Pocopson Township Historic Committee

Minutes from Meeting of January 9, 2008           7:30 PM

 

Attendees:

Pat Burnett                               Jean Conary

Mary Beth Drobish                   Kris Firey-Poling

Alta Hoffman                            Sarah Mims

 

Founders Day – Jean will be attending the Founders Day meeting for the Committee.  She will let us know the date of the 2008 Founders Day and will ask the Committee if a House Tour is still acceptable.

 

House Tour – Our current proposal is to do the tour from 3-5 on Founder Days.  Parking will be in the Park.  All properties would be walkable from the park with limited parking on the sites  Possible sites were discussed.

 

Follow-Up Items:

  • Sarah and Mary Beth will speak with owners. 
  • Next meeting, everyone needs to bring 5-10 names of volunteers so we can judge how much we can take on.

 

Flea Market/Appraisal Fair – Additional fundraising ideas were either a flea market or an appraisal fair for the spring.  For a flea market, we could sell tables, but it would be difficult to attract quality merchants and expensive to advertise.  We would probably get more response from an appraisal fair, for which we would charge ($10?) for tickets.  .

 

Follow-Up Items

  • Two options to consider.
  • Sarah also will look into using the BVA barn for the event, the 2nd Wednesday in May.

 

School House

 

Fundraising  - We received a $7,500 grant from the Fair Play foundation and a $126,000 grant from the state to reimburse the Township for the purchase of the schoolhouse. We also received private donations of $1000 and $35.  We are now maintaining a list of donors.  Donors are receiving thank you letters from the Supervisors.

 

Windows – Window repair job should begin soon.

 

Next project – It was decided that our next expenditure should be a new front door.  Pat has pictures that she can share.  We decided on a building a door rather than trying to find an old one.  The door should be solid, but we will be painting the door, so we can use a lesser quality of wood.  Pat and Sarah will seek estimates.

 

Chairs – The school desks need to be picked up and moved.  Sarah will arrange a date and time.

 

Written History – Sarah and Peggy C. have been working with Arcadia on the scanning specifications for an Arcadia book.  In addition, Sarah found an internet publishing site with no upfront publishing costs.  The publisher will take approx $4 from each book sold but they will only print books sold.   We can buy a few books and have them available for events.  In addition, the books can be sold on Amazon.com through this publisher.  Kris will e-mail the current draft history and we will see how quickly we can get something published.

 

Oral History – Mary Beth is trying to arrange for two interviews.  Alta offered a few suggestions  Does Doug still have half of Alta’s oral history to give to us?

 

List of Historical Resources – Kris has organized the materials into folders by address and date.  She will be preparing her recommendations as to which properties still need surveys.  We are going to focus on older properties first.  We currently have 107 out of 197 properties with surveys.

 

Historic Preservation Easement – The Open Space Committee has requested that we help developed a historic preservation easement for the facade of the Cousins house.  Sarah will be working on developing that documentation.  Mary Beth suggested using the Chester County Preservation Network as a resource.

 

The diary/photos from a resident.  Pat will develop the slides into photos and put the materials in our collection.

 

Chester County Walking Tour – Kris and Alta will be attending a seminar on walking tours offered by the Chester County Parks and Recreation Department on Feb 9.

 

Cemetery – Pat visited the Wilmington Historical Society to research the AME cemetery on Denton Hollow.  She discovered that the land was purchased in 1827 by the Wilmington AME church.  The church was called the Pennsbury-Pocopson AME church.  There was a division in the AME church regarding leadership.  We are unsure how this affected the church. Pat will continue to research via a professor at Swarthmore and a surviving Wilmington AME church.

 

 

_______________________________________

Sarah B. Mims

Chair