Beginning of an End for Sleighton (5/4/13)(7/26/13)(4/9/14)

On Thursday, 5/2/13, I attended a public dual township meeting for both Middletown and Edgmont. This meeting was about the proposed Sleighton development by the Toll Brothers. To start, I was unable to copy and past the image but the plan is viewable here. Here's also a link for the official minutes from the meeting. I will also paste the description of the meeting from Edgmont's website which the plan is also on:

  Representatives from Elwyn and Sleighton Inc. hosted a special public meeting at the Penn State Brandywine Campus for Edgmont and Middletown Township residents and other interested parties to unveil the conceptual site plan which includes a proposal for 116 Single Family Homes and 19 Carriage Homes in Edgmont, and 125 Single Family Homes and 156 Carriage Homes in Middletown. The current project total is 397 proposed homes. 

  
Since I was at this meeting all this information is legit, it's not based on speculation or rumors, and if I say something that is I will state that. I will also update this blog when something new happens. Anyway, at this meeting there was a representative from Sleighton Inc. (who mostly talked), a representative from Elwyn, a few representatives from each township, and two representatives from the Toll Brothers.

Sleighton is currently in a certain kind of sale (forget what it's called) where if this plan goes through the property will automatically be sold to the Toll Brothers who presented this plan. 116 acres of land which is mostly the corn fields is part of an agricultural protection pact, and this can't be built on. Other than that most of the property will have the 400 homes, and EVERY SINGLE BUILDING WILL BE DEMOLISHED EXCEPT THE CHAPEL. They are claimed to be "unsuitable" for any other use.  This likely means the huge trues are all going to be removed too. They said the stone will be used for "monuments" on the property which sounds like a joke. The Edgmont side is under R-4 Zoning and the Middletown side is under some zoning that requires on schools or retirement homes, which by the way these are all age restricted units. 

Now from what I understood the Toll Brothers pay more money for the more homes they are able to build. It helps explain the density, which is around 2.5 houses an acre. Now Elwyn invested money in Sleighton in 1998 which I assume was loans and the Program failed in 2001 so Sleighton was shut down. Now I may be wrong on a few details here, but Sleighton Inc. owes back Elwyn an amount of money, which they refused to tell us that amount. This is all speculation but this sounds like the only reason why they're building this this development so dense, so they can pay this money back. It makes sense also because if they build mansions with bigger lots, the project would still make just as much money (not saying I want this either) A gentleman in the crowd stated that when he makes a bad investment he doesn't ask the township to bail him out. His whole comment got a clapping audience and shut up the Sleighton Inc. representative for a few moments. They are also running sewer and public water starting at Lenni, going behind the Franklin Mint, and going up Valley Road. 

Now some issues that effect the community around Sleighton is traffic issues and the high density. Sleighton is on all back roads which have one lane portions, have sharp turns, and are narrow. These roads already face traffic issues, and the main roads like Middletown Road and Baltimore Pike already face major traffic issues too. This project will add at least 400 cars to these small roads and main roads. The Township of Edgmont is also known to be a low density community, and this project hurts that status.

I highly recommend to everyone interested in this issue to go to the next public meeting, there's supposed to be more. This one was highly informative and people were allowed to ask questions and speak out against this. You can either keep an eye out for the next one or subscribe to be notified on Edgmont's website.

Sadly this plan is likely to go through because the Toll Brothers have a lot of money and money=power these days. If this were to go through, it's expected to start in 3-5 years. This project is going to destroy many historic building which cannot be replaced, and create many problems with a high density development. If you want my opinion, I would reuse all these buildings and make a little mini town type community there. As I said, I will add anything new to this and date that information, please feel free to leave comments. If you want to email me personally, I prefer to be emailed through mikedaman758@yahoo.com. Trust me, I'm happy to help or inform you.

7/26/13 update:
I attended another public meeting that involved Sleighton. The topic for this one was an environmental issue. It turned out that the issue is that they found over the legal limit of lead arsenate in the soil, which can cause cancer. Lead arsenate was a popular pesticide for orchards beginning in the late 1800s. It was used up the 70s I believe when it was banned do to obvious health problems. Sleighton used to have orchards so that's why the lead arsenate is in the soil.

What's going to happen now? It doesn't intimidate the Toll Brothers unfortunately, they've dealt with it before. In areas that they develop they must either remove the soil or bring down the levels of arsenic. In areas that won't be highly used, they will likely have to do nothing. The sad thing is that more trees will have to be removed.

Locals should be concerned too. I talked to someone who researched this and the arsenic can become airborne and can go into ground water from the removal process. They will either rotor till soil from under to bring down the levels or remove the soil, heap it up, and cap it off somewhere on the property, which can potentially cause runoff. The township is going to have a geologist look into it, but for now, this is one more reason why this development shouldn't happen.

Again, feel free to comment or email me at mikedaman758@yahoo.com.

4/9/14 Update:
Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I have had any activity on my blog! Quite honestly I have sort of fell off the Sleighton train a bit, although I've been still following closely. There have't been any updates that I know of about the actual plan, and besides a small community Q and A that I was unable to attend the other night, there haven't been any meetings either.

The only thing new that happened in this time period really was the fire of the Washington Cottage, which completely destroyed it. I will make another post more specifically about this incidence on my blog, so keep an eye out for that. Anyway, in a nutshell for now, Washington Hall  burned down on Saturday, March 29. Whatever remained was immediately demolished, so nothing is left of it. This was certainly set by someone, whether it was intentional or not, because there's no electrical or gas hooked up, and there was no lightning that night. Plus what else would you expect for a Friday night?

This may end up speeding the progress if the Sleighton demolition, but I can't be certain on that. It may have been answered in the small Q and A session I made mention of. It wouldn't surprise me though. In the rumor mill, again RUMOR, apparently people in the local community are making a big push to get this school demolished. It wouldn't surprise me if this was true, because people complain about everything. In reality, there is a lot of crime that takes place here, two buildings burned down, and this place is becoming a bit of an eyesore. In reality though, people should be complaining to Elwyn to add security and maintain the property better which would solve these issues. They should be better at this. Sure, if you demolish the buildings, it may solve the issues, but worse issues would follow though. Along with the loss of irreplaceable history and farmland, you would also have
construction noise, unsightly equipment and debris, and maybe some traffic issues. After that, you
would have a few more years of construction, and eventually 397 crappy homes and traffic problems. Crime issues vs. that? I'd choose crime, which can be limited if Elwyn took better responsibility.

I'm considering forming a group that will focus on conserving more buildings, because I feel there's a lack of effort in that right now. We can trash Elwyn and the Toll Brothers all we want online, but I doubt they even see that or care if they do. We actually have to make an effort, and I would need help so if someone's down for that, contact me. Even if we save one more building, we did do something. And again, keep an eye out for my next upcoming post.

Sleighton Update 11/5/12

In case you never noticed, my blog has become more of a Sleighton School blog. That was my original intention of this blog anyway so it doesn't bother me. I was going to travel more and find more places, but I just never got the time, but Sleighton is magnificent enough and I live right down the street from it.

The major changes from my last post is that Sleighton is now sold, $11 million, to a company I know nothing about. The school from formally owned by Elwyn but it was sold for $11 million about a month ago to an owner I don't even know the name of. This new ownership can either be good or bad, but I am blank on their intentions. If anyone has any info on that, please please please leave a comment.

One other change is that the new owners are actually doing some work. I haven't been to Sleighton in a very long time because of the rise in police patrol on it. I plan to return soon. Anyway, the new owners cut some brush near the main building and are boarding up windows and openings where people can get in. The new boards can be seen from the road. Apparently people are ripping down these new boards and still getting in. If you were wondering why they put up boards, it's not to protect the buildings, it's to keep people out of the buildings so they don't sue whoever owns the property. People going here has been out of control, and sadly majority of people go there to break stuff. There also has still been no efforts to protect the buildings and who knows if there will ever be, Sleighton will probably end up being demolished sadly because these buildings would be far to expensive to repair. The thing I'm hoping is that they will save a bunch, like the church (which I just learned was built in the 60's, about 50 years after the other buildings), the J.S. Building (pictured above), and hopefully others.

If anything happens to Sleighton, don't expect it to be soon. The Franklin Mint property has historic buildings awaiting demolition and woods to be cut down, and a development to put in. This plan was first proposed in 2006 and still hasn't gone anywhere. There are no talks of anything at Sleighton yet, it lies on two townships, and the Franklin Mint project would likely happen first so it would not surprise me if it takes 5-10 years for something to happen. Now that really does no good except for letting me and others experience the beautiful property more and not having a stupid ugly development there, and of coarse still having a place for clowns to break stuff. There's almost no chance most these buildings will be saved unless I hit the lottery, but we can at least hope for some or at least half to be saved. Other good news is that 120 acres is protected farm land, which is almost half the property. This farm land never ever closed, it's been an active farm.

That's all I got for today. Here are some pics to close things out, and please comment if you have any updates, comments, or any other info, I would really appreciate it. And you can comment anonymously too.

                       Barn, still in use today but not the main barn anymore.

                   These were the "bad kids" in early 1900's, still happier and nicer than 90 percent of today's teens, and notice there's no grinding or dirty dancing either, what happened to America?

                                                Lucrettia Mott Cottage 1910

       Campbell Cottage 1946, this is what most the cottages look like.

                         Again, it's rare to see a teen these days doing work like this, and being this happy.

                  Sunken Gardens pics from different years, makes a gardener like me jealous.

Again, if you have any info, updates, or comments please comment, anyone can comment anonymously.

 Check out my newest post on the development plan:  http://unknowhistoricsites.blogspot.com/2013/05/beginning-of-end-for-sleighton-5413.html

Sleighton Farm School Follow Up

I am making this as a follow up about my last post about Sleighton. If you read this you gotta read the first one too. This ha some updated information and some of it is important. I'm debating on whether I should edit the other one but right now I'm not.

The only two things that changed from the last post to now is the fire of the Martha P. Falcolner School House, which I will discuss, and I also don't recommend you just wander around Sleighton like I said in the last post. The idea was that if people who have the intention to explore rather than vandalize or steal copper, it would keep the copper strippers and Vandals away. The State Police now patrol there and have been doing a good job, catching a few copper strippers. If they catch you wandering around you may get in trouble, so although it's definetely a great place to check out, enter at your own risk.

Martha P. Falcolner School House Fire

This was one of my favorite buildings, being one of the stand out ones. When I first walked in here it must have been right after copper strippers broke in, the interior was in decent shape and the door I came in from was ripped right out of the wall. It was cool because it was like I walked right into 2002. All the lights still worked, desk were still lined up, student work was hanging on the walls. Not to mention also this had beautiful wood work inside. In fact, the woodwork was spectacular. Two weeks after my first visit not surprisingly the building was heavily vandalized. A few weeks after that the building burned down from an electrical fire. The fire company said lightning but it was definitely electrical. You got a steeple 100 yards to the left and a water tower 100 yards to the right, and it hits this building? Not to mention the power room in the basement made all kinds of weird noises and people left lights on that weren't used in ten year (I made sure they were all off after each time I left).

                                          Everything to the left is gone and that tree was cut down

                                           The library survived but doesn't look like this anymore

                                            This part of the building still exist

                                               This is all gone now, sadly

                                              This doesn't exist anymore either


Fortunately the church is still around and in better shape than the rest of the building, this is a truly spectacular building as well. Every piece of copper in the church was stolen, who ever did that better hope they don't go to hell. It's my dream to open this up and make it a public church.

                                            Exterior of church. Still looks the same today

                                         Side view, beside boarded windows and some plants not much changed

                                 Interior, a little messier now but still the same and in decent shape

This a picture I took. This is in the front of the church and the only light on in the whole building was above Jesus.

                  Let's not forget the John Sargent Building, not much change about that besides landscaping, and this building is nice inside with huge hallways.

Main street, the trees are much larger but still here. On this property there are many huge full grown trees which look really nice. There is a huge sycamore that I really liked.

The sunken gardens. Almost non existent today but was a true beauty back in the day.



 So far things still aren't looking too good. The school is still in restorable condition in my opinion and right now there are no development plans I know of which is good. The school is still owned by Elwyn Inc. and Sleighton Inc. and is for sale for $14 million. This is my dream property so I would buy it if I had that money. I got permission to share the photos on here. I want to thank Chuck who I have a link to more pictures on my other blog post, and Sleighton Farm Views, a facebook page which I have a link to on my other blog post as well. There is so much more to this school than what I have posted so you have to check out these other photos. Feel free to comment here, it's open to everybody.

Check out my newest post on the development plan:  http://unknowhistoricsites.blogspot.com/2013/05/beginning-of-end-for-sleighton-5413.html

Sleighton Farms School

        I want to talk about a historic sight that me and many others treasure. This school has been closed down for about ten years and is currently for sale at $14 million. This is located on Valley Road in both Edgmont and Middletown townships. I myself am a huge fan of this. This campus contains beautiful historic buildings buildings with amazing architecture and many beautiful trees and plants. If you are into any of that, this place contains it all. This can be visited by pretty much anybody, but please don't vandalize the place, which many others already do.
        Sleighton School originally opened in 1910, relieving the House of Refuge. This was designed as a community and school for troubled girls, to help change their lives around. Most the land was donated to make this school possible. This was also a farm school so many girls did farm related things and got an education there. I'm not quite sure how anything changed from then on to the closing, but I know it became co-ed in 1985. The school eventually closed in 2001, due to financial reasons. I believe Elwyn managed the school beginning somewhere in the 90's. I know the school is up for sale now for $14 million, but I'm not sure what the plans are for it yet if there even are any.
      Now here I go with the reason I created this blog. I want people to know about what I call a historic landmark. For people like me who love historic buildings and nature, you really need to go here. There really is no law enforcement or security that I know of, so anybody can come here anytime pretty much. Just I recommend you stay out of buildings and all that because they are dangerous. Remember too that vandalism is a crime. This is great for people of all ages too, just as long as you don't attend to vandalize. And I believe that if more adults with good intentions go, the vandalism will stay away.
      Let me talk about the condition of these buildings. Right now, the school is in restorable condition. Most of these buildings look great from the outside at least. These were made to last. Many of these are stone buildings, and whoever built these did an amazing job. The problem is, more and more kids are going and not all, but most of them are destroying these buildings. There are also copper strippers who are doing there share of the damage. Then of course you got mother nature, doing her share. Vines damage the exteriors and humidity/temperature changes damage the interiors. There is also some water damage. That's why I wish they did a better job keeping this place up.
       Now what happens to the place now? To be honest, I hope something happens soon before these buildings fall beyond repair. My biggest fear though, and something likely, is that some developer will buy this, cut down all the trees, level the buildings, and build houses. I'm doing everything i could to help eliminate that possibility, which this blog is one of them, awareness. Maybe someone will see this blog and decide to buy this place and restore it. If anybody wants to help save this place or have any ideas on how, I would be happy to hear. Time is running out for Sleighton. Remember that once these buildings are gone, they're gone forever. You can't bring architects back from the dead.
       My dream for this place is to first of all, have the property cleaned up and have every building restored, to look the way they used to. Then I would like to see it become a school again, or even just a community for troubled youths, or for everybody. Restoring these wouldn't be a ridiculous price either. Between the potential volunteers, land grants, and donations, the cost wouldn't be as steep as some may think. Remember too the structure of these buildings are in great shape. My biggest dream is just for this to be saved, these buildings are too beautiful to be destroyed. 
     Now like I said, I'm really into to this stuff so if somebody has stories or anything, share. And if you want to help spread awareness, share my blog. There is also a wonderful facebook page called Sleighton Farms Views , dedicated to the same thing as this. And also, if you want to help save it too, go do what you want to do or contact me about it. If you want to email me, it's michael8dan5@yahoo.com.

       You have to check this out yourself to get the full experience, but here's some pictures courtesy of Sleighton Farms Views. There are many more and they're still coming. Also, check out Chuck Van Horn's facebook for historic images.

Check out my newest post on the development plan:  http://unknowhistoricsites.blogspot.com/2013/05/beginning-of-end-for-sleighton-5413.html
                                                               Chapel

 

                                                    Original Farm House, the oldest building.

                                                      Falconer School House, trashed by vandalism, a shame.

                                        Sundial in sunken gardens, i was unable to find this myself.

                                          Powerhouse for water tower, located under it.

                                                           Green House

      

Here are just a few historic ones. Check out Chuck Van Horn's facebook for about 100 more!

There's a new follow up post here: http://unknowhistoricsites.blogspot.com/2012/08/sleighton-farm-school-follow-up.html  for anyone interested.

11/5/12 Check out my new post for more pics and info:  http://unknowhistoricsites.blogspot.com/2012/11/sleighton-update-11512_5.html