HISTORICAL COMMISION

* Preserve * Protect * * Perpetuate *

Grant Approval

by Pearl M. Nudy, Historical Commission Member

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) approved a 2022 Certified Local Government (CLG) grant to Tredyffrin Township in the amount of $10,000 to conduct the first phase of a strategic preservation plan. The Strategic Preservation Plan (SPP) implements the Historic Preservation recommendations in the Township's 2021-2030 Comprehensive Plan.

A project will launch in early 2023 to contract with a preservation consultant to guide the Township through a planning process and produce the Plan document. The SPP planning process will raise awareness of the value of historic resources and specify preservation opportunities. This process will focus heavily on public outreach, education and community feedback regarding Township preservation options. The Plan will be the roadmap to modernize Tredyffrin historic preservation practices to include historic resource identification, zoning incentives and protections, and Township governance.

Adaptive Reuse of Local Buildings

by Rob Williams, Chair

Throughout Tredyffrin are buildings that were designed and built for unique purposes. Barns, mills, and railroad stations are easily identified for the purpose they once served, and many still serve hundreds of years later. Other buildings in our Township hide their original intent. A mid-1700s log cabin is now a family room to a larger house. A late-1700s Lancaster Pike roadside inn is now a private house. An 1800s quarry office is now a retail building. A 1900s Main Line mansion now serves as a pre-K school. We are fortunate to have many legacy structures survive their heydays and transform with new purpose. Many retain their character though often additions hide the original form.

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What of that wonderful little white building at 7 E. Lancaster Avenue in Devon?

It is set on a narrow corner in front of the railroad tracks just west of the BP gas station and across the road from BMW

One cannot miss it driving west while waiting at the traffic signal. The bright white brick “cottage style” building has a high pitched roof, circular top door, and twin chimneys. Today, STUMP, the wonderful plant and craftwares retail shop, occupies the building, providing another use and another life to this hundred yearold building. Known as “adaptive reuse”, buildings provide continued value for their owners by creatively altering the original features and spaces for a contemporary use. STUMP is the latest business to call the building home with intrinsic value due to its central Upper Main Line location and warm charm of its appearance.

Tredyffrin's Historic Resources Survey (2003) notes this building as the “Grove St. Service Station” built in 1920s. At that time, the famed Lincoln Highway drew owners of automobiles from Philadelphia and its growning suburban towns westward for travel and exploration.

Service stations dotted the route for fuel,

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1 adding oil and the frequent tire repair. Research indicates this Tudor revival style served as the brand appearance for the Pure Oil company. 1,800 of these buildings dotted Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states but few stand today. The DiAntonio family owners switched to the Gulf brand in 21948. Since the demise of local fullservice stations, the little cottage became home to a real estate business and even a “question business”. The original service station office now shows STUMP's plants and pottery. The former large repair bay is now the shop's sunny display area and front desk.

Reuse of Tredyffrin buildings protects these delightful structures. Supporting owners of these local properties is important work so generations can ponder such places in history and why that pretty little shop is built the way it is.

Sources:

1Prichard, Greg, “Wayne's Gasoline Alley”, The Bulletin of the Radnor Historical Society, vol. 7, no. 6, 2016, pg. 13-24 (https://radnorhistory.org/bulletin/)

2Van Valkenburgh, Bart, “Service with a Smile: Three Generations of DiAntonio Family Auto Service”, Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly, vol 54, no 4, Spring 2019, pg. 4-7 (https://www.tehistory.org/qtoc1.html)

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