The (Not so) Rural Pennsylvanian

  • It’s a Breeze

    Get ready – the upcoming posts contains a lot of covered bridges. We will also continue the two-per-week schedule of new posts.

    I used the extended July Fourth holiday to take another trip to the Laurel Highlands. The trip started with an exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Breezewood to see some covered bridges. The first stop of the trip was Jacksons Mill Covered Bridge, a wooden covered bridge located in Bedford County. It crosses Brush Creek and is a 91-foot-long (28 m), Burr Truss bridge, constructed in 1889. It is one of 15 historic covered bridges in Bedford County. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

    There is also a very nice old mill building at this site.

    Nearby is Feltons Mill Covered Bridge, which is another wooden covered bridge located in Bedford County. It is a 105-foot-long (32 m), Burr Truss bridge with a medium pitched gable roof, constructed in 1892. It also crosses Brush Creek. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

    I was not able to get a good photo of this bridge, as the entrance appears to be on private property. The access road had a rope across it and appears to terminate a short distance from the main road. The bridge might be viewable from the nearby main road bridge when the trees are not leafed out, However, this random haybale was sitting nearby, and you know I can’t resist a good haybale.

    My drive around the Breezewood area also produced some other interesting sights, such as this interesting looking Church, with a very minimalist style.

    More haybales of course.
    This old silo looked like a castle tower, if you squint.

  • A Nockamixon Summer

    The Sheards Mill Covered Bridge is very close to Lake Nockamixon and its State Park. The trip to see the bridge allowed to make another visit to the park and the surrounding area.

    A very patriotic tractor.
    This door …
    … belongs to this barn.
    The Weisel Farm House and Barn at the High Bridge trailhead of Nockamixon State Park.

  • An Inspirational Farm

    The Kuerner Farm, also known as Ring Farm, is located in Chadds Ford. It is notable for its association with artist Andrew Wyeth, who created about one-third of his work, more than 1,000 paintings and drawings, on subjects he found there during a span of seventy-seven years.

    In 1926, Karl Kuerner and his wife Anna rented the farm, which they bought in 1940. Karl had been a sheepherder near the Black Forest in his native Germany, and had been a machine gunner in the German Army during World War I. Andrew Wyeth’s first painting of the farm was completed in 1932, when Wyeth was just fifteen years old. The farm was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2011.The property abuts the Brandywine Battlefield, another National Historic Landmark. The farm is open to public tours, operated by the Brandywine River Museum.

    I had a previous opportunity to photograph a wide shot of the farm , but I was recently able to get on one of the public tours. The first stop on the tour was the farmhouse,

    A springhouse, perhaps, near the front door.
    Apparently, Mrs. Kuerner loved wallpaper.
    An example of the progression of Wyeth’s work. The left was painted at the farmhouse while Karl Kuerner was ill.
    This sink has appeared in Wyeth’s work.
    These cuties were a big hit,

  • Wild Vosburg Neck and Around

    Vosburg Neck State Park has some lovely natural areas, in addition to the park facilities. Below are some more scenes from my visit. The birding was also very good here, and I had over 50 species during my trip here.

    This flock of Turkeys was an unexpected surprise.
    Spring wild flowers.
    Finally, some farms along Vosburg Road.

  • It’s a Horse, Of Course (and Some Cows)

    The Lancaster County livestock were out enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon, including a couple of colts with their moms.

  • Color is Budding Out All Over

    Lancaster County on a lovely Spring day provides beautiful views of flowers and flowering trees. The tree buds in the local woodlands also create more color than one might expect.

    The local farms are also getting into the swing of things for the upcoming growing season.

  • Hibernia – There and Back, Part III

    The trip home was made by a different route. I headed north through Chester County toward Elverson from Hibernia County Park and then across Route 23.

    Interesting pavilions at a park in Elverson.

    This is a lovely area called Coventryville that I have photographed before. Coventryville was founded as an iron forge in 1717 by Englishman Samuel Nutt, an early American industrialist and member of Pennsylvania’s Assembly in 1723–26. Coventry was the first forge in Chester County and was located at the confluence of the north and south branches of French Creek, a short distance from rich iron deposits. Nutt went on to own two additional furnaces in partnership with Mordecai Lincoln and William Branson.

    The village today consists of structures dating from the early 18th century until the mid 19th including workers housing, the Inn, the ironmaster’s house (Coventry Hall) and the mid 19th century Methodist church. The Coventryville Historic District remains an intact concentration of original eighteenth and nineteenth century structures. The community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

    I love the big star on this barn.

  • Hibernia – There and Back, Part II

    Arriving at Hibernia County Park, I approached the main park area via Lyons Head Drive, a route I had never used before. There are some interesting older cottage style houses along this road, most of which are either off limits due to disrepair or privately occupied. At the top of the hill, I reached the Hibernia Mansion. The mansion is the former abode of local iron masters and a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer. It has expanded in the over the 200 years of its existence to meet the needs of its occupants.

    This is a very nice old barn behind the mansion.

  • Hibernia – There and Back, Part I

    On my way to visit Hibernia County Park in Chester County, I was finally able to photograph this barn and the adjacent house near Coatesville that I had long wanted to get a picture of.

    I also finally made a trip to the Coatesville Reservoir, another place I had never visited before.

    Here are some other interesting sights in the area of Wagontown, Chester County.

  • Brandywine Valley Spring

    The Brandywine Valley is an iconic area of southeastern Pennsylvania thanks to the artwork of the Wyeth family and other artists. I hadn’t visited the area in a while, but broke down an bought a membership to the Brandywine Conservancy so I could visit the artist studios and the Kuerner farm property. I did not photograph anything at the Brandywine Museum of Art, but I did take some photos of the surrounding area in Chadds Ford.

    The Kuerner Farm was adjacent to the Wyeth property. For more than 70 years, the the farm and its inhabitants were a major source of inspiration to Andrew Wyeth. The early 19th-century farmhouse and the red barn are the focus of the property. Karl Kuerner, a German immigrant and World War I veteran, in particular fascinated Andrew Wyeth. I am planning to go back on a tour to get a better look at the property.

    The Chadds Ford Village and Barn Shops is a quaint shopping area.

    The historic site known as Archie’s Corner is nearby. It features the Bullock Octagonal School, which was constructed in 1838 on land purchased from Robert Bullock. The eight-sided plan where the design placed the teacher at the center of the room, allowing oversight of the full class. The school was sold in 1875 and a new schoolhouse was built on neighboring property.

    After the sale of the school, Linda A. Archie, a Black preacher, bought the property and set about building a church on the site in 1891. “Mother” Archie’s African Union Methodist Protestant congregation met in this church until some time after her passing in 1932. A cemetery stands near the ruins of the octagonal building, but only some of the markers for the gravesites that once existed are still visible at the site.

    The name Archie’s Corner is derived from a 1953 drawing of the site by famed realist painter and artist Andrew Wyeth, a native of Chadds Ford who frequently visited the site.

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