Historic Marple Homes: Dickinson House

History Spotlight

A three-story stone+stucco Marple farmhouse, from 1855 to today

by Doug Humes

Like Old Mother Hubbard, Springfield farmer William Dickinson and wife Louisa had so many children, 11, that they didn’t know what to do. They bought a newly subdivided farm of 48 acres in Marple in 1855, and built a three-story stone and stucco farmhouse.

William Dickinson, Sr.

Photo courtesy of Doug Humes

There were no fireplaces inside, so it was of relatively modern construction for the times, heated by a coal furnace, with grates in the floors to let the heat rise. Five rooms upstairs were adequate to house the large farm family. There was a homemade “smokehouse” on the 3rd floor, where the clever farmer had boxed out a closet and cut a hole into the chimney to let the furnace exhaust “smoke” meat hanging on hooks.

An orchard ran from the front door to the road frontage on today’s Sproul road. Milk cows grazed in the fields of what is now “the Avenues” – 1st thru 5th streets, watered by Langford Run. A well outside the back door was a convenient water supply for cooking and bathing needs. A privy at the corner of the home also served as a trash dump, until public trash pickup came along. The dump was “discovered” just a few years ago when digging a hole for a post to re-hang the ancient grapevine on the property.

Dickinson farm on 1870 map

Photo courtesy of Marple Historical Society

Dickinson had a barn and a springhouse – the latter now a home on Harding Avenue, behind the old Marple Ambulance building. Dickinson had training as a wheelwright, and so when not working the farm, he could be found amidst the wheelwright and blacksmith tools at the Drove Tavern on the Pike. He was a civic-minded man as well, serving on the school committee five times.

When William Dickinson died in 1888, his 9th child, Maurice, took over the farm, and cared for the widow Louisa until her death in 1905. He and wife Anna raised a much smaller family of two, Josephine and William, but both died relatively young

By the time Maurice was ready to retire in the mid 1920s, there were no takers for the farm. They sold it to developer Michael Gilbert in 1923, and it was subdivided into small lots to accommodate vacation bungalows for city residents to hop on the West Chester trolley and escape to the country. And the farmhouse? Still there, at 1st and Gilbert, occupied by the author!

For more information on the history of Marple, visit the Marple Historical Society website and Facebook page, and join the society to keep up to date on coming events: www.MarpleHistoricalSociety.org.