Cheyney, Squire, Farm

About this property

The Squire Cheyney Farm is an historic farm and national historic district that is located in Thornbury Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. This district encompasses two contributing buildings, three contributing sites, one contributing structure, and contributing object. They are the farmhouse, a barn (c. 1804, c. 1820, c. 1875, 1881, and c. 1910), the ruins of a granary, the remains of an ice house, a spring house (1799), a stone retaining wall, and a family cemetery (established c. 1803). The house was built in four periods, with the oldest dating to circa 1797. The oldest section is a 2+1⁄2-story, three-bay, stuccoed stone structure with a gable roof. The additions were built c. 1815, 1830 and 1850, making it a seven-bay-wide dwelling. It is L-shaped and has a slate gable roof. During the American Revolution, Thomas "Squire" Cheyney [II] informed General George Washington during the Battle of Brandywine that the British were flanking him to the north. Cheyney was later appointed to the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention to ratify the United States Constitution. The original two level rubble-stone bank barn was built by Squire Cheyney and his son William about 1804 in the English Lake District Barn style (Dornbusch Type E Barn). The stone on this portion of the barn is identical to that on the oldest portion of the existing farmhouse. The barn was enlarged by his son in 1820 to a Chester County Stone-Posted-Forebay Barn (Dornbusch Type J). A granary was subsequently added about 1850. About the same time a dormer was added to the forebay. The farm remained in the Cheney family until 1875 as a commercial dairy farm. In 1875 it was sold to the Thomas Dallett and continued as a commercial dairy farm. About this time the barn was extended to the west. Between 1875 and 1910 a frame outshed was added to the northwest portion of the barn. A stone silo was added in 1910. The granary was destroyed by fire about 1930. Of the granary and silo only the foundations remain. The farm remained in the Dallett family until its conversion to a public park and restoration of the farmhouse and barns for private use. The well house was built in the 1960s. The garage and east wing of the farmhouse were added as part of the 2014 renovation. Squire Cheyney was born on the Cheyney farm in 1730, but not in the existing farmhouse. He was one of four brothers. The land that became Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was from the original 500 acre Cheyney farm, but was not part of Thomas Cheyney's 150 acres.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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