Month 1: Formal Update

Hearthstone

Roger and Brey

July 12 thru August 10, 2012

Background: Information gained from interviews with neighbors, tenant, and ALTA.

            June 15 1899 Anne Eliza Lloyd and John J. Pinkerton supposedly sold the land containing "Hearthstone" to Thomas A. Lloyd and Wife the water rights and the dam. Other descriptions of buildings, carriages and laborers are mentioned.

            May 9 1906 Thomas A. Lloyd and wife sold to Fred Pearson for $5,500  over 100 acres. Mentions Bondsville Woolen Mills and Rockstone Mill Company.

            November 22 1940 Fred Pearson to other Pearson Family members 103 Acres.

            February 16, 1954 Survey of 43.5 acre parcel is started. This probably means CHS III and MZS were under an Agreement of Sale at this time. Name mentioned in survey: Anna Windle Davis, John McCausland and Collins &Aikman Corporation

            March 10 1954 CHSIII and MZS Deed recorded for 43.5 Acres (to become Hearthstone)

            March 7 1965 CHSIII and MZS granted an Easement to Commonwealth of Pa. a highway right of way.

            March 12 1976 MZS to AMS Corporation 43.5 acres. (the end of Hearthstone for 36 years and 5months)

            July 12, 2012 Roger D. Stone signed an agreement of sale to purchase 10 acres and the Dam, Bridge, Barn, Springhouse, Garage/apartment, house site, pond and old dumpsite to rear of first field. He and Brey have named the property "Hearthstone" to honor what the place was formerly called.

What happened during that 36 plus years.

                        For about 10 years the house was rented to 7 individuals. (room rents, with kitchen and first floor common area). During this time one of the renters removed all but 5 of the boxwoods and sold them. Evidently the Rothmans removed many plant and tree specimens and transferred them to another property. The property was then placed under an agreement of sale to an individual family. Their intent was to fix the house up and live there. We do not know how many acres and other buildings were included. The sister of the wife was financing the venture and turned ill and passed away. This event left the house empty. Another renter appeared on the seen until 2000 +- . He owned a car repair facility and moved the contents to the barn and house. Abruptly he removed the tools and some other stuff but left behind a large amount of stuff piled all over the house and barn. At this point the house roof was leaking significantly and the bath tower was leaning about 3" from the main house. About 2000 or so the vegetation was slowly encompassing the house and spring house, this trapped moisture and limited breezes. This sped up the tree and plant growth as well as accelerated the structural damage to the house and barn. The spring house fell in first. The buildings were tarped by order of the Township and although a good intention this too sped up decay of the structures. A large backhoe came in and tore off the front porch because of structural dangers.  A Sub division process was started about 2006 for 12 or so separate properties. A few years later the subdivision was approved. It would have removed portions of the bridge, tore down the stone wall along the drive removed all but 1 small wall of the house. A road would have installed in front of the house going all the way out to the back field. Another road would have gone through the east yard to the little house property in the back. A septic system would have been installed in the play yard. A storm pond would be placed in the orchard.

Test holes were dug, trenches made, side yard (east) was torn up and mounds of dirt and debris created. A well was drilled in the front yard and resulting drillings piled up. Truck ruts from large equipment appeared and on and on and on.

            Finally in 2008 the economy started to turn down and the project was put on hold.

Eventually it became clear to the owners that the project was not justified economically and they approach the East Brandywine Township manager Scott Piersol to see if they where interested in buying the property as an open space acquisition. The township did not want to own the bridge, dam, buildings and old dumpsite. We had been interested in the property and made offers from time to time with no response. Scott contacted us and after a year + of negotiating we finally acquired our portion of the property. Roger and Brey have decided to rename it "Hearthstone".

            Friday July 13 was Brey and Roger's first legal day to visit their property. On Saturday morning we moved the backhoe to the site and started to assess what could be done. Poison Ivy (the diameters in some places the size of an arm) was abundant and practically everywhere. Virtually every tree surround this house was invasive specie and totally covered in various vines including fox grapes, bitter sweet, trumpet vine, poison ivy vines. You could not get to the house site without stooping over and moving like a crab through all the over growth. We decided that clearing an area of about 50 feet around the house was what needed to be done in order to open the site up for ventilation and future construction. We took down about 40 trees. Not one of them over 38 years old and all were considered as invasive species. The only old tree removed was the red maple at the front east portion of the house. It was completely dead and once down it revealed that it was 103 +- years old. We then dug out all the stumps. We took the back hoe and "tooth raked to a depth of about 3" the entire cleared area. This process removed all the mated root systems of poison ivy and other invasive plant material. We then hand raked everything. In about a month or so we will plant grass seed and cover with straw. We found several artifacts that could be linked back to the first Hearthstone, a coke bottle from Nana's era, a cast iron frog, marbles, toy plastic guns, numerous horse shoes and iron objects, and a bunch of broken pottery/china.

            Plants and trees that remain in the immediate area surrounding the house

                        (right side of drive to turn to little house then down to mill race & back)

3 Weeping cherries

3 large hollies and several groups of small hollies

1 mature ginkgo bilopa

1 mature cut leaf red maple

8 very large mature Norway maples

Numerous White, Norway, and Douglas fir mature pines (20+)

1 Very large mature Copper Beech

1 of the 3 original Centennial Pines (one was lost in Hazel, the other gone)

1 group of flowering quince

1 old rose bush which we cut back and it is already shooting up new shoots

Several mature trumpet vines (1 by the back steps)

12 yews mature

1 small group of 1 foot tall purple lilacs

Hundreds of square feet of pachysandra

Hundreds of square feet of Mrytle (Brey has pruned out all the junk)

2 large forsythia bushes

Several mature cork bark shrubs

1 dogwood

1 large mature honey locust

Several mature black cherries

Several mature black walnuts

4 large "lemon tree" shrubs/trees

30 to 40 mature service berry shrubs

Large multi trunk hemlock on top of stone wall along drive

8 mature boxwoods remain

2 mature concord firs

And a whole lot more

The house:

            We removed the debris from the collapse of the "bath tower"

            This process involves sorting the stone, wood, metal etc. and proper disposals

            We shifted some collapsed elements away from the interior stone wall of the living room

            Roger has started shop work on a new exterior door for the "guest house" formerly the garage

            We have discovered so far:

                        Main house was likely built in 1733

                        The stone additions took place from then until about 1903 +- when a major remodeling occurred (possibly a little earlier).

                        Nothing structurally can be salvaged from the house. All rafters, joists, studs, architectural elements, beams and others have collapsed into the basement. In pictures it appears that some features remain somewhat intact, however on close inspection they are simply "propped up" from all the debris below.

                        The current thrust is to bring the house back to a period prior to the major turn of the century remodel, and try to keep as much of the stonework as possible. All windows, doors, door frames, and mantles are rotted beyond and substantial salvage.

                        We will try to salvage hardware and some non rotted wood parts.

The Barn:

            We have currently directed full attention to the barn. 18 major structural items have been compromised. This project will likely take us through October or November.

The Garage:

            We cannot access the garage until after September 10^th. 

Spring House:

            The ridge is sagging and the support walls below are pushing out. We will not have any time until next year to deal with it

The Ice House:

            It will have to wait until next year.

Summary

            About 450 solid work hours are in this project so far

            Survey, subdivision, easement generation, and settlement are on going.

            Phase I EPA study in about 3 weeks                                   

Thank YOU!!!  :)