Sketch Plan Envisions Garden Apartments At Goodnoe Farmstead In Newtown

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — A Newtown Township businessman is proposing to redevelop the Goodnoe family homestead at North Sycamore Street and Silo Drive with two four-story garden apartment buildings.

According to sketch plans submitted to the township by Jim Worthington on August 7, the two new garden apartment buildings would be built in an "L-shape" with one building fronting on North Sycamore Street and the other located in an east-west direction along the southern edge of the Goodnoe property.

The buildings would house 73 new residential units, including 28 one-bedroom and 45 two-bedroom apartments with some retail space on the first floor of Building One on Sycamore Street.

The project is proposing 111,509 square feet of new construction, including 88,074 square feet of new living space, 7,000 square feet of new retail space, and a ground-level parking garage in Building Two.

The plan envisions saving the historic Goodnoe family farmhouse and using it as a common area for the development. The plan would also save the farm's silo, a symbol of the farm's historic importance to the community.

The sketch plan shows the proposed new buildings, one facing North Sycamore Street and one facing Silo Drive. Building Two would house parking at ground level and apartments on the upper three floors. This also depicts the preserved Goodnoe family home and silo.

The Goodnoe Family Home on North Sycamore Street at Silo Drive. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

The plan provides for 129 parking spaces - 84 surface spaces off of Silo Drive and 45 garage parking spaces housed on the first floor of Building Two.

Worthington, who owns the Newtown Athletic Club, redeveloped the former ACME site on North Sycamore Street with the Promenade, a mixed-use retail and residential building that houses Anthropologie, Bernie Robbins Jewelers, La Stalla Market, BikeWorks, and a Verizon store.

According to information posted by Supervisor John Mack, the plan proposes uses that are allowed in the Town Commercial District and would maintain or reduce existing non-conformities.

The plan would require zoning variances for front yard setback, building height, units per building, maximum building length, parking requirements, and mixed-use floor area ratio.

According to a brief history of the property compiled by the Newtown Historic Association, in 1918 John Goodnoe purchased the 78 acre farm located at 258 North Sycamore Street and started delivering produce grown at the farm. In 1920, John and his wife Mabel established the Goodnoe Farm Dairy and began delivering fresh milk, eggs, butter and cream until the 1960s.

Several buildings on the Goodnoe property would be torn down to make way for the redevelopment project, including this one fronting on Silo Drive. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

In 1955, Raymond Goodnoe and his wife, Lorraine, took over the farm and tripled the volume of milk previously being sold, according to the Newtown historians. He later added a plant for pasteurizing and homogenizing the milk, which later became the plant where they made more than 38 flavors of their own Goodnoe ice cream.

In 1965, Raymond Goodnoe relocated the Toll House (today the building houses Nina's Waffles) and established the Goodnoe Farm Dairy Bar restaurant at the corner of Route 413 and 532. Over the years, the dairy bar grew into a family restaurant known for its food and ice cream. The restaurant, known for its homemade soups, home-style cooking, and ice cream, became a beloved local landmark and a favorite place to eat.

Raymond Jr. "Skip" continued the tradition of homemade food and ice cream from 1973 until the landmark closed in 2006. The site has since been redeveloped as Goodnoe Corner.