth to
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Devereux Day Academy Landeberg offers smaller class sizes and support staff to attend to students’ academic needs.
Courtesy Photo
Devereux Day Academy Landenberg
age 21, with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and offers intensive services for at-risk youth with emotional, behavioral and cognitive differences. Each year, more than 2,500 individuals receive specialized care, in the environment best suited to the unique challenges they face, all with the goal of providing them with the academic, social, emotional and life skills needed to flourish in the homes, schools and communities. Learn more: www. devereuxpa.org
About Richard F. Dunlap Jr., Ed.D.
As executive director of Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services, Richard F. Dunlap Jr., Ed.D., brings more than 40 years of education, administration and organizational development experience to this position. Prior to joining Devereux in 2024, Dunlap spent eight years at Chester County Regional Education
Services (CCRES), most recently in the role of executive director. He also served as interim superintendent of the Coatesville Area School District (2019-2020 and 2022-2023). Before his time at CCRES, Dunlap held the following positions: superintendent of the Upper Darby School District; principal of East High School in West Chester; principal of Garnet Valley School District; assistant principal of East High School; assistant principal of Fugett Middle School in West Chester; and teacher at East High School. He also served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Dunlap earned his Bachelor of Science in special education from West Chester State College; a Master of Arts in bilingual/bicultural studies from Marywood College; and a Doctorate of Education from Immaculata College. He also holds a secondary principal’s certification from Immaculata College. He is a recipient of the “Superintendents to Watch” award (2015-2016) from the National School Public Relations Association.
Courtesy photos
Colleen Katzenmoyer serves as Devereux’s vice president of education services.
Richard F. Dunlap Jr., Ed.D., serves as the executive director for Devereux Pennsylvania Children’s Services, and brings more than 40 years of education, administration and organizational development experience to this position.
Deb Thompson, Devereux Day Academy –Landenberg education director, said the school is committed to meeting the unique needs of each student.
|Landenberg Life Photo Essay|
Elk Creek Cattle Co.
CREATING A FAMILY LEGACY
For the past year, Landenberg native Britni Doughten Fiscus and her husband, Nate have owned and operated Elk Creek Cattle Co. in nearby Oxford. It serves not only as a business, but as a daily classroom - and legacyfor their children
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Photos by Jim Coarse
Text by Richard L. Gaw
|Landenberg Life Photo Essay|
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When Britni Doughten Fiscus was a teenager living on Chambers Rock Road in Landenberg, she owned and cared for a pot-bellied pig named Kermit, who lived primarily in her bedroom.
Outside, there were ducks and chickens and pigs on the family’s property, all of which served as a foundation and an inspiration for the life that she, her husband Nate and their four children live now, just a few miles up the road.
The home the Fiscus family has lived in near Oxford for the past year serves as an oasis of nature’s plentitude, a four-acre panorama of forever vistas that border the property next door where Britni’s father Matt Doughten – also a Landenberg native - lives with his wife. It also serves as the home of Elk Creek Cattle Co., which breeds and sells mini to mid-size Highland cows, a Scottish breed of rustic cattle known for its long horns and its long shaggy coat.
Currently, the farm is home to eight Highlands. Some, like Alice, are considered “lifers,” and will remain on the farm, while Elsa, the first calf to be born on the farm, was recently sold, and another calf is expected to be sold soon to local owners. For the calves who are and will ultimately be sold, they have the luxury of spending their first six months in the presence of the entire Fiscus family.
“We work with our calves during their weaning stages, and that’s when we’re bonding and spending time with them,” Britni said. “Ultimately, however, this is a business, and it will be hard on our kids to watch these calves leave, because they live right in our backyard and they get a chance to be with them and feed them and pet them.
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|Landenberg Life Photo Essay|
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“Nate and I believe that there’s life lessons in this, because it teaches our children about the importance of the next steps.”
Prior to moving to the property in August 2024, the Fiscus family lived in a log cabin in Lincoln University but were drawn to the prospects of introducing their children to the wide-open spaces of country life. An Atglen native, Nate worked on dairy farms around Cochranville, and currently runs his own land surveying business.
“It was hard to believe that we sold that log cabin in the woods, but this has been the dream and the legacy of how we have always wanted to raise our children,” said Britni, who learned about the business by consulting online educational opportunities that has led to connections and contacts in the industry. “We’re bare feet on the ground and living on a farm. What more can you ask for? When I was giving birth to my youngest child last year, we home birthed her, at the same time my other children were in the nearby woods with my father and his wife drinking sap from trees.”
There are moments in the life of every farmer when the dutiful obligations of responsibility are met with the rare gift of being a benefactor of conducting business in the bounty of natural places. Early in the mornings, before she feeds and grooms the Highlands, Britni sits with her children on the back porch and watches the fog form a coverlet over the farm.
“It’s a time when I get to get my feet grounded and breathe in God’s country and watch the cows for a moment,” she said. “At night, after dinner when it starts to cool down, Nate and I watch our kids playing in the backyard. These are the moments when we get to be present and let our children be children. It makes everything we’re doing worthwhile.
“This is an opportunity we wanted to make for our children. This is my father’s legacy which will one day be my legacy, and which will someday be our children’s legacy.”
To learn more about Elk Creek Cattle Co., visit it on Facebook or elk_creek_cattle_co on Instagram.
|Landenberg Art and Culture|
Creating
Creating awe-inspiring landscapes from her Landenberg documents the impact of the larger world on
awe-inspiring landscapes from her Landenberg documents the
Landenberg Studio Tour, guests who visit her studio
impact of the larger world on Landenberg Studio Tour, guests who visit her studio
The gathering Rachel
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
I feel like gold
Electric love is running from my Head to my toes
Addicted to this feeling, and I Won’t let it go
From “Gold” by Myles
Smith
The rain on the last day of July poured outside the Landenberg home where Rachel Broadbent lives with her husband Eric and their two children, to the degree that it resembled silver tinsel.
It became both an unrelenting statement and the perfect canopy for the conversation that took place there. One does not enter Broadbent’s art with the smallest of curious steps. Rather, from the time he or she first encounters the work is the first moment of pure surrender into the awesome spectacle of landscape. The large canvases are meant to swallow one in a ferocity of weather against the smallness of a single human being. Outerbanks Sunrise. Breathless. Acadia Mist. Through the Clouds. Gathering Fury.
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Photos by Richard L. Gaw
Artist Rachel Broadbent in the studio of her Landenberg home.
Landenberg studio, Rachel Broadbent’s vision on us. On October 11 & 12 at the Artists of studio will get to feel that impact for themselves Landenberg studio, Rachel Broadbent’s vision on us. On October 11 & 12 at the Artists of studio will get to feel that impact for themselves
gathering fury of
Rachel Broadbent
All art courtesy of Rachel Broadbent Gathering Fury.
Rachel Broadbent
A few years ago, she and her son took a walk and saw the beginning of a storm forming above their neighbor’s house. While her husband was frantically calling her to demand that she get home, Broadbent immediately started taking photographs of the violent swirl of an azure sky bursting in the distance. When she returned home, she pulled out her pastels and, working on a 22” by 26” sanded drawing paper, created what would become Silence Through the Reckoning.
The violent storm that followed Broadbent and her son back to their home was not an isolated experience. Like an omnipresent albatross, weather has followed Broadbent and spun her creativity into a kaleidoscope of fury, colors and emotion. In 1994, when she was in the fourth grade, she experienced a tornado sweep through the Landenberg neighborhood where she was raised. The storm destroyed their neighbor’s home, then another home and also destroyed the home Broadbent was raised in. The family’s neighbors saved her mother Beth Huber’s life.
“As a kid you don’t realize how big and impactful an event like this really is, but it first began when I was in the fourth grade and lived through the experience,” Broadbent said. “As an adult, I am particularly drawn to the energy of a storm building up. We can feel that energy, but that energy is massive, and I suppose my artistic message in these paintings is that we are at Mother Nature’s disposal.
“This is my homage to her,” she said. “My artwork is my call to others to protect her.
‘The
places where I felt myself’
The application of pastels to a canvas – in the same manner as words are written on a notepad or fiber is woven on a spinner’s wheel – can be achieved anywhere, but for the maker, however, the influence of place is often as strong as a parent’s guiding hand. For Broadbent, who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and has frequently exhibited her work at galleries and shows throughout Chester County and beyond, Landenberg has always been her artistic anchor. She was born and raised in the home where her mother still lives, and her children explore the same thicket of woods that she did when she was their age.
“After my freshman year in college, I transferred from Penn State to Temple because my dad, my grandfather and my uncle were all in the hospital at the same time, and I felt the urge to be closer to home for them,” she said. “After I transferred, my art became more nature-based landscapes, because that was what made me feel safe, but in art school, teachers want their students’ cognitive thoughts transferred to art, but it didn’t feel authentic to me.
“What felt authentic to me was the trees and the clouds and our neighbors’ houses in Landenberg - the places where I felt myself and where I was raised.”
After graduating from the Tyler School of Art in 2008, Broadbent taught art in North Carolina for seven years and for two additional years at Avon Grove Charter School. Soon after giving birth to her daughter, she left teaching in 2017.
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Silence Through the Reckoning.
Renew.
Breathless.
Rachel Broadbent
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“I realized that I couldn’t teach anymore,” she said. “In my capacity as a human being, I have a lot of love to give. However, I can’t do that all day at school for my students and do the same for my children at night.”
The second tornado of Broadbent’s life swept through her life the following year. Her father John Huber, a long-time, self-employed carpenter, died on December 4, 2018. She was 34 years old.
“When you lose someone who is very important you, you are forced to make changes,” she said. “I used to believe that I would have more time with him, but when he died, it hit me that this was my life and that if there were things that I needed to do, I needed to do them now.
Broadbent’s work has been showcased at several artisan shows throughout Chester County and beyond.
“As an adult, you realize where your strengths and weaknesses are, and one of my weaknesses has been processing my emotions. When I began to do the necessary work to deal with my father’s loss and become a better parent for my children, I realized that my outlet for these emotions was through art.”
With encouragement from her husband, Eric, Broadbent flung herself into her creative work, one that expanded her repertoire as a pastel artist, signaled the start of her oil paintings, and introduced a new medium – hand-carved charcuterie boards - that was inspired by the memory of seeing her father’s life as a carpenter and the sight of his sweatembossed hands and the sweet-smelling sawdust that covered them as he worked.
“My art is a way to honor his memory, because his loss was just so huge to me,” Broadbent said. “A lot of artists are very empathetic, and sometimes those feelings feel so big and dangerous, especially when they are out of the artist’s control. It feels safer to dig into the art than talk about mourning. Too often, I
Broadbent’s weather-inspired pieces are mostly created in pastels.
can express my emotions – my grieving - on a canvas but I can’t express it in words when the emotions are too strong.”
Rachel Broadbent
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‘I become an observer of myself’
The weather has begun to firmly announce its presence high above the Broadbent garden, and the thunder is a firm indicator that the children’s request to play outside would quickly be denied.
As she prepares for an upcoming fine art and craft fair – she does about ten a year and will be one of the nine host homes at the Artists of Landenberg Studio Tour on October 11 and 12 – Broadbent draws peace and focus from the ritual of her mornings. After her children leave for school and Eric heads off to teach at Avon Grove High School – she does mobility exercise, meditates and focuses on something for which she is grateful. Eventually, she climbs the steps that lead to her loft studio space above the home’s living room. There, she consults her playlist –independent, folk, pop - Myles Smith is a current favorite - and slowly, she begins to forget the paint brushes and the pastels in her hands and disappears into a state of flow consciousness. Many days – not all of them – she will work from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., an uninterrupted time block of five hours.
Through the Clouds.
“When I am working on a painting or playing the piano, it is almost like I am an observer instead the maker of those things,” she said. “I become an observer of myself. My music playlist doesn’t necessarily go together but the stipulation is that they have to all feel good. Often, I will sing when I work, and if I am working on a piece for an upcoming show, my neighbors will inform me that I have been serenading them all day.”
As the conversation began to conclude, a distant thunder crack was heard, and its reverberation coincided with the moment when Rachel Broadbent - mother, wife, artist, teacher - was asked to go beyond the controlled fury of her weather canvases and get to the smallish hollow that is held within a place the creatives often go but cannot describe – the part of the self that is burrowed in a cocoon of their own making but knows there must be a purpose for what they do.
Why expend the consistent effort in solitude? Consider the paintbrushes and the canvases and the doodles and the glossy dollops of paint. What are you using these instruments for and what are you trying to convey?
“You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the classroom out of the teacher, and I suppose that is what my purpose as an artist is – to get people to believe in their own gifts,” Broadbent said. “I really want them to look at my art and have them feel, ‘If she is doing this, I can do something that connects me with my soul.’
“Whatever that thing is that lights that person up, that’s what they should be doing, because that is where they have the most capacity to make the most difference. For me, my skills lie in what I love to do, and I hope that love is what comes across in my paintings.”
To learn more about Rachel Broadbent, visit www.rachelbroadbent.com.
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
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Broadbent is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
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Artists of Landenberg Studio Tour to be
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Much like the falling of the leaves, Autumn in Landenberg will again usher in an annual rite of passage: The Artists of Landenberg Studio Tour, which will take place on Oct. 11 & 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event will welcome Landenbergers and others to enjoy a free self-guided studio tour of nine artists, all located within a short drive of each other. Each stop will ensure that every attendee will explore a diverse panorama of original artwork and artisanship, featuring a total of 28 artists who will display – for sale - original paintings in
many styles and mediums, jewelry, wood works, ceramics, fabric art, glass, note cards, prints and more. This is an amazing opportunity to speak one-on-one with your fellow neighbors, learn about their creative process and shop for one-of-a-kind gifts.
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Artists of Landenberg Studio Tour
1 HOST - Rob DiTeodoro - 831 Pennock Bridge Road GUESTS - Cindy Losco, Chris Taggart
2 HOST - Caryn Hetherston - 111 Chesterville Road GUESTS - Dragonfly Leathrum, Meredith Wakefield, plus works by the late Mitch Lyons
3 HOST - Rachel Broadbent - 11 Hunters Run GUEST - Lynnette Shelley
4 HOST - Kathy Ruck - 113 Stoney Ridge Road GUESTS - Nancy Wickes, Patsy Keller, Allan Fausnaught
5 HOST - Debbie Huff - 10 Wilkinson Drive GUEST - Melanie Bailey
6 HOST - Nanci Hersh - 9 Okie Drive GUEST - Colleen Zufelt SPECIAL GUEST - AllyJam Farms Floral
7 HOST - Giuseppe Castellano - 124 Hamilton Road GUESTS - Mary Coleman, Jenny Wood
8 HOST - Estelle Lukoff - 283 Reynolds Road
GUESTS - Elaine Brooks, Sue Ann Cox, Suzanne Gaadt, Brenda Kingham, Denise Verderosa
9 HOST - Regina Fees - 8936 Gap Newport Pike GUEST - Gwenn Knapp
eerie
The ticking tomb and other eerie encounters
Let’s tour a cemetery, a few buildings, a road, and a battlefield where supernatural elements have been felt in southern Chester County.
By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer
Lincoln University resident Kevin Lagowski is an accomplished writer with a multimedia career who enjoys horror and “being generally creeped out.”
He combines his training and interests in his 2025 book, Ghosts and Eerie Legends of Chester County, Pennsylvania, which covers three dozen places associated with paranormal activities.
It includes research and his personal experiences, such as a visit to the ticking tomb of London Tract Church Cemetery in Landenberg.
“I can’t say I heard any ticking, but there’s definitely an eeriness and stillness there,” he said in an interview. “I was by myself at night, and there was definitely kind of a creepy feeling down there because it’s a very isolated area.”
His book is heavy on historic inns, but it also includes other buildings that are open (or relatively open) to the public, plus outside areas, like graveyards and battlefields.
“Any place that there’s this pain and suffering lends itself over time to an uneasiness,” Lagowski said.
Each chapter includes GPS coordinates for people to plan their own road trips.
He’s thinking about sequels covering the Main Line, Delaware and Philadelphia.
Here’s a look at places in southern Chester County where something weird has been reported by Lagowski and other content creators.
Kevin Lagowski, author of Ghosts and Eerie Legends of Chester County, Pennsylvania, at the grave of Hannah Shingle in Free Love Valley (Shenkel Free Burying Ground).
The ticking tomb
The story of the ticking tomb in London Tract Church Cemetery is a doozy. The version that Lagowski starts with involves a child named Fithian Minuit tumbling in 1764 into the camp of surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. To soothe the child, someone gave him a pocket watch to play with, which he instead swallowed.
In the most emotional version, Mason “cursed the little boy to a lifetime without peace.” Yet, according to veteran local historian Ed Okonowicz, Minuit and his wife, a woman named Martha, instead “agreed that the ticking would symbolize the love that they had for each other, and that it should go on for eternity, even after they died.”
“He died at the gravesite of his beloved Martha, and was discovered by a group of men who were hunting,” the Chester County Press wrote in 2020. “They said that he had a blissful smile on his face, and once he was buried, the ticking continued—just as the couple had said it would because it symbolized their eternal love.”
Lagowski notes there are multiple variations. Maybe it was Mason’s watch, maybe Dixon’s. Maybe it’s a Minuit or two buried there, and maybe it’s someone who stole the watch and whose initials are “R.C.” That’s important because the flat tombstone that covers the ticking is labeled “RC.”
The story (or stories) fascinated people. Lagowski begins his book with it. The News Journal has written at least three
The ticking tomb reportedly symbolizes eternal love. A vaguely human shape decorates the top. The penny on the top is a traditional practice signifying a visit to a grave.
stories about it, in 1984, 2004 and 2024.
“Others claim the noise is the telltale heart of a local settler yearning for a long-lost American Indian lover,” the 2024 story mentions.
Photo by Ken Mammarella
Photo by Ken Mammarella
The London Tract Church Cemetery has been used for centuries.
The ticking tomb
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In Weird Pennsylvania, a contributor named Dupree said at first it sounded like an empty hallway.
“By that I mean echoing sounds and footsteps. I listened longer, and all of a sudden, a louder sort of ‘tick’ came from right underneath the marker.”
Laurie Hull, founder of Delaware County Paranormal Research, writes about her visit with two others in a 2008 book titled Brandywine Valley Ghosts. She heard the ticking—only to realize that it was her own watch, but she was pleased to later hear a recording they made onsite. It included an “electronic voice phenomenon” asking, “Does anyone want to talk to us?”
The 1984 News Journal article said,“the only scientifically accepted reason for the ticking people have claimed to hear is water dripping on an underground stone.”
The tomb is a few paces from the northeast corner of the 1729 church, now the White Clay Creek Preserve office, Lagowski writes. Take the sidewalk between a break in the stone wall, continue on the grass, turn left after the first row of headstones.
“The one most commonly said to be the ticking tomb is small and gray and it is flush to the ground,” according to Okonowicz, next to a heart-shaped stone.
Emily and Joe
Reports of ghosts at the Red Rose Inn are common enough for Penn Township, which has owned the building since 2011, to acknowledge them, and then rebuke them.
“The two ghosts who appeared most frequently were that of Emily, a little girl in an old-fashioned dress, with curls and a doll, and Joe, a Native American or ‘Indian Joe’ as he is called,” the township page on the building says. Emily was murdered, and Joe was said to be her killer and “promptly hung.” After the real killer was identified, “in an effort to conceal the murder of Indian Joe, [villagers] buried him in the basement; hence why his body and spirit continued to roam the basement bar area.”
Emily, on the other hand, had always appeared in the main dining area, around the bathrooms, on the staircase or looking out of the windows onto Baltimore Pike.
Weird stuff, Lagowski writes, has included calculators flying off the desk, doors slamming on their own, a mirror being smashed, electronics turning off on their own and sheets being pulled off beds.
Penn Township bought the inn to preserve it (it probably
dates to the 1730s) and allow for work to improve the intersection of Route 796 and Baltimore Pike. Since the township has owned the inn, “there have not been any ghostly sightings or strange encounters to report,” the site says.
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Photo by Ken Mammarella
The most famous ghosts of the old Red Rose Inn are named Emily and Joe.
The ticking tomb
A drive along Devil’s Road
A section of Cossart Road, east of Kennett Pike and near Fairville, is notorious for spookiness, especially its weirdly shaped trees and vehicles chasing other vehicles out of the area.
The winding, hilly and very narrow road was famous enough to draw the attention of moviemaker M. Night Shyamalan, who in 2003 shot part of The Village nearby.
Five writers open a 2005 book called Weird Pennsylvania with their reports from the road, dubbed Devil’s Road, with several referring to a cult house that’s home to unknown rituals and several being chased by ominous vehicles (red trucks in one, and black SUVs in two). A third writer saw a car carrying people with white eyes (“like perhaps they were rolled up all the way”) and goth-style hair.
Near the cult house (or “church,” since variations are a hallmark of the supernatural), the trees reportedly lack branches on one side, a feature that becomes less prominent as the distance from the house grows. A visit this summer, however,
What’s underneath all these vines? Dead trees? Or something more sinister?
shows few misshapen trees and no ominous vehicles.
An anonymous 2023 “as heard on air” post on WJBR.com claims that “members of the Cult House would use these trees for dumping babies who were born disabled. Over time, Skull Trees would devour their bodies fully and take the shape of the child’s skull.”
Another anonymous post on WJBR (which Google dates to 2019, but the post says it was updated in 2023) connects the hauntings to the Kiddie Gang, a group led by the Johnston family that in the 1970s was involved in multiple robberies and murders of their own members, to keep them from blabbing.
“The gang members were led into an isolated field off of Cossart Road in Chadds Ford, told to dig their own graves, and were killed right then and there,” the post concludes. The gang’s exploits inspired a 1986 movie called At Close Range.
In his book, Lagowski writes that “something unnatural and unholy went down in the house right along Cossart Road, and the whole area is affected by that energy.” He also writes that it lacks a unifying backstory.
“Devil’s Road is all over the map, with an assortment of things thrown at it in the hopes that enough sticks to deem it adequately haunted for the purposes of legend,” Lagowski writes.
A 2020 thread on Reddit starts out by claiming that real estate agents are “hiding things so people will continue to buy land there.” Follow-up posts by believers refer to a “midget cult” and cross-shaped trim on the cult house windows. Skeptics suggest that security guards or other teenagers are the ones doing the chasing and that the trees were “obviously cut long ago to leave room for the power lines.”
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Photos by Ken Mammarella
The trees along the road are said to grow away from whatever evil exists.
Some trees along Cossart Road are said to have grown over the burial sites of disabled babies.
The battle continues
The Brandywine Battlefield “is the site of mass death, where truth is even creepier than fiction,” horror writer John James Minster began in a 2023 YouTube video. “It is one of the most haunted locations in the state.”
About 2,000 men died at the site in 1777, in the bloodiest day of the Revolutionary War. “It appears that soldiers from both sides never rest as they honor their oath to fight,” Lagowski writes.
Apparitions of soldiers and horses have repeatedly been seen without their feet, which makes sense because some areas are two feet higher than two centuries ago, according to Minster.
Re-enactors have seen “phantom soldiers in costume,” Lagowski writes, and sounds of battle – like “musket and cannon fire and the yelling and screaming of troops,” he writes – have also been reported.
There was a friendly spirit back then, who roused a Continental soldier just in time, Minster said.
Photo by Ken Mammarella
The ghosts of the Brandywine Battlefield seem to be footless, because they’re walking on ground that was much lower two centuries ago.
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The spirit of Letty
“Ask your server or bartender for a ghost story!” Letty’s Tavern invites on www.lettystavern.com. The restaurant in downtown Kennett Square doesn’t offer details, but many writers do.
“Letty’s Tavern is named after the resident ghost, a precocious child named in honor of William Penn’s daughter. There have been sightings of her roaming her former home from time to time,” the Chester County Press wrote in 2021, when 4AM Hospitality marked its transformation to “modern interpretations of elevated pub-fare, blending fresh West Coast flavors with house-made and locally sourced ingredients.”
Jacob Short told The News Journal at the time that he didn’t believe in ghosts until one night when he, his wife and business partners Dan Daley and Matt Killion were working onsite after midnight.
“Short said they heard what sounded like footsteps run-
ning around the second floor. Then, they heard it again. They checked all around, but no one else was in the building.
“We all looked at each other and asked, ‘Is that Letitia?’” Short said. “After we heard it several more times, we were convinced Letty was here.”
The ghost is reportedly someone named after Letitia Penn. For a glimpse of the ghost, Short suggested standing on State Street and looking up at the second window from the left.
Lagowski offered a long list of specific events, including things falling off the shelves and spinning unnaturally; a former owner feeling “a cold darkness” while trying to sleep; a phone call made to local police from the pay phone inside, when the building was empty; a teen girl in Colonial dress appearing and disappearing in the dining room; bottles that fell off the shelves at the bar; and a baby’s cry.
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Photo by Ken Mammarella
“Letty’s Tavern is named after the resident ghost,” the Chester County Press wrote in 2021 when the refurbished Kennett Square landmark reopened.
The
An inn now known as Brandywine Prime Prime Seafood & Chops @ Chadds Ford Inn has been said to be haunted by two ghosts named Katie and Simon. Search engines are
Katie and Simon Haunted in dreams
“Multiple employees” at Chaddsford Winery have had dreams about “a little girl playing in the yard of the winery,” Paranormal in Pennsylvania posted on Instagram in July.
no help in finding out more. Dan Butler and Mike Majewski took over the Baltimore Pike place in 2007, and Majewski told The News Journal that “I haven’t seen anything.”
The Baltimore Pike winery did not respond to a request for comment.
The ghost of Morris Stroud
Mike Rowe, perhaps best known for creating Dirty Jobs and hosting 10 seasons of it, was a struggling QVC personality when he had two days to find a place to live. He found one with a ghost.
Georgia Farm, a 332-acre tract on the east branch of the Brandywine, is where he lived in the 1990s, starting on Halloween. It’s now the heart of the Stroud Water Research Center’s Stroud Preserve.
Rowe learned about Georgia Farm when he saw a newspaper classified ad seeking a “discreet caretaker” to live free in the mansion. In a meeting at the Marshalton Inn, Marion “Kippy” Boulton Stroud explained that she had recently inherited the place from her father, Morris, who died in 1990.
“I’d like to move in, but my father’s still here. We never got along,” she told Rowe, as it appeared in Rowe’s book, The Way I Heard It. “He walks the grounds at night. In the evenings he sits in the great room by the fire.”
Stroud told Rowe that her father had a “problematic” will that called for her moving in within a year of his death; otherwise, the property would go to a preservation group called Natural Lands. But she was scared of moving in and
needed a cover story. If people asked, as they surely will, she said to tell them that he was her lover and she was traveling.
“Handle the ghost of my father as you see fit,” she said.
“Kippy turned out to be right. Georgia Farm really was haunted,” Rowe wrote. “Let’s just say it was a friendly ghost,” he told Fox News to promote the 2019 book.
On his first night, he was in the great room – fire lit, severed heads of animals above, scotch in hand – reading a mystery when a player piano started to roll with “Georgy Girl.” He dropped his glass.
“Life at Georgia Farm was shot through with a strange feeling that shadowed my every move. … It was a lonely time, unsettled and unsettling,” he writes, referring to life in the mansion and working on the overnight shift at QVC.
“I never did see the ghost of Morris Stroud,” Rowe wrote.
“The player piano turned out not to have a mind of its own – only a timer that sometimes malfunctioned. Creaks and rattles I’d heard in the night all turned out to be just creaks and rattles.”
Stroud representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
