Art Scholarship

In 1803 Aaron Woodward, wheelwright, purchased 14½ acres from Ziba Wollerton. Within two years after constructing a house, he sold the same parcel to Abiah Cope. The small building located to the right of the original house at 815 Harmony Hill Road, was constructed by Aaron Woodward or Abiah Cope circa 1803 and was not a blacksmith’s shop as originally thought. We have since learned that the blacksmith shop was located in the intersection area but was dismantled.

The Town’s End Farm spring house is located on the 8.64-acre property at 790 Hillsdale Road, east of the Federal style farmhouse whose core bears a date stone of 1806. The spring house’s construction date is not known.

Gibson’s Bridge (aka Harmony Hill Bridge) is located on Harmony Hill Road between East and West Bradford Townships. The structure was built in 1872 by Edward Hall and Thomas Schull for $2,600. The wooden substructure was replaced in 2003 with steel beams. The bridge is 78 feet long and 14 feet wide, crossing the East Branch of Brandywine Creek, and is maintained by Chester County.

Cope’s Bridge is a triple-arch stone bridge constructed by Chester County in 1807 over the east branch of the Brandywine Creek on Strasburg Road, East Bradford Township. In 1767 Samuel, Joseph, Nathan, and John Cope were listed on a petition to construct a wooden bridge (at then Taylor’s Ford). In 1789, the wooden Brandywine Bridge was built. The current name is derived from the impact on the area of Edge T. Cope who purchased the mill and shop near the stone bridge in 1842 and with his sons manufactured farming and household tools and equipment for the next 50 years.

The 1760 farmhouse located on Allerton Road in the Worth/Jefferis National Register Historic District was operated as a tavern (Jefferis Ford Inn) by Aaron James, Jr. in the late 1700’s and later by Taylor Jefferis who named it “Sign of the Eel’s Foot.” On September 11, 1777 British forces under General Cornwallis stopped at the tavern on route to the Battle of Brandywine.

The Abiah Taylor House situated on North Creek Road was constructed in 1724 and is one of the oldest homes in Chester County. It consists of a post medieval English core with a historically sensitive addition constructed in 1995. Abiah Taylor also constructed the nearby English barn in 1724. Both structures are part of the Taylor-Cope Historic District.

The “double-decker” Thomas Worth barn was built in 1890 with several additions in the 20th century. It is part of the “Georgia Farm” which in the Worth/Jefferis National Register Historic District and lies between North Creek and Lucky Hill Roads. This “Pennsylvania” style barn was built into a slope and housed cattle on the lower floor and stored equipment, grain, and hay on the upper floor. The Natural Lands Trust currently uses this property to operate the Stroud Preserve which is dedicated to research, education and wildlife habitat preservation.

The Hamlet of Grubb’s Mill, situated at the intersection of Valley Creek and Harmony Hill Roads (formerly Grubb’s Mill Road) is part of the Paradise Valley Historic District, a three-mile long farming valley originally settled by English Quakers. Thomas Spackman built the grist mill in 1761 and later a barn, icehouse and dwelling (also shown) where he and later his son, Isaac, lived while operating the mill.