Historical Photos Location Revealed

As many readers guessed, the are located near East Whiteland's border with Charlestown, at the corner of Spring Valley Road and Conestoga Road (Route 401).

The photos, taken in 1979, are of 547 Conestoga Road and 45 Spring Valley Road. According to Tim Caban, of the East Whiteland Historical Commission:

The first picture is of what is called the Mendenhall House and it is not original to that site. It was moved there in 1973. The second is called the Lapp Log House and is more recently referred to as Hopper House for Margaret Hopper who donated the house to the Chester County Historical Society. In 1973, just after Margaret Hopper donated the house, there was an effort made to use it as a Museum.

Caban dug up a 1973 Suburban and Wayne Times newspaper article that references Project 1776, a state-funded endeavor in which 25 grade-schoolers visited the Hopper House to learn what life was like in Colonial times. 

The hopper house was built  by Benjamin Jenkins.  The medenhall house is questionable as far as being built in 1695. The hopper house was built in 1840-41 by Benjamin Jenkins who bought the land from his employer. Jenkins also bought the wood, windows and door from his employer that he used to build the house. It was not uncommon for log houses to be deconstructed and moved.

Both buildings are still standing, and they were connected to each other during renovations in 2002.

Among the correct answers this week:

was the first to chime in, correctly identifying the intersection:

It looks like that old house on the hill of Conestoga Road (401, East Whiteland) just before Spring Valley Road.

was the first to identify one of the buildings by name:

Is that the Lapp Log House?

, and also knew the crossroads.

knew it from personal experience:

Yep, I am sure it must be the house at the point between 401 and Spring Valley, I used to babysit the family that lived there before the historical society sold the building.

And was able to lend some firefighting history:

Spring Valley Rd @ Conestoga Rd, Lapp Log House, Historic Landmark. Save by Fire Dept in the 90's during tanker truck fire.