Historic house
is reduced to rubble

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

For more than 200 years a fieldstone farmhouse, known as the Reuben Parry House, stood at Knights Road and Chalfont Drive in Millbrook.
It stands no more.
On April 15, construction workers demolished the 18th-century building to make way for new construction, while local historians watched its destruction.
For five days following the April 10 issue of the Times in which an article announced the building’s imminent demise, e-mails shot back and forth between members of the Center for Northeast Philadelphia History to organize and come together to document the historic building’s passing.
"One of our purposes in establishing the center was to create a network to help keep everyone informed and involved in local history matters. It really worked in this case," wrote Jack McCarthy, archivist for the Historical Society of Frankford and co-director of the CNEPH.
According to historian Bruce Conner, the photographs, documentation and artifacts will be the only reminders of its presence.
"This house, along with only several others like it in the entire Northeast area of the city, are all that is left to document the Revolutionary and Federal periods," Conner wrote as part of the e-mail updates.
The CNEPH network alerted Fred Moore, president of Holmesburg Civic Association and member of the Friends of Pennypack Park, who was able to get into the building to photograph the interior the previous Friday. He even got a photo of a note that construction workers found stuffed in a wall by a William M. Whyte, who owned the property at the time. It was dated Aug. 27, 1961.
The Whytes installed bookcases on that particular Sunday. The note also showed that a false wall and closed fireplace were opened up 1954, which had been closed up before 1905. A floor was also replaced, and a hallway was opened in 1954.
Whyte had purchased the property from his wife Ruth’s father, William T. Hulme, in 1953. The couple had one daughter, Mrs. Kathleen M. Morrison. She was born on Aug. 29, 1942.
The historians were able to capture a glimpse of that family’s life, of the people who moved through those walls and opened the door that welcomed Christmas carolers, now in ruin.
Moore was also able to photograph the building’s demise.
"The Reuben Parry House was a magnificent example of an unobtrusive, privately maintained late 18th-century fieldstone farmhouse. In close to pristine condition, it stood perfectly squared-up on its 18’ by 28’ foundation for over two centuries. It took 90 minutes to tear it down on a beautiful spring morning, Tuesday, April 15, 2008," Moore wrote in an e-mail to the CNEPH network.
Conner, a Bustleton/Somerton historian, was able to salvage the building’s 1798 date stone for some future use.
In addition to what can be learned from the building itself, Conner believes there are other lessons for those interested in the area’s history. Action is needed to preserve important landmarks.
"The loss of Eden Hall, Somerton train station, the burning of Lower Dublin Academy and the destruction of the Red Lion Inn are all fresh wounds bandaged only by plaques, photos and memories," Conner said.
As more and more of these landmarks disappear, historians are faced with saving the area’s last important landmarks and not necessarily the best landmarks. ••
To see the demolition of the Reuben Parry House, visit www.ishots.net/reubenparrydemo.wmv
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com