Deciding on Painters’ Folly
When Chadds Ford Township supervisors announced in December of 2017 that they intended to buy Painter’s Folly, they had no firm idea of what they wanted to do with the old house on Route 1. Supervisors’ Chairman Frank Murphy said at the time that they wanted to keep it out of the hands of a developer and save it as open space.
The house is historically significant with the local art scene. In the early 20th century, it was home to illustrator Howard Pyle. And it was Pyle who taught N.C. Wyeth and others in his school a little farther down Route 1 in Turner’s Mill, the current Chadds Ford Township municipal building.
Painter’s Folly was later the home of George and Helen Sipala, who became friends with Andrew Wyeth. Wyeth used the house and the Sipala’s in several of his paintings.
In an interview several weeks after the township’s 2017 announcement, Supervisor Noelle Barbone acknowledged they had no specific use in mind. However, she suggested the township could partner with the Sanderson Museum or the Chadds Ford Historical Society to find a use for the 200-year-old house. Yet, she didn’t know what that type of partnership that could be.
The township officially became the owner in early 2018, paying $625,000 for the house and its four acres next to the Brandywine Battlefield Park. Now three years later, supervisors have still made no decision.
With that in mind, the township held the first of two information-gathering sessions with residents and restorative architect Dale Frens, and project manager, Carol Quigley on July 27. The two are now with Patterhn Ives, contracted to develop a plan for the property, with resident input
Barbone said before the meeting that there are some specific concerns. The township wants residents and visitors to have some access to the house, but it must be ADA compatible. She also said supervisors would like to see some income from the property.
“Not a lot,” Barbone said, “Just enough to break even. But we want to preserve the site and its history.”
Maintaining the house — a three-story structure of 58,000 square feet — is expensive, as former owner Helen Sipala can attest. She tells a story about how she and her husband were going to sell the house in the mid-1990s because the upkeep was so costly. When Wyeth heard of their intention, he told them he would pay for the improvements out of his own pocket.
The July 27 meeting with Quigley and Frens ranged from an historic overview of the house, and the land surrounding the home before the house was built. Then came a review of possible uses and the need to overcome some difficulties in making the house accessible.
Historically, the property was once part of what was called Lafayette Farm Estates, according to Frens. However, he said when Samuel Painter built the house in about 1857, it was initially called Lafayette Manor.
(The reference to Lafayette refers to the adjacent property with the Gilpin House. Local folklore says the Marquis de Lafayette, a junior general and Gen. George Washington’s aide during the Battle of Brandywine, used the Gilpin House as a headquarters, something some historians dispute.)
Some of the ideas suggested for adaptive reuse of the house were a bed and breakfast, art studios, and intern apartments for the upper floors while keeping the first floor as a meeting or event space.
Potential drawbacks include maintenance costs, uneven terrain, insufficient parking, and equally poor ingress. Getting into the property is right-in only off Route 1, and the driveway comes up very quickly. Quigley said she often must do a U-turn farther down Route 1 to get into Painter’s Folly because the driveway comes up so fast that she misses the turn.
No decisions were made during the session, and a second information-gathering meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. Attendees who come at 6 will get a tour of the house.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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