Historic Sugartown is a slice of days gone by
There’s a small sign outside of Historic Sugartown, in Willistown Township. Without the sign, you could easily drive past this site, thinking it was just a couple of old houses.
Anchored by a replica general store, and flanked by what used to be a mansion on the right and what used to be a saddler’s shop on the left, the small village on Sugartown Road is like other villages of its era — except this one hasn’t been razed and replaced by a used car dealership or a strip mall.
Peter Waitneight is a Sugartown tour guide and the treasurer for the organization that owns and maintains the village. Most crossroads village have not remained intact, and he attributes Sugartown’s resilience to the fact that it’s nestled between routes 3 and 30, a prime location that kept the village vibrant as others disappeared.
“It’s a very typical 19th-century crossroads village, of which there were thousands in Pennsylvania, and small communities grew around those intersections of important roads at the time,” he said. “Almost all of those villages have been flattened — that’s just the nature of how things have progressed over the last 100 years or more.”
He starts the tour in the lobby, behind the general store. There, postcards hang, showing what the village originally looked like, and what it looked like prior to ownership by Historic Sugartown Inc. in 1982.
The village looks more like the former, but more tidy and crisp.
The group of buildings that now comprise Sugartown — loosely named after tavern keeper Eli Shugart — was owned by the same family for 150 years. When the last owner decided to sell, he left dilapidated buildings, but staved off McMansions and coffee shop franchises. There’s a photograph of the buildings prior to renovations. The building was in rough shape, and there was junk scattered on the property.
“The last member of the family, who lived here without running water, without electricity, and ran what he called an antique shop, decided it was time to sell,” Waitneight said.
A few of the former owner’s antiques are on display, however most of the “curiosities,” as Waitneight called them, are relegated to the basement.
Pointing to one of the postcards that depicts a dirt Sugartown Road, Waitneight said, “When elementary school students take the tour, I ask them, ‘Do your parents let you play in the streets like this?’”
He added that the 40-foot well in the lobby, dug by hand and flanked with circular rocks, is popular with the kids, as well — as it’s illuminated, so they are able to see the water (through a piece of Plexiglas, of course).
Historic Sugartown holds tours for students throughout the school year, and is offering tours every Sunday through Aug. 30 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Cheryl Snyder, with Sugartown for three years, said the general store is a big hit with the visitors, especially the antique scale and coffee grinder. The store was gutted when the Sugartown group took ownership, and the new owners actually fitted the store with the interior of a different general store — and it fits nicely.
“The advantage of this store is that you can go through the history of commerce,” Snyder said. “We can talk about how for so many years, this is the way it was, and then it changed one day. The kids are really fascinated by that.”
“Of course a general store had to be the Acme, the CVS, the hardware store — truly a general store,” Waitneight added.
Across the street, there’s a barn that contains farming and tool artifacts, as well as a beautifully restored carriage. Each tool is labeled with a number, and visitors are asked to guess each item’s use. There’s a huge basket hanging from the ceiling to the right of the barn door — it’s about 5 feet long and 3 feet deep. Visitors who guess that it was used for harvest are wrong; it was an advertising tool for a basket company. Not exactly authentic to the barn, but people like it, Waitneight said.
Also of interest is a restored 200-year-old, two-and-a-half story fieldstone house. The building includes several old, locally made tall-case clocks. Sugartown purchased the home for $1 from a nearby developer and moved the house from Providence Road, essentially saving the house from being plowed over.
The house fits with the theme of Sugartown, even if it’s an import.
Snyder said Sugartown sees about 10 visitors each Sunday during the summer, most of them are Chester County residents.
Offset this in a box or different font, with kind of “at-a-glance” info about when tours are, cost and any other pertinent info -- For more information, visit www.historicsugartown.org, or call 610-640-2667.
Anchored by a replica general store, and flanked by what used to be a mansion on the right and what used to be a saddler’s shop on the left, the small village on Sugartown Road is like other villages of its era — except this one hasn’t been razed and replaced by a used car dealership or a strip mall.
Peter Waitneight is a Sugartown tour guide and the treasurer for the organization that owns and maintains the village. Most crossroads village have not remained intact, and he attributes Sugartown’s resilience to the fact that it’s nestled between routes 3 and 30, a prime location that kept the village vibrant as others disappeared.
“It’s a very typical 19th-century crossroads village, of which there were thousands in Pennsylvania, and small communities grew around those intersections of important roads at the time,” he said. “Almost all of those villages have been flattened — that’s just the nature of how things have progressed over the last 100 years or more.”
He starts the tour in the lobby, behind the general store. There, postcards hang, showing what the village originally looked like, and what it looked like prior to ownership by Historic Sugartown Inc. in 1982.
The village looks more like the former, but more tidy and crisp.
The group of buildings that now comprise Sugartown — loosely named after tavern keeper Eli Shugart — was owned by the same family for 150 years. When the last owner decided to sell, he left dilapidated buildings, but staved off McMansions and coffee shop franchises. There’s a photograph of the buildings prior to renovations. The building was in rough shape, and there was junk scattered on the property.
“The last member of the family, who lived here without running water, without electricity, and ran what he called an antique shop, decided it was time to sell,” Waitneight said.
A few of the former owner’s antiques are on display, however most of the “curiosities,” as Waitneight called them, are relegated to the basement.
Pointing to one of the postcards that depicts a dirt Sugartown Road, Waitneight said, “When elementary school students take the tour, I ask them, ‘Do your parents let you play in the streets like this?’”
He added that the 40-foot well in the lobby, dug by hand and flanked with circular rocks, is popular with the kids, as well — as it’s illuminated, so they are able to see the water (through a piece of Plexiglas, of course).
Historic Sugartown holds tours for students throughout the school year, and is offering tours every Sunday through Aug. 30 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Cheryl Snyder, with Sugartown for three years, said the general store is a big hit with the visitors, especially the antique scale and coffee grinder. The store was gutted when the Sugartown group took ownership, and the new owners actually fitted the store with the interior of a different general store — and it fits nicely.
“The advantage of this store is that you can go through the history of commerce,” Snyder said. “We can talk about how for so many years, this is the way it was, and then it changed one day. The kids are really fascinated by that.”
“Of course a general store had to be the Acme, the CVS, the hardware store — truly a general store,” Waitneight added.
Across the street, there’s a barn that contains farming and tool artifacts, as well as a beautifully restored carriage. Each tool is labeled with a number, and visitors are asked to guess each item’s use. There’s a huge basket hanging from the ceiling to the right of the barn door — it’s about 5 feet long and 3 feet deep. Visitors who guess that it was used for harvest are wrong; it was an advertising tool for a basket company. Not exactly authentic to the barn, but people like it, Waitneight said.
Also of interest is a restored 200-year-old, two-and-a-half story fieldstone house. The building includes several old, locally made tall-case clocks. Sugartown purchased the home for $1 from a nearby developer and moved the house from Providence Road, essentially saving the house from being plowed over.
The house fits with the theme of Sugartown, even if it’s an import.
Snyder said Sugartown sees about 10 visitors each Sunday during the summer, most of them are Chester County residents.
Offset this in a box or different font, with kind of “at-a-glance” info about when tours are, cost and any other pertinent info -- For more information, visit www.historicsugartown.org, or call 610-640-2667.
