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Welsh Road View Located in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia, the Stokes House is a two and a half story stone, Federal style house, consisting of three parts, two of which are estimated to have been constructed in the mid to late 19th century and the third in the 1940s. The house sits on a 1-acre plot of land, along Welsh Road, which originally consisted of 32 acres, and deeds to this property show these 32 acres to have existed as far back as 1747. But, after over 200 years, most of the property was sold during the post World War II era for the development of brick row homes. The house is representative of the summer homes and farms that were owned by wealthy landowners, industrialists and businessmen in 19th century Holmesburg, particularly after the end of the Civil War, when Holmesburg was in its “Golden Age”. Several Union officers are known to have retired in this area, including Lt. Col. John Clark, who drilled and commanded Holmesburg’s volunteer troops. Clark purchased the property two months before he was mustered from his company in June, 1864. He owned the house for the next year before selling it to his parents, who owned it an additional two years. Several other wealthy families of the 19th century owned this property including the Comly family, and it is possible that this farming family, who owned several large plots of land in Holmesburg well into the early twentieth century, may be responsible for all of the 19th century construction. Another large landowning family, the Bartons, who also ran a sandpaper factory, owned the property. For an unknown period of time, while it was still owned by the Barton estate, squatters had been living in a frame section of the house and were using the stone sections as shelter for their farm animals, as well as food storage, until the property was purchased by the Stokes family in 1943. Samuel C. Stokes, an excavating contractor and owner of the American Manganese Bronze Company, undertook the first major restoration of the stone house and tore down the frame addition on the back. He then built the 1940s addition using the stone that was left from the ruins of the barn behind the house. Before the row home development took place, Stokes had attempted to build a racetrack on the property but that venture failed. In the mid-1990s, the 19th century sections of the house underwent another restoration by the current resident, Samuel C. Stokes, Jr., as termites had nearly destroyed the support beams under the first floor. Earlier in the 18th century, there was a log structure and barn on the site. According to tax records, the log home still existed in 1814. The Edwards family from as early as 1747 to 1798 did own the property, as well as Abraham Griffith, a possible Revolutionary War Veteran and William Caswell, the Chemist. Another interesting aspect of this property is that it sits across the street from a series of small properties that possibly date back to the 18th century and are owned by descendants of free blacks who worked for the wealthy landowners or in the mills along the Pennypack Creek. The Stokes House sits on what was once part of Thomas Holme’s Well Spring Plantation in the late 17th century, and Holme and his descendants are buried in a cemetery nearby. An archaeological investigation was performed at this site from 2005 through 2007. During this period, many artifacts from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were recovered. These artifacts along with several discoveries of unique features have helped us to better understand how some of the occupants of the Stokes House may have lived. |
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Weekly meetings are held Wednesday nights from 7:30 - 9:30 PM. Please come and join us.
For additional information, please contact: The Millbrook Society 32 North York Road P.O. Box 506, Hatboro, PA 19040 (215)957-1877
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