Okehocking Historic District

Okehocking Historic District

House in the Okehocking Historic District, December 2010
Location Roughly bounded by West Chester Pike, Plumsock Road, Goshen Road, and Garrett Mill Road, near Media, Willistown Township, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 39°58′35″N 75°30′30″W / 39.97639°N 75.50833°W / 39.97639; -75.50833Coordinates: 39°58′35″N 75°30′30″W / 39.97639°N 75.50833°W / 39.97639; -75.50833
Area 1,400 acres (570 ha)
Built 1703
Architectural style Colonial Revival
NRHP Reference # 93000719[1]
Added to NRHP August 2, 1993

Okehocking Historic District, also known as the Okehocking Indian Land Grant Historic District, is a national historic district located in Willistown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It encompasses 69 contributing buildings, 5 contributing sites, 2 contributing structures, and 1 contributing object in a rural area near Media. A majority of the buildings were built before 1845. It includes a collection of 18th and 19th century farmhouses and related outbuildings located on an 18th-century Indian Land Grant by William Penn to the Okehocking band of Lenape (Delaware) Indians in 1703. Notable contributing assets include a Willistown Friends Meetinghouse and its burial ground, a one-room school known as the Willistown School No. 6, a former inn known as the Rising Sun Tavern, the vacated Smedley Mill, and three mill sites, the Garrett Mill, Duckett Mill, and George Matlack's sawmill.[2]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.[1]

Willistown Friends Meeting House

Willistown Friends Meeting House, located near the northeast corner of the district at the intersection of Goshen Road and Warren Avenue, was built in 1798. The earliest European settlers in the area were Quakers who attended meetings for worship at Goshen or Middletown. In 1753 Francis and Ann Smedley donated a small plot of land on Plumsock Road to build a school, which was torn down in 1873. After Francis's death, Ann Smedley donated adjacent land for a burial ground and the meeting house.[2] The meeting now owns about 25 acres around the meeting house to protect the rural character of the site. Membership in the meeting had decreased to about five families in the 1950s, but as of 1998 membership had risen to 99 families.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). ARCH: Pennsylvania's Historic Architecture & Archaeology. Retrieved 2012-11-02. Note: This includes Jane E. Dorchester (March 1993). "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Okehocking Historic District" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-11-05.
  3. ↑ Galloway, Angela (October 2, 1998). "Quakers To Celebrate 200 Years At Location The Willistown Meetinghouse Will Be The Scene Of A Variety Of Festivities Tomorrow.". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philly.com. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
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