The Land Baron

Basic Data

The dwelling is an old stone bank barn converted to a house. It sits on 38 acres of development-controlled Pennsylvania Meadow. The easement is held by Natural Lands Trust in Media, PA. The house is sited next to the Pickering Creek Reservoir, giving great views of the lake behind the house. The house was a bank barn, which means that the ground floor has access to the south side (on 3 sides) and the front door is on the 1st floor. The second floor held the hay loft.

History

Here is the basic outline:

• The property was sold to J. Pickering by William Penn. Pickering was the first surveyor of Penn's land.
• Pickering sold the property to the Moore family, who owned it for 87 years. The buildings on the property were all destroyed in the Revolutionary War.
• The bank barn was built in 1787 for sheep and/or cattle by John T. Taylor, as part of a reconstruction plan by the Moore's heir, Willamina Bond. Taylor did not own the land, but was given use of it in return for restoring it following the destruction from the Revolutionary War.
• The remains of the old house that accompanied the barn are around 200 yards east of the barn. The old house was abandoned at or before the creek was converted into a reservoir in 1926.
• Casselberry bought the barn around 1947. He was a builder who built many of the nearby houses. He converted the barn into a house around that time. Inside the walls we found newspapers from 1950 serving as insulation.
• The Mainwarings bought the house around 1974 but did not make any major improvements to it.
• The Mainwarings donated the house to the Natural Lands Trust in 1998. NLT immediately put the house on the market and it sat there for two years. The delay in selling was related to the difficulties buyers had negotiating the easement language on the property.
• I bought the house in August of 1999.

We have a new kitty cat. He is stuck indoors because we don't want him to be carried off by the bald eagle.

Here are some backyard views during different seasons:

Last Update: 11/16/2004  jason@olim.org

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