West Chester & Chadds Ford Life Fall/Winter 2014

Fall/Winter 2014

West Chester & Chadds Ford

LIFE

Inside:

Magazine

• A new gallery on Church Street www.westchesterlifemagazine.com • WCU’s international programs explore the globe • Local collector writes art history book • Q & A with author John Dixon

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Table of Contents...

12

An art collector documents 700 years of art history

18

Profile of singer-songwriter Nicole Ehinger

26

Ten interesting facts to learn at the Brandywine Battlefield

30

Golden Rams all around the big blue marble

58

Wines added to lineup at the Rose Hip Barn

60

A new home for art in West Chester

58

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...Fall/Winter 2014 62

Getting lost in the moment of creation

66

Photo essay: Meandering her way through the countryside

72

Upcoming events at the Chester County Book Company

76

The page of our history

79

A room to slow down in

On the cover: “Barclay Grounds” (detail) an acrylic on linen by West Chester artist John Suplee.

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WEST CHESTER/CHADDS FORD An inspiring place for artists West Chester/Chadds Ford • Fall/Winter 2014 Letter from the Editor: eatured on the cover of this issue of West Chester & Chadds Ford Life is the work of artist John Suplee, who is a part of the very active arts community in West Chester. Attend one of the Gallery Walks on Friday night and you’ll see the artwork of dozens of local artists displayed throughout town. Suplee and his wife, Carol, opened up the Church Street Gallery in April, another addition to the growing arts community in the heart of West Chester.

It’s hardly a surprise that arts and artists would thrive in inspiring places like West Chester and Chadds Ford. Like Suplee, artist Christina Oddo is very inspired by her Chester County surroundings.

Oddo’s pastel work in “Highspire Farm,” “Across the Clouds,” “Meandering the Countryside,” and her most recent work, “Embrace,” are all inspired by the Chester County landscape.

In this issue, writer John Chambless takes readers on a tour of a home art gallery owned by Chadds Ford residents Fred and Martha Dixon, where 130 paintings and sculptures are displayed throughout. Chambless also talks to Dixon about “700 Years of Art History: Pre-Renaissance to

F

Modernism,” a 266-page book that he published in 2013 that takes a detailed but breezy stroll through the major figures and trends of art history.

We also profile 17-year-old Nicole Ehinger, a local performer who has a gift for music and telling stories with her songwriting.

While Ehinger is finishing up her senior year at high school, she is also looking to expand her burgeoning career as a performer. She is always writing new songs and also appeared in the 2010 Disney film “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which starred Nicolas Cage.

While we were in West Chester, we decided to do a feature on one of the borough’s most historic buildings, the Lincoln Building.

This is where a definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln was produced. The book ultimately helped Lincoln get elected president in 1860, and the course of American history was changed.

The building includes the Lincoln Room, which has recently been reopened under new ownership, serving the same tea and hospitality that it’s long been known for.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life also caught up with West Chester-area author John Dixon, who earlier this year released his debut novel, “Phoenix Island.”

We talked to Dixon about the writing of “Phoenix Island” and its sequel, as well as the experience of having his book be the inspiration for a network television series.

We also look at some of the upcoming events and book signings at the Chester County Book Company. The independent bookstore is beloved by readers and writers in the area.

We also have a story about the Rose Hip Barn unveiling its own two reserve wines, a chardonnay and a merlot.

We hope that you enjoy the stories and photographs in this issue of West Chester & Chadds Ford Life as much as we enjoyed compiling them. We are already looking forward to working on the next issue of the magazine, which will be coming to you in the spring of 2015.

Sincerely, Randy Lieberman, Publisher, randyl@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553 Steve Hoffman, Editor, editor@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553, ext. 13

—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Arts|—

Surrounded by art, a collector documents 700 years of history

By John Chambless Staff Writer

I

n 1976, Fred Dixon spotted a couple of small watercolors of lions being sold on a sidewalk in New York City.

He liked lions, so he gave the artist, Sandy Finkenberg, her asking price of $10 each.

Those two lions still hang in Dixon’s Chadds Ford home, but they have company now.

A lot of company.

Today, Dixon and his wife, Martha, display some 130 paintings and sculptures throughout what has become a home art gallery. At an open house to benefit the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett Square several years ago, 450 people took the Dixon art tour.

“We’ve never sold anything, because we never bought anything we didn’t like,” Dixon said during a tour of the home. So the walls are full, and there’s no room to expand.

At this point, the collection is complete, but Dixon’s passion for art continues. Last year, he wrote “700 Years of Art History: Pre-Renaissance to Modernism,” a 266page book that takes a detailed but breezy stroll through the major figures and trends of art history.

The book is just one highlight of a life and career in which art has propelled the Dixons to some unexpected places. Just how Dixon came to love art so much “is the biggest mystery of my life,” he said with a smile. His parents didn’t foster any interest in art, and Fred didn’t buy any original artwork until that fateful day in 1976. He pursued a career in economics, eventually getting a master’s degree and a Ph.D., and working for Merrill Lynch in New York. He traveled in some impressive circles, though, and a small photo on a bar in his home shows Dixon with George H.W. Bush at an economics conference.

Martha had a liberal arts background but worked for Mobil, and the two lived in north Jersey, so they visited New York City frequently.

12

Photos by John Chambless

Fred and Martha Dixon have devoted almost 40 years to collecting art.

“Something must have stuck,” Dixon said. “Martha’s sister lived in Manhattan and we used to visit. I started going to the art galleries. Over the years, we’ve never bought a painting that we both did not see first.”

As he became a familiar face in Manhattan galleries, Dixon said he and Martha worked out a system for negotiating with dealers. “I would negotiate the price, and when we got to a price that we thought we could afford,

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life |Fall/WInter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

Martha would give me an elbow in the side,” Dixon said, smiling at his wife. “That meant, ‘OK, we’ll take it.’ It was always a mutual venture.”

At first, they paced themselves. “It was very slow,” Dixon said, “because the paintings were in four figures -- this is not $100 art. But I enjoyed the hunt.”

In many ways, he said, he was fortunate that his financial career had come first. By the time he discovered artwork, he was able to afford to buy it.

The Dixons started out buying realistic artworks, but not still lifes or landscapes. For them, a painting has to tell a story, so they gravitated to narrative works that suggested a story in progress about the person in the frame.

Their collection includes photorealism and street art, but centers on images of beautiful women by artists including Robert Sarsony, Howard Behrens, Gerald Larribas, Harry McCormick and Alexander Sheversky. A stunningly good Bo Bartlett painting hangs in one bedroom where there are other works by artists from 25 countries. But there’s also the abstract acrylic sculpture by Norman Mercer that casts rainbows around the living room when the light is right. And near it is a 2004 bronze bust by Glenna Goodacre, a sculptor known locally for the Irish Famine Memorial in Philadelphia.

The Dixons sought out the artists themselves and had the paintings explained. One of them, Dixon said with a laugh, eventually got tired of all the questions and told him, “Fred, sometimes I just paint things! All the brush strokes may not mean anything!”

Eventually, the Dixons built up personal relationships with some of the artists and bought directly from them.

They could afford to travel, so while visiting museums in Italy or traveling in Europe, they would buy from street artists whose work struck their fancy. At the annual Art Expo in New York City, they would browse through hundreds of dealer booths and pick out paintings they loved by artists from South Korea, Russia and elsewhere.

“The idea was to get there late in the day on Saturday, because the artists had to ship the stuff back home,” Dixon said. “Then you could negotiate a deal. We had a routine -- we’d go up and down the aisles and pick out eight pieces or so. Then we crossed three off, then got down to two. Then we started negotiations. Every year, we bought something.”

The artwork wasn’t purchased as an investment, Dixon said, because both he and Martha didn’t intend to ever let any of the works get away.

The latest addition to the Dixon art collection – and the last bit of space in the house – is a basement room added

‘Dancing With the Devil’ (2002), a bronze by Martin Eichinger.

specifically to display Fred’s favorite pieces. There’s a sign on the door that reads, “Fred’s World,” and indeed it is.

Settling into the armchair in the center of the room, Dixon can swivel around to admire allegorical and surrealist paintings and sculptures by Valeriy Belenkin, Martin Eichinger, Luis Soler and Mindy Knight. Each one has a story he can relate in person, or there’s a typewritten booklet by the front door of the home so visitors can read about the collection for themselves. Each work is numbered and displayed under gallery lighting. Sculptures are placed on pedestals that can be pivoted by visitors who want to see every side of a piece.

As Dixon continued his professional career and kept acquiring new artworks, he decided to further his exploration of art with a two-year study program at the Barnes Foundation, which was then located in Merion, Pa. He followed that with training as a docent, and he and Martha both led tours of the Barnes for 10 years.

Along the way, they explained artwork to guests including Robert Redford, Alec Baldwin and Pablo Picasso’s granddaughter.

Continued on page 14

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winer 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Arts...

Continued from Page 13

Fred’s depth of knowledge on the various artists in the Barnes collection led him to type up speeches he could give. Over the decades, those presentations amounted to almost a book.

“I’d put together a lecture on Picasso, for instance, and use that as a presentation to docents at the Barnes,” he said. “So I had all these lectures with Power Point images. I realized I had half a book written already. All I had to do was add a few things. We’d already been to Europe and seen many museums there, so I started to put it all together.”

Given the impossibly large scope of 700 years of art history, Dixon zeroes in on central figures and how they connect across the centuries. “There’s nothing analytical in the book,” he said. “It’s done in a very conversational, downto-earth style. You won’t need a dictionary to read it.”

The volume could function as a textbook for an art history course, and it’s written in short sections that bring the artworks – and their creators – into focus. There are hundreds of color reproductions throughout.

Continued on page 16

‘Sunflowers: Tribute to Van Gogh’ (1999) by Luis Soler.

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Arts...

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In contrast to the world touring and all the walking during his decades of collecting, Dixon is now slowed by multiple sclerosis, which is progressively taking away his mobility. He walks with a cane and has difficulty climbing stairs, but he sees the disease as something of a positive.

“Two or three years ago, I wasn’t even using a cane,” he said. “But if I didn’t have MS and was more active, I would have probably been traveling and wouldn’t have had time to sit down and do the book.”

The 2013 hardback book is beautifully printed on good paper, with the artworks depicted clearly and analyzed in terms that everyone can understand. But once the finished books arrived from the publisher in Lancaster, Dixon had to sell them. Without any kind of agent or promoter, that meant scheduling illustrated lectures wherever he could go, and selling copies of the book afterwards.

“Neither one of us are marketers,” Dixon said of he and Martha, “So I started out doing talks at retirement homes.

Well, they loved the talks, but didn’t buy the book. So now I do libraries, and I sell something at every library, at a discount from the price on Amazon.”

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Seated in a recliner in his own downstairs art gallery, Fred Dixon admires some of his favorite paintings and sculptures.

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Looking back at the unlikely arc of his life, Dixon said he’s glad he wasn’t bitten by the art bug earlier.

“If I had the same interest in art that I do today when I started college many years ago, I would have taken up art history,” he said. “Then what would I do when I got out? This way, I got an advanced degree and made enough money that I could pursue art. I could never have assembled this collection being an art history major. It worked out for me. The art came in at the right time.”

Fred Dixon will have book signing presentations on: Oct. 23 at the Marple Township Library at 7 p.m. (“Picasso: His Art & His Women”); Oct. 30 at the Upper Merion Library at 7 p.m. (“Picasso: His Art & His Women”); Nov. 5 at the Oxford Library at 6:30 p.m. (“Picasso: His Art & his Women”); Dec. 2 at the Radnor Township Library at 7 p.m. (“Berthe Morisot & Mary Cassatt: The Woman’s Touch to Impressionism”) E-mail ecinsights@verizon.net for more information.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, e-mail jchambless@chestercounty.com.

A circa 1890 marble bust contrasts with ‘Red Silk,’ a painting by Alexander Sheversky.

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winer 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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—————|West Chester People|—————

NICOLE EHINGER:

Ehinger has a website that showcases both her music and her film appearances.

Courtesy photo

By John Chambless Staff Writer Just down the hallway in a row home on High Street in West Chester, Nicole Ehinger is intently strumming her acoustic guitar, watching carefully as instructor Jay Scott shows her the fingering for a new cover song.

“I met her when she was 13,” Scott said, “and it was clear that she had a lot more going on than most kids her age. She was more focused, had much more of a grip on how to put a song together. She knew she wanted to be a performer. And she’s a quick study.”

Ehinger smiles warmly but doesn’t deviate from the task at hand.

A few minutes later, still poised and utterly at ease, she carried her guitar into an adjoining room and sat down with her mother, Joanne, for an interview. At the ripe old age of 17, it’s something she’s used to.

Her mother said Nicole has always loved dressing up, singing and acting, and took her first modeling class at the age of six, when the family was living in Tennessee. “It was just for fun,” Joanne said, “and she had a great time. The owner said we needed to get her involved in acting. She recommended participating in the Actors, Models and Talent for Christ convention in Florida to compete and meet agents, and she placed in the top three in both modeling and acting.

“She had this big, round face and all this curly hair,” Joanne added with a laugh, admitting that the mop of curls was sometimes a detriment, since it tended to dominate the tiny girl. “She’s not a typical Broadway kid.

When we went and auditioned in New York for managers, when she was six or seven, she’d be a little reserved.

She just wanted to have fun, pretending to be somebody else or memorizing a script. They go into rooms by themselves with the casting directors, which is something I can’t imagine doing.”

“I remember my first acting class, and it was all adults,” Nicole said. “I was going in there with these really tall people when I was about six years old.”

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

A gift for music and telling stories

Ehinger, in costume, with actor Alfred Molina, who played the villain in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.’

Nicole’s adorable looks, compelling stage presence and her ease in front of a camera landed her a small – but memorable – role in the 2010 Disney film, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” starring Nicolas Cage. She played young witch Abigail Williams in a sequence in the film, stalking through her few minutes of screen time with sheer malevolence.

“They built a lot of the sets in an armory in Brooklyn,” Nicole recalled. “I remember talking to Nicolas Cage about why they had this giant pool in the middle of this living room. They had it covered with a rug that he had to stand on and sink into it. I shot for about two days, one with Teresa Palmer, and one with Alfred Molina, who kills me.”

Nicole’s role in the film had initially been bigger, and she remembers practicing scenes in which she pretended to spit out a deadly swarm of bees. “That was supposed to be my super power,” she said. Rewrites eventually reduced the role to Nicole’s few scenes.

But the experience of working on a big-budget film was invaluable for the budding actress. “I remember getting my costume made -- the ridiculous, huge Continued on Page 20

Courtesy photos (2)

‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ star Nicolas Cage, with Ehinger at the movie premiere.

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Nicole Ehinger...

Continued from Page 19

pilgrim dress and the shoes,” she said. “The shoes were never seen -- I could have worn Nikes. Of course, I grew so much they had to remake the dress and the shoes by the time we actually started filming.”

The excitement of a red-carpet New York City premiere and the success of the film made her the coolest kid in school “for a while,” she said with a smile and a shrug.

Being part of a big-budget Disney production put Nicole close to the star-making machinery that propels young stars like Selena Gomez into TV, music and movie roles, but that path never opened for her. “I don’t dance very well,” she admitted. “I always auditioned for Disney shows and Nikelodeon shows, but I was never the right kid. I remember getting really close to a pilot called ‘Janet Saves the Planet.’ I got three callbacks for that, I got to do a skit, and they completely dropped the show and never filmed it.”

Working in front of the cameras taught Nicole to relate through the lens, though. It’s a skill that she’s putting to good use as a singer/songwriter. “My earliest musical memory is singing along to Faith Hill’s ‘This Kiss’ in the Continued on Page 22 Voted 2014 #1 Best Meat Market & Deli, Daily Local Readers Poll

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Nicole Ehinger just turned 17 and has a budding career as a songwriter.

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supermarket,” she said. “I’d get up and dance. And it’s still a good song.”

On her own website and on YouTube, Nicole has showcased many of her homemade videos – even the ones where she’s wearing braces at the age of 12. Her country-pop style is perhaps rooted in her Tennessee upbringing, but there’s no mistaking the crystal-clear twang in her voice when she’s singing.

Many of the videos are covers of other artists, and it’s a shock to see her burning her way through Carrie Underwood’s fiery retribution song “Before He Cheats,” for instance, with her baby-faced looks. She fits comfortably into the mold of Taylor Swift, an artist she admires.

But it’s the video of Nicole at her middle-school talent show that clearly shows a star being born. Standing with her guitar next to a railing decorated with gold balloons, she confidently performs her own “Tennessee Is Us,” pretty much blowing away every other middle-school talent show in history. The bouncy yet poignant look back at a country childhood could have been written by a grown woman, and the whoop in the audience as the chorus kicks in is a genuine outburst of awe. She was

Courtesy photo

Ehinger regularly plays at wineries and coffeehouses in the West Chester area, performing covers and her own original songs.

15 at the time.

Many of the videos are literally homemade, filmed in the family’s Downingtown home where Nicole has a small studio space. Just strumming her guitar, occasionally looking up to draw the viewer in, she shows a songwriting ability that is decades ahead of her actual age.

In “Camouflage and a Black Dress,” she sings as a military widow at a funeral:

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Your handwritten letters in a box in my back seat Blind optimism with you telling me not to worry.

Long nights of never knowing that’s what kept me going.

And I never thought that we would end like this, you in camouflage and me in a black dress.

“Think About It Now” is a song about faded friendships that gets to the heart of losing someone at any age: How is it that two people who knew everything about each other act like strangers now We were going on the third year, suddenly it disappeared and not a single word, and I don’t know how And I watch your life in pictures and you forget about me And I don’t even know if I miss it, or you, or if you miss me.

It’s the saddest little story that I’ve ever heard myself and all I can think about is if you think about it now.

“Whiskey,” a 2013 original about domestic abuse, alcoholism and despair, is told with empathy and depth of life experience that actually scared Nicole’s drama

Courtesy photo

For her role as Abigail WIlliams in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’ Ehinger had to have her costume remade because she had grown.

coach when she heard it. “She got really worried and asked me, ‘Hey, are you OK? Is there anything you want to talk Continued on Page 24

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

23

Nicole Ehinger...

Continued from Page 23

about?’” Nicole said, laughing.

She has copyrighted 60 songs, she said, “and there’s always more.” The ability to write, perform and post her own music makes her website a great calling card. She has performed at local wineries and coffee houses, delivering an acoustic set of cover songs and originals that’s perhaps a bit too forceful to function as background music. She knows how to work a room.

There are plenty of silly moments in her collection of videos – she’s still a teen, after all – and the video for “Deep Blue,” which was made by her older brother, Erik, is a sunny salute to summer that stars Nicole and her friends frolicking in a borrowed backyard pool.

Nicole said the video hits got a little carried away. “It got like 4,000 views and people would ask me to play it. At the end of that year, I think I played that song over three million times. I’m done with that. I listen to it now and think, ‘What was I thinking writing this song?’”

Nicole went to Downingtown Middle School and now attends the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a cyberschool based in West Chester. She’ll finish her senior year early this year, and she’s looking at colleges in either New

York or California. Show business is still part of the plan.

For now, there are high-school classes, weekend concerts, songwriting and guitar lessons. She has acting agents in New York and California. Nicole also volunteers in the emergency room at Brandywine Hospital, gaining exposure to nursing as a possible career.

“There’s definitely a lot of experiences there,” she noted with a grin. “Always a lot going on at the hospital, especially the emergency room. I do patient transport, cleaning rooms.

I’m not sticking anybody with needles. The hospital uses me because I’m young, and if anybody else comes in who’s young and needs help, they ask me to help them. But all the nurses are great, and it’s been great to see what everybody does.”

As an actress who is accustomed to commanding attention on stage, Nicole is getting used to being only background music at some of her performances. “I try to involve people in the shows whenever I can,” she said. “But you know how, when you’re in Starbucks and there’s an mp3 player playing? That’s kind of what I am in those circumstances. But that’s OK. If somebody wants to be left alone, I just connect with someone else in the crowd. All my friends have been really supportive and it’s been a lot of fun. Hey, we’ll just see where it goes.”

For more information, visit www.nicoleehinger.com.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, e-mail jchambless@ chestercounty.com.

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—|West Chester & Chadds Ford History|—

Photo by Steven Hoffman

Ten interesting facts to learn at the Brandywine Battlefield

Andrew Outten shares many interesting facts about the Battle of the Brandywine during a tour of the battlefield.

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

O

ne of the most important, but often overlooked battles of the American Revolution took place in and around Chadds Ford on September 11, 1777. The American troops, under the command of Gen. George Washington, clashed with the British Army, which was under the command of Gen. William Howe during a day of heavy fighting that took place with the course of history resting in the balance.

Despite its importance, the Battle of the Brandywine “often goes overlooked in history,” explains Andrew Outten, education director at the Brandywine Battlefield. Outten earned his degree in history and served as an intern at the battlefield before becoming its education director two years ago.

Outten leads tours of the battlefield, sharing many interesting facts with visitors. Even people who live close to the battlefield don’t realize all the secrets it holds.

“They know about the battlefield but they don’t usually realize how the battle fits into the grand scheme of things,” Outten explained.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life met with Outten so that the education director could share some of the interesting facts about the Brandywine Battlefield and the battle that took place there.

1

The size of the battle: The Battle of the Brandywine involved 30,000 troops, making it one of the largest battles of the American Revolution. While 52 acres of the preserved Brandywine Battlefield were where Gen. Washington set up his encampment, the troops fighting actually spread out over 35,000 sprawling acres.

“This was the largest land battle of the American Revolution,” Outten explained.

2

History is written by the winners: The Battle of the Brandywine was a victory for the British Army. Consequently, Outten explained, you don’t find extensive details about the battle in U.S. history books.

3

The British ruled the world with the bayonet: The British Army had a distinct advantage whenever the fighting on the battlefield included the use of a bayonet, a fierce weapon in the practiced hands of the British soldiers. Even though the British Army had a tremendous advantage with the weapon, the American soldiers stood up to the British in this battle. Afterward, British officers even wrote about it, commending their American counterparts on the effort.

4

Washington almost lost his life during the Battle of the Brandywine—maybe: Major Patrick Ferguson was a Scottish officer in the British Army and the designer of the Ferguson rifle. In 1777, Ferguson led an experimental rifle corps for the British Army. Ferguson may have had George Washington in his sights when the general was at the river. Ferguson knew that he had a shot at an American officer, but the man’s back was turned and Ferguson didn’t take the shot. Later in the day, as fate would have it, Ferguson got shot through the right elbow joint. When he was being tended to by a surgeon, he was informed that Gen. Washington had been in that area at the time.

5

Lafayette sees combat action: Lafayette Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat and military officer whose remarkable military career also included key roles in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830, was 19 years old when he left his home country to fight in the American Revolution because he believed in the American cause. Outten explained that American leaders, including Washington, were skeptical about foreign officers. But Lafayette earns Washington’s trust by assuring the American general that he was not there to impose his own will on things, but rather wanted to learn. Lafayette sees combat action.

Unfortunately, he was shot in the right leg within 15 or 20 minutes of being on the field at the Battle of Brandywine, but he survives and goes on to play a significant role in the Battle of Yorktown and also is instrumental in getting France to increase its support of the American cause.

Continued on page 28

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Ten Facts...

Photo by Steven Hoffman

Continued from page 27

6

Did Lafayette stay at the Gilpin House?: Gideon Gilpin, a Quaker farmer, owned a home with his family that was plundered by foraging soldiers after the Battle of the Brandywine.

Outten explained that it was thought at one time that Lafayette may have stayed at the Gilpin House.

Most historians, however, believe that Lafayette would have stayed at the nearby Ring estate with Washington.

“There’s significant question about whether he stayed at the Gilpin House or at the Benjamin Ring House,” Outten explained. “We can’t really judge whether he was there or not.”

7

The changing role of the calvary: The first Continental calvary charge took place at the Battle of the Brandywine. A calvary would typically be assigned the duty of handling scouting missions. Casimir Pulaski organized the American calvary for a charge that allows the American troops to escape and retreat after the American Army had been outmaneuvered by Howe.

Andrew Outten, the education director of the Brandywine Battlefield, during a presentation to a school group.

8

A costly fight: The exact number of casualties—killed, wounded, or imprisoned soldiers—is unknown.

But, according to the Brandywine Battlefield website, the best estimates are that between 500 and 600 British troops and between 1,000 and 1,300 American troops lost their lives.

Outten explained that the Birmingham Meeting House was used as a hospital after the battle. Gen. Howe informed Gen. Washington that he did not have enough physicians or surgeons to care for all the wounded so Washington sent Dr. Benjamin Rush, a

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

signer of the Declaration of Independence, to the Birmingham Meeting House to help care for the wounded.

9

Local residents suffered as a result of the battle: Local residents, including Quakers in the area, suffered severely as a result of the battle. Gen. Howe’s troops were always foraging for supplies and they took what they wanted.

The fighting was taking place at a time of the year when crops were ready to be harvested.

“It took this area a few years to get back into the full swing of things economically,” Outten said.

10

How the battle is viewed through the lens of history: The American Army suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Brandywine and the British troops were able to continue the move toward Philadelphia, which was the American capital at the time.

However, Washington and his troops were able to escape and fight another day. Within a month of the Battle of the Brandywine, the American and British forces clashed during the Saratoga campaign and the American forces succeeded to the point where they proved to French leaders that they were capable of defeating the British Army.

The Brandywine Battlefield is located at 1491 Baltimore Pike about one mile east of Chadds Ford and offers full tours for individuals and groups. It is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday between now and Dec. 21. For more information, visit www.brandywinebattlefield.org or call 610-459-3342.

To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@chestercounty.com.

Photo by Steven Hoffman

Outten demonstrates how a musket works. The weapons were extremely inaccurate.

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—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Education|— With partnerships in over 50 countries, the Center for International Programs at West Chester University is changing the lives of young people, by introducing them to the culture and diversity of the larger world

Golden Rams all around the big blue marble

Courtesy photo

More than 300 students at West Chester University are currently involved in international programs.

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer On December 24, 1968, United States astronaut William Anders, took a photograph of the Earth aboard Apollo 8 on the first human mission to the Moon. He called it “Earthrise.”

Anders’ photograph shows the glowing azure-colored Earth emerging in the distance over the craggy surface of the Moon. Since its first appearance, it has served as the most stunning visual evidence that the world is, indeed, a small place, a precursor to the age of technology that can send the imagination and ingenuity of the human spirit around the world in a matter of seconds, 30

and virtually erase borders that divide country from country.

For over 300 students at West Chester University currently participating in the university’s international study programs, that sense of adventure, learning and connection is not only changing their lives, but the lives of others -- in more than 50 countries of the world.

From short-term programs to semester and year-long programs, the number of West Chester University students participating in international programs has more than doubled, spurred on by university President Greg Weisenstein and spelled out in the university’s strategic plan, “Building on Excellence,” which called for WCU to establish a foothold in international study.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

“Dr. Weisenstein outlined several international initiatives that prepares our students to become global citizens, to provide more opportunities for students, to bring more international students to West Chester, and to develop partnerships with colleges and universities in other countries,” said Dr. Peter Loedel, assistant vice president at WCU’s Center for International Programs. “The strategic plan has really framed it for us to take that plan and give it life, to facilitate what we say we’re going to do.

Having that support at the highest level allows us to take it to the next level.”

The numbers are the clearest sign that WCU is becoming a part of the global community. Jeff Conradi, the department’s project director, recently shared that the number of students enrolled in study abroad

Courtesy photo

International students at West Chester University get an opportunity to learn about U.S. history.

and international programs increased from 150 in the 2011-12 academic year, to 250 in 2012-13, to an all-time high of 340 in 2013-14. In addition to seeing Weisenstein’s vision through, WCU has also joined 240 other colleges and universities in the U/S. who have committed to increasing their international study participation by becoming a part of the Institute for International Generation Study Abroad Initiative.

“In the pre-9/11 days, there was a larger international student population, but after the tragedy, new rules and VISA polices were introduced,” Loedel said. “As a result, there was a lot of uncertainty and a paralysis in students wanting to participate in international study, or for students wishing to come here to study. Over time, the global conflicts continued, but the over arching Continued on page 32

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Students...

Continued from page 31

tension in the post 9/11 world dissipated.

“Also, the growing middle class has created a demand of students who have the financial means to come to the US who are seeking furthering their study here.”

The Center for International Programs has enjoyed many long-term relationships with colleges and universities around the globe, among them Guizhou University in China; the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research in Peru; the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica in Heredia, Costa Rica; as well as nursing programs in South Africa; special education programs in the Bahamas; media and physics in London; language in Arentina; sports science in Germany and Trinidad and Tobago; and culture and language in Cuba.

Recently, WCU began its latest international partnership with Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland. Ken Witmer,

32

Courtesy photo

West Chester University partners with colleges and universities in over 50 countries throughout the world.

WCU’s Dean of Education, served as a visiting professor at the college earlier in his career, and was instrumental in helping bring the two schools together.

The potential for programs in Ireland isn’t stopping in Limerick.

West Chester is also in discussion with two other Ireland

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

Continued on page 34

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Students...

Continued from page 32

institutions to become partners: St. Patrick’s College and Trinity College, both located in Dublin, Ireland’s largest city.

The dynamic of the international study program at WCU is that it’s a two-way street: currently, there are 126 international students studying on campus this fall -- 80 of whom are graduate students, most of whom are pursuing advanced degrees in public health, applied statistics and computer science. The Center facilitates the admissions process, manages English language training; coordinates VISA paperwork; and finds on- and offcampus housing for these students.

“The first connection they have when they come to campus is our office,” Loedel said. “We want to make sure these students are integrated into the fabric of the campus as much as possible. It’s also

34

Courtesy photo

These students participated in an international program in South Africa.

good for recruiting, because they will go back home and tell their fellow students that they received a great education and had a positive experience.”

In today’s global marketplace, Loedel and Conradi believe that prospective employers look for international experience more and more on the resumes of college graduates.

“Our international programs are about developing global competencies,” Loedel said. “Many of our students realize that in order to succeed in today’s world professionally, that they need to have some kind of global experience, and studying abroad is a vehicle for giving them that experience. They may be able to talk to potential employer about the specific challenges they faced overseas and how they dealt with those challenges.”

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

“Employers will say to thee students, ‘We’re hiring you to do this job but six months from now, we may assign you to a new team in another country,’” Conradi said. “Seeing that the students had already proven that they have done something unique, that speaks well for them.”

For Conradi, one of his greatest satisfactions is helping to facilitate a young person’s dream to explore the world, and seeing that student come back with a new sense of confidence.

“There are some students who have already traveled a lot, so they feel comfortable with international travel, while we also have students who have never held a passport in their hands before,” Conradi said. “I see in them a sense of uncertainty before they embark on their international study program, and yet, hearing later that when they got to their destination, their realizing that life is still

Courtesy photo

A West Chester University student enjoys her experience in Peru.

life, even in another part of the world.

“It’s so crucial to give them a sense that they can do anything they want with their life. Instead of spending the same money to go to Disney World, they can choose to go to a small Mexican village and help serve the community as a volunteer. It is a lifetime gift to be able to know that they can do this, that they have done this, and most importantly, to know just how important an impact they can make or have made with those whom they’ve helped.”

To learn more about the Center for International Programs at West Chester University, call 610-436-3515, e-mail international@wcupa. edu, or visit www.wcupa.edu/international To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@chestercounty. com.

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37

—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Q & A|—

Q&A

Courtesy photo

John Dixon released his debut novel, “Phoenix Island,” in early 2014.

The fast-paced book was the inspiration for a CBS television series, “Intelligence,” which also aired in 2014.

John Dixon John Dixon, a West Chester-area writer, released his debut novel, “Phoenix Island” in early 2014. The fastpaced book earned acclaim in many circles, including Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, and was the inspiration for a CBS television series, “Intelligence,” which also aired in 2014. West Chester & Chadds Ford Life caught up with Dixon to talk about the process of creating “Phoenix Island,” the story behind its main character, Carl Freeman, and future projects that he is currently working on.

Q: John, your debut novel, “Phoenix Island” was published by Simon & Schuster and very well 38

received. Now that some time has passed since its release on Jan. 7, what are your thoughts on that project?

A: It’s been such a blessing. All my life, I enjoyed making up stories, and even as a little kid, I thought it would be neat to write a book and see it in libraries and book stores. It’s incredible that this lifelong dream came to fruition. I had so much fun writing the book, and nothing makes me happier than hearing from readers who’ve enjoyed "Phoenix Island." It was the right project at the right time, and I’m just so thankful that it’s finding its way into so many stores, libraries, and schools.

Q: The book inspired the CBS TV series “Intelligence.” You served as a consultant. Tell us what that experience was like.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

A: I was sitting in Jimmy John’s Hot Dogs on Route 202 when the phone rang. It was Tripp Vinson, executive producer of blockbuster movies like Red Dawn, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Number 23. My film agent had given him the book, and he’d read it in two days. Could I talk?

Jimmy John’s is my favorite restaurant on the planet, but it’s also full of toy trains and little kids blowing whistles, so I asked Tripp to hold on, walked out to my truck, and took the call of my life parked along 202, with traffic whizzing by.

Tripp flew to New York, I hopped the train, and we met for lunch. We clicked instantly, and I liked his ideas. He wanted to convert "Phoenix Island" into a TV series, and we started talking about how to expand subplots and back story, where to end the pilot, where to end the first season, conversations that we would continue later, over the phone and through email.

Before leaving that lunch, however, Tripp gave me the best advice ever. There were a million ways for this to go wrong, he explained, and told me not to pin my happiness on the ultimate success of the project.

“There are a lot of hurdles,” he told me. “Celebrate every hurdle.”

Continued on Page 40

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

39

John Dixon...

Continued from Page 39

So I did... usually by going to Jimmy John’s. When Michael Seitzman came on board, I celebrated.

When ABC Studios optioned it, I celebrated. When CBS picked up the option, I celebrated. We still had a lot of hurdles in front of us at that point, but following Tripp’s advice, I was enjoying the ride. With the addition of director David Semel and actors like Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger, we kept clearing hurdles, and we sprung over a tall one when CBS green-lighted the pilot. Out of something like one hundred dramas optioned that year, they had green-lighted only eleven. Still, we were up against heavy competition, so the next hurdles -- making a great pilot and getting ordered as an actual show -reached into the sky, into orbit.

I felt good about the pilot. By this time, the story had changed big time from my book. I was okay with this, and I enjoyed having a role in the transition.

I’d read the script and knew it was strong. But honestly, I really didn’t think we’d make it to order. CBS was kicking butt, and while we were in limbo, they Continued on Page 48

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announced they would be reordering almost their entire schedule, leaving room, people thought, for two, maybe three new shows. TV pundits predicted CBS would pick up "Beverly Hills Cop" and an "NCIS" spin-off, and suggested that "Hostages" would likely nab any extra slot. We weren’t supposed to get the order, according to those-in-the-know. Still, I clung to Tripp’s advice and celebrated the green-lighting by visiting the Vancouver shoot with my wife, Christina.

We had a blast.

When May rolled around, I braced myself for the expected disappointment, telling myself I’d been incredibly blessed just to make it this far. We’d made some money off the pilot, taking off pressure for a time, and the book had sold in a two-book deal to Simon & Schuster. Things were good. And yet I dreaded the announcement. I didn’t want the dream to end.

It didn’t. On May 10, five days before the Up Fronts, CBS surprised everyone by announcing its picks early.

And there was "Intelligence." I didn’t believe it. I mean that literally. A friend emailed a link, I followed it out, read the headline, and literally did not believe

48

that it was true. A mistake, a hoax, a cruel joke... something. Then I went back to my inbox and saw an email from my film agent. The subject line read, “In Case You Haven’t Heard.” The email simply said, “So happy for you, John,” and there was a link to another article announcing the same news. Cue the chorus of angels....

That evening, Tripp called. I’ll never forget pacing the deck, talking to him. It was a beautiful May evening. “Remember when I said we had a lot of hurdles to cross?” he asked. Of course I did. “Well,” he said, “we made it over the last one.”

"Intelligence" drew nearly seventeen million viewers on January 7, the night of its premier and the publishing day for "Phoenix Island." The book and show were very, very different by then, but I was happy to have both versions out in the world, and was really excited to reconnect with hundreds of people with whom I’d fallen out of contact and to meet and collaborate with such incredibly talented stars, writers, and producers.

Ultimately, "Intelligence" ran its full thirteen-episode season, drawing millions of American viewers each week and running in 208 countries and territories, but CBS chose not to order our second season. I’m so

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

thankful I celebrated every hurdle rather than fretting over eventualities, and I look forward to future opportunities. I would love to trigger a blockbuster movie.

Q: The main character in the book, Carl Freeman, is a champion boxer. You’re a former Golden Gloves boxer. How did your experiences in the sport shape Freeman’s character?

A: Boxing taught me to sacrifice and endure and suffer in silence. It taught me patience and humility yet also gave me great confidence. Finally, it taught me to fight and what it felt like to be in a fight.

Without these things, I never could have written Carl.

Q: Tell us about Phoenix Island itself. You’ve described it as a “Spartan-style boot camp” and “the worst place on earth.” Assuming that you liked Carl Freeman at least a little bit, why did you have to send him to such a violent place?

A: I love Carl, and I sent him to Phoenix Island so that others might come to love him, too. Kurt Vonnegut said, “No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them – in order that the reader may see what they are made of.” He was right, of course, and I

knew that it was only through conflict that I could reveal Carl’s toughness, integrity, resourcefulness, and capacity for self-sacrifice.

Q: You’re working on a sequel to the book. Can you tell us anything about what the future might hold for Carl Freeman?

A: In "Devil’s Pocket" (to be published in May 2015 by Simon & Schuster), Carl travels to a subterranean arena within a remote volcano, where, with everything on the line, he competes in a no-holdsbarred tournament against the toughest fighters on the planet.

Q: What other book projects are you working on?

A: I’m working on "Rolling Thunder", the first book in a new thriller series aimed at adults, and “Manifest”, a short story I agreed to write for an upcoming V-Wars anthology.

Q: Tell us about your writing career before “Phoenix Island?”

A: I started writing stories in elementary school, but I never thought of myself as a writer. After college, I decided to get serious – again, not because I saw myself becoming a writer, which sounded about as Continued on Page 50

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49

John Dixon...

Continued from Page 49

plausible as becoming a Venusian, but because I liked writing and had fallen in love with the idea of getting good enough to publish some stories. I started writing a lot and reading even more, developing a daily discipline. For years, I got up at four in the morning and drove to my teaching job at Springton Lake Middle School in Media, carving out precious writing time before the kids arrived. Somewhere along the way, I earned an M.A. in creative writing from West Chester University, where I published my first story, which in turn gave me the confidence to start submitting to magazines and anthologies. Like most writers, I piled up rejection letters – I have a box containing over 500 – and did my best to learn from editorial feedback. My stories started selling, and I kept writing. I published three dozen short stories, wrote a couple of not-all-that-marketable horror novels, and wrote thousands of pages on doomed projects. Occasionally, I grew discouraged, but then I’d sell a story or write one that felt better than what I’d been doing to that point, and that would get me going again. Finally, I decided

to write a mainstream novel, and I vowed to do my very best work.

Toward that end, I joined the excellent Writing Popular Fiction MFA program at Seton Hill University, where, working with great writers like Tim Waggoner and Vicki Thompson, I finished "Phoenix Island," what was to have been my thesis project, in just ten months. A few weeks later, I landed my wonderful agent, Christina Hogrebe of the Jane Rotrosen Agency, and with her help I sold "Phoenix Island" in a two-book deal to Simon & Schuster, the film rights to ABC Studios (and eventually the CBS Network), and translations into audio, Portuguese, French, and Turkish. This changed everything, allowing me to write full time and, more importantly, to sleep in until five-thirty each morning!

Q: What are your strengths as a writer?

A: Hard work and dedication. I’m a blue collar writer, not a literary genius, so those two strengths serve me well. Additionally, I’m interested in basically everyone and everything, so I’ve always been a big reader of both fiction and nonfiction, a good listener, and a collector of anecdotes. Consequently,

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I’m never without ideas.

Q: What are your biggest challenges as a writer?

A: Self-doubt plagues me. It’s horrible. Over the years, I’ve quit 75 percent of the things I’ve started, including at least a dozen would-be novels where I wrote a hundred pages or more. That is my great failing and my great struggle.

Q: Tell us about your other work experiences before you turned to writing full-time.

A: Growing up, I always had a job or three, a trend that continued through much of my adulthood, when I worked at various points as a bartender, a bouncer, a dishwasher, a caseworker, a prison tutor, a boxing instructor, a teacher, and a stone mason. Lots of jobs, lots of people, lots of experiences, and through them all, I kept writing – and kept bumping into writers. As a bartender, I served red wine to the Nobel Prize-winning poet Milosz, and as a stone mason, I worked an entire summer building walls for Chester County resident and New York Times bestseller Lisa Scottoline, who has always been very kind and encouraging to me.

Q: You live in Pocopson Township. What are some of your favorite spots in the West Chester or

Chadds Ford areas?

A: I’m a huge fan of the area in general, and my wife and I love walking around town or driving the twisting back roads. More specifically, I’m a big fan of Westminster Presbyterian Church, the Chester County Book Company, the West Chester Library, Jimmy John’s Hot Dogs for lunch, Brandywine Prime for dinner, the West Chester Growers’ Market, kayaking the Brandywine, and the local trails, parks, and preserves where we walk our border collies, Scout and Pete.

Q: What three dinner guests, living or dead, would you invite to dine with you?

A: There are so many people, living and dead, I’d love to meet, but I would pick my parents and my wife. Mom’s been gone for twenty years, and Dad’s been gone for five. I miss them both terribly, and I would love to introduce Mom to my wife, whom I met one month after Mom passed.

Q: What food is always in your refrigerator?

A: I’m addicted to hot peppers and hot pepper sauces. My favorites are from Downingtown-based Jeff Porter’s Chile Spot, which I first discovered at the West Chester Growers’ Market.

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Business|—

New cafe gives students a chance to learn

CCIU staff and county employees celebrate the ribbon cutting of the County Cup in the Justice Center.

B

y ordering something as simple as a cup of coffee or a ham sandwich, customers at the County Cup Justice Center become key players in the education of students in Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) programs.

The grab-and-go café at the Justice Center in West Chester is the second location of the CCIU’s County Cup, which first opened in December 2012 as a kiosk in the Government Services Center (GSC).

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 15 at the Justice Center marked its official grand opening. County commissioners, superintendents, Justice Center directors and staff, students and members of the public attended the celebration, which featured remarks from former CCIU student and current County Cup employee Rafael Lugo.

“It’s been great working with the CCIU,” said Lugo, who graduated from the Child and Career Development Center (CCDC) in 2014. Thanks to the guidance of CCIU job coaches, who provide on-the-job support for students with special needs, Lugo said he is prepared for different types of work environments, from the YMCA to the County Cup. “I love meeting people and talking to customers. Every day I work really hard to do my best,” 56

Lugo added.

The ceremony also included remarks from CCIU executive director Joseph O’Brien, CCIU board president Bonnie Wolff, and Chester County commissioners Ryan Costello and Kathi Cozzone, followed by a ribbon cutting and samples of items that are sold at the café.

“The county is pleased to be a partner in this laudable endeavor,” Costello said. “Most importantly, the County Cup is making a difference in lives and creating career opportunities.”

Costello was joined by commissioner Cozzone, who praised students for the job they have done over the past two years at GSC, and called the expansion to the Justice Center a tremendous opportunity.

“The opening of a second County Cup location is truly a milestone for Chester County students,” O’Brien said.

For aspiring chefs and food-service workers, the County Cup offers a hands-on learning experience. It features food prepared by culinary arts students from CCDC and the three campuses of the Technical College High School (TCHS). Student workers and volunteers from the Discover program, with guidance from CCIU job coaches, support

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

the day-to-day operation of the café.

“During its first two years of operation, over 45 Chester County students completed volunteer or paid work experience at the County Cup,” O’Brien said. “This opportunity will benefit an even greater number of students with our expansion to a new location.”

Obstacles to finding employment for a person with disabilities include the lack of volunteer/work experience, training and job skills. Through the Discover program, these obstacles are eliminated to benefit students and employers alike. Discover has identified 185 partnerships with community businesses to support its vocational exploration and work experience programs. The County Cup and other organizations provide valuable real-life experiences to practice skills through potential future employment or meaningful volunteer experiences.

“The food and customer service fields are booming. If students can find their niche in one of those areas by working at the County Cup, they are headed in the right direction as far as picking up valuable skills,” said Scot Semple, project manager of the County Cup.

A County Cup student worker puts his serving skills to the test.

The County Cup Justice Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.. and serves breakfast sandwiches, bagels, muffins, soups, sandwiches, salads, desserts, Wawa coffee and cold beverages.

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Business|—

Wines added to lineup at the Rose Hip Barn

By John Chambless Staff Writer

O

n Sept. 12, shoppers got another good reason to go to the Rose Hip Barn in Thornton. The shop unveiled its own two reserve wines, a chardonnay and a merlot.

Store owner April Margera -- known for being the mother and sometimes target of “Jackass” prankster Bam Margera – runs the shop one weekend each month with her longtime friend Donna Wetterlund. She said that the wines grew out of their mutual love of the products of Penns Woods Winery.

“Donna and I decided to do the Wine Trail and we loved everything we tasted at Penns Woods, “ Margera said. The snag was that Penns Woods never makes private-label wines. Until this time.

“They don’t do it,” Margera said.

“Then, Gino Razzi, who owns Penns Woods and is very passionate about his wines, said, ‘I have to see your place.’

So he came out and fell in love with the barn and said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’

“We pretty much told them what we liked personally, and they did a great job,” Margera added.

The bottles have labels designed by Margera, and there’s a brief history of the Rose Hip Barn on the back. The whole process of getting the bottles into the shop took about a year.

“They’re doing 200 bottles to start,” she said. “And they could do more, since they think this will be a nice product.

Once it starts, they keep rolling.”

The merlot is $32 and the chardonnay is $28, and they both will be served at

58

Photos by John Chambless

Above from left: Karen Donnelly, Jess Margera, April Margera and Donna Wetterlund at the kickoff party.

Rose Hip wines are a chardonnay and a merlot produced by Penns Woods Winery.

Rose Hip Barn opening events, and offered for sale through the shop or through Penns Woods, which ch will ship the wines anywhere. here. “We wanted to offer really high-end d wine ffor a reasonable price,” Margera said. “And if this goes well, we may do more evening wine parties.”

For more information, visit www.rosehipbarn.com.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, e-mail jchambless@chestercounty.com.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

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—|West Chester & Chadds Ford Business|—

A new home for art in West Chester Artist John Suplee and his wife operate the Church Street Gallery

By John Chambless Staff Writer

I

n his three decades of working as a professional artist, John Suplee has learned a thing or two about hanging art. But now he’s taken that experience to a new level.

In April, Suplee’s wife, Carol, opened the Church Street Gallery in West Chester, showcasing original art in the kind of sleek, sophisticated space that fills a niche in the downtown gallery scene.

The Suplees really hadn’t planned to be gallery owners. They were simply shopping at Pages, the card and gift store that used to fill the storefront on South Church Street. Last January, they spotted a table of sale items and asked about it. They found out that the store owner, artist Buff Ranalli, didn’t want to operate the store anymore and would be selling off the store’s stock.

“He told us, ‘You and John should start a gallery,’” Carol recalled during an interview in September. “I said, ‘No, it’s too hard to sell art.’”

She and John shared a smile at that initial reaction. Fate clearly had other ideas. Carol was close to retirement from her career as an engineer with Comcast, and the chance to run a gallery had been in the back of her

Photo by John Chambless

The storefront has a handmade sign that welcomes visitors to the sleek, modern gallery.

60

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

mind for years. After a lot of discussions, “we signed the lease in March, and we opened by the end of April,” John said. Carol retired in June, freeing her up to devote more time to the gallery.

There was a lot of work to do inside the storefront, which ‘Open Field’ was featured in Monique Lazard’s show Courtesy photos retains its original in September. wooden display win- ‘Holly Alley’ was part of Robert Bohne’s solo show. dows and its elegant pressed-tin ceiling. The Suplees It’s not just about selling. It’s about educating.” did all the repainting themselves, and had a professional The Suplees lease the space from the Masonic Lodge install a new floor. which occupies the center of the building. “They’re such “The gallery sign is handmade by Pete Shaw, a friend of good people, and very reasonable. I don’t think we could ours,” Carol said. “Everything is really home-grown. It’s do this otherwise,” Carol said. “We’re fortunate to be one of those places where people can bring the kids and their tenant.” the dogs -- it’s fine. Especially the kids. When you go to John praised the modern track lighting in the space, Europe, people bring their children to all the art open- which was once the exhibition and sales location for ings, to the museums, and they go to each piece, look at photographer Red Hamer before it was home to Pages.

Continued on page 68 it, think about it. That’s what we’re trying to bring here.

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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WEST CHESTER & CHADDS FORD

PEOPLE

For Christina Oddo, a member of the Chester County Art Association, landscape painting is not just making pretty art, but rather...

Courtesy photo

Artist Christina Oddo is a member of the Chester County Art Association.

Getting lost in the moment of creation 62

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

——|West Chester & Chadds Ford People|——

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer It is a little after five o’clock in the middle of the week, and you have left your office and merged onto the late afternoon cattle drive of Routes 1, 202 and 30.

You count. There are 19 cars ahead of you, and you are all waiting for a light to turn green at an intersection. Then it hits you broadside. There is a better way to go home.

With the flick of a directional and the spirit of a seeker, you vanish from the vehicular livestock and find yourself on a country road in Chester County.

The decision is pure genius on your part and you drive through it, a seemingly endless burst of vista that is splashed with the eggshell gold of a dying sun. You drive past fields transformed into whispering wheat.

Instead of neon signs and billboards, you see the theater of nature playing itself out on a big screen; trees bend, wildlife scampers in the distance; and seasonal flowerings emerge from stone walls.

You pull into your driveway 20 minutes later than you normally do, but you have been renewed by the narrative of places that have never uttered a single word but have made all the difference.

These are the places that define the work of local

artist Christina Oddo.

“Every artist looks at landscapes a different way, but for me, it’s a purely emotional response to what I see,” Oddo said. “It’s the mystique of the landscape that I wish to make a connection with, particularly at dusk, that magical time of day.”

Inspired by 19th century landscape painters, Oddo’s pastel work strives to capture moments through the use of rich textures created in earth tones, that are highlighted by touches of vivid color that bend reality to evoke emotion.

The result is a luminous and romantic interpretation, as seen in her Chester County landscapes, “Highspire Farm,” “Across the Clouds,” “Meandering the Countryside,” and her most recent work, “Embrace.”

The conversation among many landscape artists’ circles is, ‘To what degree should we rely on the photographs we take of a particular landscape?’ When she began to seriously take up painting eight years ago, Oddo used her photos as a guide, “but I realized that I was merely recreating what people see on an every day basis,” she said. “I wasn’t putting myself into my work. Now, I always want to strive to capture something more than just the technical side, to illuminate that sense of place.”

Every artist looks at landscapes a different way, but for me, it’s a purely emotional response to what I see.

Continued on Page 64

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

63

——|West Chester & Chadds Ford People|——

Artist...

Continued from Page 63

In “Embrace,” for instance, Oddo saw that the bare branches of a tree outside her studio window had given off the impression that they were wrapping themselves around the moon. By twisting reality, the painting clearly suggests that the distant moon is being cuddled by the branches.

Lessons like this have all been part of Oddo’s artistic journey, one that first began soon after she graduated with a BFA in illustration and graphic design from Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. In between a 13-year career as a graphic designer, Oddo continued painting, and even sold her first work in West Chester, at the Chester County Art Association in 2006. After she left the graphic design world in 2009, her husband encouraged her to live out her dream and become a full-time artist.

“Of all the times to begin doing this, to do it right during the massive market drop in 2009 was considered a big risk, but I stuck with it and just kept going,”

she said. “It’s definitely been amazing how much it’s grown. I learned early on that a true artist doesn’t follow the trends. He or she simply does what he or she loves, so that the people who view the work will recognize it.”

In the past five years, Oddo has been recognized as an award winner by the John James Audubon Society, and is a member of several art alliances, including the Chester County Art Association.

“I owe the Association everything,” she said. “The Association brings together the business side of the art, which has allowed me to know and work with so many other artists. It’s given me the exposure that every artist needs, in order to afford more opportunities.”

This past September, Oddo exhibited her paintings at the Brandywine Festival of the Arts in Wilmington, and at the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show in Philadelphia. In October, she will be showcasing her paintings at the Flying Colors Fine Artists Art Show in Chester Springs, and through the month of November, her work will be displayed at The Centre for Vibrant Living in Kennett Square.

Highspire Farm 64

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

——|West Chester & Chadds Ford People|—— To many fine artists, the idea of self-promotion is a necessary evil of the trade -- the other side of the bargain -- and the idea of having to stand by their work and make small talk at a festival or gallery opening reception is akin to the worst type of punishment. Recognizing the need for marketing her art and enjoying it as a good balance with her creative work, Oddo splits her time evenly between her studio and art galleries, festivals and making connections with other artists and art lovers in the West Chester area. The biggest thrill Oddo receives from the public side of her art are the moments when the viewer first sees her art.

“When they stop dead in their tracks and are transported to some place different, that’s when I know that they’ve made an emotional connection. It brings them to a place they’ve been before, to a moment or a place in their lives.”

A month ago, one of her regular clients who owns several of Oddo’s pieces, was talking with her about non-representational art. “Kim turned to me and said that when she sees non-representational art at a gallery or an art festival, she does not stop,” Oddo said. “Kim said that

she just keeps walking. She said that it looks too busy, and that her life is busy enough. My art, she said, has a calming effect, and when she looks at it, the world seems to vanish for awhile. If I can get a viewer to be a part of that process and connect in that way, I’ve done my job.”

When Oddo is in her home studio working, often the only sound is that of a CD, playing tranquil sounds. She loves when the compilation of everything -- sketches, photography, and the tactile purity of pastels on a textured board -- allows her to get lost in her work, as if she is about to leap into the landscape she is making.

“Sometimes I am so enthralled with the process that I have no idea that the CD has played through its entirety two or three times,” she said. “Pastels are so hands on that it allows me to become truly connected to what I’m creating. It’s the thrill of getting lost in the moment of creation.”

To learn more about Christina Oddo, visit her website at www.costudios.com.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@ chestercounty.com.

Meandering the Countryside www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

65

———|West Chester & Chadds Ford Art|———

Meandering her way through the countryside

Across the Clouds

Embrace

Winter Barn

The landscape art of Christina Oddo Although her travels, appreciation for the natural world and love of painting have shaped her vision as an artist, Christina Oddo will be the the first person to say that her art is heavily influenced by Chester County. Oddo’s landscapes of this rich 66

and expansive landscape capture fleeting moments of rich color and luminosity, affected by the transformation of light. Using earth tones and highlights of vivid color, she guides the viewer’s eye toward an emotional response to each work of art.

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

———|West Chester & Chadds Ford Art|——— We invite you to enjoy Oddo’s vivid exploration of mood and space...and home. We also invite you meet the artist at one of the several upcoming gallery shows Oddo will be having in the next few months:

Flying Colors Fine Artists Annual Art Show October 24th – 26th Opening Reception – Friday | 6:00 – 9:00p.m. $10.00 per person benefitting a local charity and Sunday | 10:00 – 5:00p.m.

The Montgomery School, 1141 Route 113, Chester Springs, PA 19425 www.flyingcolors.us

Hockessin Fall Classic Art Show October 31st | 5:00 – 8:00p.m. | Show Preview November 1st | 10:00 – 5:00p.m.

November 2nd | 11:00 – 4:00p.m.

Hockessin Memorial Hall, 1225 Old Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, DE 19707 Benefitting the Wilmington & Western Railroad. www.wwrr.com

Flight at Sunset

The Centre for Vibrant Living Through November Reception: Nov. 7, from 6:00 – 9:00p.m.

331 E. State Street, Kennett Square, Pa. www.thecentreforvibrantliving.com

Chester County Art Association

Ephemeral Winter Light

Exton Square Studio | Solo Show November 15th through January 7th, 2015 Exton Square Mall, Exton Square Pkwy.

Exton, PA 19341 First floor between Boscov’s and H&M www.chestercountyarts.org

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Gallery...

Continued from page 61

“This building is kind of a prototype of the current vogue of mixing residential with retail,” John said. “This is the quaint 1920s version of that.”

Although the space has a clean museum look, the Suplees agreed that they didn’t want the gallery to be stuffy or intimidating. “The inviting, walk-in street exposure helps this. We didn’t want to hang things all the way to the ceiling,” Carol said. “We wanted to keep it a traditional gallery -- no framing, nothing else.”

Carol said the Church Street Gallery mission statement is, “To pay the rent,” but admitted with a laugh that it’s also about showing people that good, original art can be an affordable investment.

“We look for high-quality work that avoids extreme pricing,” John said. “So the motto that I like is, ‘Art worth owning, at a reasonable price.’”

That means paintings usually don’t go above $1,000, and there are no framed prints or posters for sale. The works are beautifully arranged on the walls as well.

“While we collaborate on the placement, most of the physical hanging of the work is from my own experience,” John said.

“Basically, I’m doing what I always did for myself, but now I’m doing it for other artists. And I do it out of love for the work we show.”

Courtesy photo

A show of Emmy Krick’s paintings was held in June and July.

The Suplees do have one problem, in that they know many artists in West Chester, so there’s an expectation that their friends will be in line for an exhibition at some point. “That can be hard,” Carol admitted, “but this can’t be just about friendship. It has to be about really high-level art. ... We only put on the walls what we really believe is worth owning.”

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

Courtesy photo

‘Racers’ (detail) by John Suplee, was spotlighted in ‘Criterium: The Art of Racing’ in August.

So far, there have been exhibitions featuring Robert Bohne, Emmy Krick and Monique Lazard. Suplee’s own work has been noticeably downplayed. “John will have a solo show in late November at the gallery,” Carol said, Continued on page 70

Photo by John Chambless

John Suplee and his wife, Carol, in the Church Street Gallery they opened in April.

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Gallery...

Continued from page 69

“but for the most part, the spotlight is on other artists, not him.”

After so many years in the art world, the Suplees have good working relationships with other gallery owners in West Chester.

“We think it’s not like shoes or aluminum siding,” John said. “The more galleries there are, the better it is for everybody.”.

“We’re trying to bring in artists who are from the Pennsylvania Academy,” Carol said. Those young artists tend to be eager for a gallery show, and their works are still affordable.

Since the gallery is a two-person effort, visitors will find either John or Carol behind the desk every day. They’re happy to greet everyone who stops by.

“I’ve had children outside, looking at pieces in the window, and they drag their parents in here for a look,” Carol said, smiling.

“And that is a really good thing.”

The Church Street Gallery (12 S. Church St., West Chester) is open Wednesday to Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m., and Friday until 7 p.m. Visit www.churchstreetgallerywc.com.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, e-mail jchambless@ chestercounty.com.

Courtesy photo

‘Lost Woods (Dean St.),’ by Beth Clark, has been featured at the gallery.

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71

The story continues for a beloved bookstore Photo by Steven Hoffman

The Chester County Book Company in the West Goshen Center is a beloved bookstore for many readers and writers in the area.

By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer For readers and writers in the area, there is no place quite like the Chester County Book Company, a beloved independent bookstore that has held a special place in the hearts of literary types for more than three decades.

“The Chester County Book Company has been a great part of the community for years,” said author Bruce Mowday, who has done numerous book signings at the bookstore in the West Goshen Center.

In the first chapter of its existence, the Chester County Book Company was a 1,000 square-foot store. From the very beginning, the store built its reputation on a knowledgeable staff of voracious readers who could provide unparalleled service to the customer.

Over the years, as independent bookstores found it harder and harder to compete against chain bookstores, the Chester County Book Company defied the trend and grew to 28,000 square feet of space, making it one of the largest independently owned bookstores in the U.S. At its peak, the store stocked approximately 125,000 titles and over 1,500 magazines and periodicals. A music department was added in 1996 and there were over 25,000 recordings of pop, rock, classical, rap, R&B, country, jazz, blues, and world music. The DVD inventory featured 5,000 movie, television, and music titles.

In 2013, the Chester County Book Company relocated to a smaller space in the West Goshen Center. All the best attributes of the store were retained.

When the Chester County Book Company opened in its new location last year, Mowday was the first author to do a signing.

“The book store is a very special place and offers authors a chance to

talk about their books with readers,” said Mowday.

“This is a special experience for authors. With book stores becoming almost extinct, the Chester County Book Company is surviving and thriving, and I hope they do so for many, many years. The store enriches all of us.”

The Chester County Book Company has been tremendously supportive of local authors, and it has also been able to arrange author talks and book signings that connect authors with the book-buying public.

Local author John Dixon said that the bookstore is one of his favorite places in the area.

“For twenty years, the Chester County Book Company has been a huge part of my life, supplying books, reading recommendations, and exciting opportunities to meet visiting authors,” he explained.

Dixon credited the Chester County Book Company with helping the launch of his debut novel, “Phoenix Island,” earlier this year.

“My debut novel, ‘Phoenix Island,’ was slated to release on January 7, 2014, the same day as the premiere of “Intelligence,” the CBS TV series it had inspired, so I had to be in New York for the publisher’s official book launch and viewing party. As the big day

approached, I was of course excited, but I was bummed, too. I’d really wanted to share this milestone moment with local friends and family. Knowing this, the Chester County Book Company came to my rescue, helping me to arrange an unbelievable launch party at the Chester County Historical Society on January 5, two days before the ‘real’ launch.

“Working with Simon & Schuster, the Chester County Book Company secured copies of 'Phoenix Island' before it was even officially on sale, brought them to the event, and handled the sales – and pre-orders, once the copies had sold out – freeing me to sign books and thank the three hundred or so awesome people who showed up. The launch party was fantastic, one of the best experiences of my entire life, and it couldn’t have happened without the Chester County Book Company.”

There are a series of events scheduled at the bookstore in the next few months. On Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., three-time Macavity Award winner Deborah Crombie will sign copies of “To Dwell in Darkness,” her latest novel featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James.

On Friday, Oct. 24, customers will have the opportunity to pick up some great ideas for the holiday gift Continued on Page 74

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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Book Company...

Continued from Page 73

lists during Rep-tober Fest. Representatives from major book publishers like HarperCollins, Norton, Penguin, Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster will talk about the upcoming hot releases for the holiday season. The event lasts from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and light refreshments will be served.

Diane Muldrow will be signing copies of her latest book, “Everything I Need to Know About Christmas I Learned From a Little Golden Book,” on Wednesday, Nov.12 at 7 p.m.

The next night, Thursday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., Lev Golinkin will be signing copies of “A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka.”

Garth Stein, the bestselling author of “The Art of Racing in the Rain” will be signing copies of his newest release, “A Sudden Light” on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.

Signed books always make great gifts so on Saturday, Dec. 13, the Chester County Book Company is hosting its annual multi-author book-signing event. The first grouping of authors will be signing copies of their books from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. That group includes Jim Breslin (signing his novel “Shoplandia”), Jen Bryant (“The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus”), Catherine Quillman (a local historian signing two African American historic tour books in West Chester: “Walking the ‘Uptown’” and “Walking the East End), Gene Pisasale (“American Revolution to Fine Art: Brandywine Valley Reflections), and Tiffany Beveridge (humor book-- “How To Quinoa: Life Lessons from My Imaginary Well-Dressed Daughter”). The second shift, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., includes Ray Didinger (“The New Eagles Encyclopedia”) and Artie Bennett (the children’s book “Belches, Burps, and Farts...Oh My!”). More writers will be added for this event in the coming weeks.

The Chester County Book Company is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@chestercounty.com.

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

Walk through history during Cand lelight Christmas Tour Over the past 28 years, the Candlelight Christmas Tour has been a family tradition in Chester County.

The event, which opens private properties to the public, is a showcase for the region’s rich history. The homes and historic sites are decorated in traditional style, and candles light the rooms, just as they would have a century ago.

This year’s tour will be held Dec. 6 from 1 to 6 p.m. The spotlight is on the 300-year history of the 1714 Barns-Brinton House on Route 1. Participants can drive to any or all of more than 15 decorated homes and historic sites in Pennsbury and Kennett townships.

Tickets are available in advance online and are $20 per person. Tickets on the day of the tour will be $25 per person.

Proceeds from the tour help sustain the ongoing work to maintain and preserve the Chadds Ford Historical Society’s properties, the John Chads House and Spring House and the Barns-Brinton House; as well as support educational programs for students and the community.

Volunteers are needed to help with decorating, hospitality, performing music, parking and more. High-school students, famlies and retirees are welcome. The time commitment will be two and-a-half hours per shift, from 1 to 3:30 p.m., or 3:30 to 6 p.m. Call 610-388-7376.

For more information, visit www.chaddsfordhistory.org.

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These professionals will pack your items with the utmost care, arrange to have them moved by a reliable moving company, then unpack them and place them in your new home where you desire.

If you are downsizing, they can help you arrange a sale of your goods or assist you in donating to the charity of your choice.

Once out of your old home, they can clean-up and make repairs so the house is ready for the new owners, or to be put on the market.

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CaenStroud@msn.com www.tlcmovingservicesllc.com www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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——|West Chester & Chadds Ford History|——

The pages of our history

In a town that holds its history close to its vest, perhaps no other structure in West Chester carries its history more prominently than the Lincoln Building on Market Street, named in honor of a man whose biography -written there -- may have indirectly preserved our nation

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

T

here are 4,200 structures in West Chester that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Each one of them tells a story, but none better than the Lincoln Building, the skinny brick structure tucked in the middle of a busy Market Street, where one of the most important stories told about American history was written, published and preserved.

It was said that William Everhart, a congressman, philanthropist and a resident of West Chester, was the richest man in town, and he wanted to have an office structure built that would proudly display his prominence. In 1829, Everhart purchased what is now the southeastern part of West Chester’s downtown district, and over the next several years, oversaw the construction of 100 brick buildings in the vicinity, and in 1833, The Everhart Building became West Chester’s first office building. By 1860, the Chester County Times had set up shop there, as did an attorney by the name of Joseph J. Lewis.

In that same year, Samuel Downing, the publisher of the Times, and Lewis received a three-page, handwritten autobiographical profile written by a midwestern politician named Abraham Lincoln. At the urging of his friend, Jesse Fell, Lincoln wrote the autobiography as a means of 76

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Malcolm Johnstone, executive director of the West Chester Business Improvement District, stands at the entrance of the Lincoln Building on Market Street.

publicity that would hopefully serve as a means of introducing him to the residents of the eastern portion of the United States. There was a reason for the writing: Lincoln was running for the Presidency of the United States, and his fear was that east of the Ohio River, no one even knew who he was.

“Downing and Lewis and Fell colluded together so that Lincoln could be properly introduced during his run for the presidency,” said Malcolm Johnstone, executive director of the West Chester Business Improvement District. “He’d never been to Pennsylvania or New York,

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

and he thought that the Republicans in this area were going to soundly beat him. It was purely on the advice of others that Lincoln even wrote this autobiography.

He wasn’t going to step on people's toes, but he was also absolutely dedicated to the mission of becoming president.”

Downing and Lewis cobbled together Lincoln’s words, and the autobiography was first published in the Times on Feb. 11, 1860. Eventually, it was made into pamphlet form in the building and shipped to New York City, in advance of Lincoln’s famous speech at Cooper Union in lower Manhattan. Its impact on its readers was immediate, and it ignited the interest of the capacity crowd that awaited Lincoln at nearly every stop on the campaign trail.

“The response to the bio was huge,” Johnstone said. “The biography primed the audience for the Cooper Union speech, and the timing could not have been better.

When they received this biography, they knew about his politics but didn’t know anything about Lincoln, and his notes were nothing about politics but all about him. When that got to New York, it was like a city had absorbed all there was to know about Lincoln, like a vacuum.

“My personal contention is that Abraham Lincoln would not have been our 16th President without this book.”

The Lincoln Building was purchased in 1977 by businessman David Kirby, who saved it from demolition.

Over the next year, Kirby supervised a restoration of the building, and petitioned for it to be added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The first time Johnstone entered the Lincoln Building, it was 2001, the same year Karen Simmons, president and chief executive officer for the Chester County Community Foundation, began in that position. The Foundation was considering a move to the old building, and conversations between Johnstone and Simmons floated around the idea of how to retrofit the workings of a modern-day foundation with the stubborn and creaky confines of a structure that was built in 1833.

It has turned out that nearly 14 years later, the Foundation could not have found a more perfect home.

“At first when I came here in 2001, I thought, ‘This is an old building, and it’s going to take so much care,’ and we were a young mission at the time without a a lot of resources to do the needed repairs,” Simmons said. “But as our mission has gotten more stable as an organization, it began to make perfect sense for us to be in this historic

Photos by Richard L. Gaw Clockwise from top:

An original edition of an 1868 Philadelphia newspaper, that was discovered recently at the Lincoln Building.

A replica of Lincoln’s famous hat.

A framed copy of the autobiography Lincoln wrote that was later published in the building.

building. When families want to talk about their legacies for the future, and they come to the building and see how much we care for and respect a building that was built in 1833, that is an easy jump for them to know that we also care for and respect what they wish to achieve for their legacy.”

“There are too many communities that do not recognize where they’ve come from,” Johnstone said. “Without associating the historical context with a place, you don’t have a chance to save that place. To the Foundation’s credit, they are the saviors of this building, because they not only understand what they have to do to preserve it, but they understand why they have to preserve it.”

During the many walking tours he gives of West Continued on page 79

www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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West Chester & Chadds Ford Life Magazine A Chester County Press Publication

PUBLISHER

Randy Lieberman

randyl@chestercounty.com

EDITOR

Steve Hoffman

Founded 2008 ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

Christy Larry

clarry@chestercounty.com

Teri Turns

advertising@chestercounty.com

Helen Warren

editor@chestercounty.com

hwarren@chestercounty.com

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Alan Turns

adsales@chestercounty.com

ART DIRECTOR

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EDITORIAL STAFF

CIRCULATION

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John Chambless Richard L. Gaw

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Brenda Butt

COPY EDITOR

Arlene McGoldrick

West Chester Life is published twice a year by Ad Pro, Inc., P.O. Box 150, Kelton, PA 19346, 610-869-5553.

Website: www.westchesterlifemagazine.com Printed in the USA by Delaware Printing.

Mailing: USPS Periodical Permit #416500.

Editorial: We want to hear from you. Send your comments, suggestions, and story ideas to editor@chestercounty.com or mail them to P.O. Box 150, Kelton, PA 19346. Written correspondence must be signed and include a mailing address, telephone number, and an e-mail address, when possible.

Advertising: To request a media kit or to receive other information about advertising, e-mail Alan Turns at adsales@chestercounty.com or call 610-869-5553.

Find us online: To contact our staff, get advertising information, or submit an event for the Calendar of Events, visit our website www.chestercounty.com.

All contents copyright Ad Pro Inc. Nothing contained herein may be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. Publisher disclaims all responsibility for omissions and errors. All rights reserved.

Lincoln Building...

Continued from page 77

Chester’s history, Johnstone eventually makes a stop at the Lincoln Building, and points to the many plaques bolted to its exterior that indicate its importance in the historical framework of the town.

“I joke that the plaques on the front of the building are holding it up,” he said. “It’s only half a joke, because those plaques are, in a way, keeping the Lincoln Building standing, because they associate us with our history.

There is a culture of understanding of where we came from here in West Chester. It’s part of our story, and it links us to who we are.”

The Lincoln Building is located at 28 West Market Street, West Chester, Pa. 19382. To learn more about the Lincoln Building, visit www.chescocf.org .

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@ chestercounty.com .

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The popular Lincoln Tea Room has re-opened on Market Street, and although it’s under a new name, it still offers the chance to practice the lost art of conversation

I

A room to slow down in

t’s a mid-morning in early autumn on the campus of West Chester University, and classes have just let out. The falling leaves -- long a part of the postcard imagery of what a college campus should look like at this time of the year -- now share space with cellphones, which nearly every student fumbles with while walking to their next class.

Along Gay Street, professionals on their lunch break engage their iPhones as if they are a lifeline to their beating hearts. They text. They tweet, they Google and they Facebook, and in less than an Continued on page 80

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Tea...

Continued from page 79

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Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Jane Liberi, left, Amy Hamlet, center, and Jo Ellen Crampsey of The Lincoln Room in West Chester.

hour they will go back to their offices and do the same thing all over again.

On the bottom floor of the Lincoln Building on West Market Street, two women sit at a quaintly decorated table in The Lincoln Room, and over a tea sandwich plate and hot tea served in china cups.

They listen to each other speak while lilting classical music plays softly in the background.

This past May, Amy Hamlet and her mother, Val Eisinger-Pickett, came into the Lincoln Tea Room for lunch, and were among the many who had heard that it was soon to close. Instead of lamenting the loss of a valuable part of West Chester life, they decided to take it over, and reopened the room in early October to gracious thanks from the community.

“I want to create an experience, to allow guests to settle in and not rush out, as you do with lunch so often,” Hamlet said. “I want our guests to feel and see the experience – to make having tea become a destination.”

Like any establishment of its kind, The Lincoln Room has a wide selection of teas served in pots for one, or pots to share. Those who enjoy a dark tea can choose from a large selection of black teas, including Black Currant, Jasmine, Paris or Earl Grey Supreme. For Green and White tea enthusiasts, Citron Green, Gunpowder Green, Mutan White and White Christmas can be enjoyed, and for those who

West Chester & Chadds Ford Life | Fall/Winter 2014 | www.westchesterlifemagazine.com

Continued on page 81

Tea...

Continued from page 80

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Stacey Ciarlone, left, and Karen Byers enjoy a lunch of tea and fingers sandwiches at the Lincoln Room.

enjoy a fruitier tea, The Lincoln Room serves flavors like Mother’s Boquet, Peach Fruit, Peppermint Herbal and many others.

The Lincoln Room is out to defy the common misconception that a tea room is bound to leave one undernourished. Guests can order from a wide selection of starters, soups, salads and pairings, which include sandwiches and quiches and scones. Young tea lovers can have tea as well as tea sandwiches with a parent, and a sampler includes favorites like soup, scones, salads, sandwiches and desserts.

Eisinger-Pickett welcomed the early lunch arrivals with a smile. “You’re not rushed in and not rushed out here,” she said. “You get a chance to visit with friends and family. That’s conversation. That’s not texting. That’s not your iPad or your laptop. In many ways, it’s connecting again with people, and we’ve lost that connection.”

Guest by guest, pot by pot, and scone by scone, the sense of connection with each other that we have lost is being re-found.

The Lincoln Room is at 28 W. Market St., West Chester. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For reservations and takeout orders, call 610-696-2102. For more information, visit www.LincolnRoomWestChester.com.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@chestercounty.com. www.westchesterlifemagazine.com | Fall/Winter 2014 | West Chester & Chadds Ford Life

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