| West Chester's Everhart Park: Copyright by Jim Jones, Ph.D. (West
Chester, August 2004).
| |
|
| West Chester's Everhart Park: Copyright by Jim Jones, Ph.D. (West
Chester, August 2004).
| |
| The Borough of West
Chester has an extensive system of public parks and an award-
winning recreation program to administer the system. One of
Borough's most beautiful parks is Everhart Park, located on the
west side of town south of Miner Street between Brandywine Street
and Bradford Avenue. Everhart Grove became West Chester's second
public park in November 1905.
|  | |
| The land that became
Everhart Park lies in a region of underground springs and surface
creeks that feed a tributary of the Brandywine Creek.(1) When Europeans first settled
the
area, it became part of Emmor Trego's claim,(2) but he sold it to John Rankin
in
1790(3) and Rankin sold it to
William Wollerton in 1808.(4)
Wollerton offered his farm for sale several times, but was
unsuccessful until 1828 when local businessman William S.
Everhart purchased 102 acres located south of Gay Street and west
of High Street.(5)
Everhart's accomplishments deserve an article of their own. He built more than one hundred buildings in West Chester including its most fashionable hotel, a very successful dry goods store and its first permanent farmers market. He also laid out Market Street, as well as four residential streets named after his friends Isaac Wayne, General Barnard, Charles Miner, and Dr. William Darlington.(6) For forty years, Everhart Grove remained undeveloped at the western edge of Everhart's land: too steep, too swampy and too far from the center of town to warrant investment. A farmer named John Wright lived there in 1857,(7) and George W. Sharpless built a wheelwright and paint shop in the northwestern corner in 1877,(8) but Everhart made the only substantial investment, a twenty-five bedroom resort hotel on the north side of what later became Miner Street.(9) |  Everhart Grove at the beginning of the last century [From an early postcard, courtesy of Robert Sheller] | |
| After Everhart died, his estate passed into the hands of his children -- three brothers and two sisters -- who managed it without adding to it (other than a fountain which is described below). One by one, they passed away and in January 1904, Benjamin M. Everhart inherited everything from his sister Mary. (10) When Benjamin succumbed less than nine months later, his will divided the estate among several dozen recipients and left the largest part, including Everhart Grove, to a cousin named Isaiah (also spelled Isiah in some sources) from Scranton.(11) |  The Grove Hotel (605 W. Miner St.) is now an apartment building. Photo by Jim Jones | |
| Isaiah was the youngest son of William's brother James Everhart Jr. Raised in Berks County, he studied science at Franklin & Marshall College and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After serving with the Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War, he settled in Scranton near his father's coal mines.(12) By the time cousin Benjamin died in 1904, Isaiah was a wealthy retired businessman and a widower (since 1898) who was estranged from his only child Edwin.(13) He became devoted to collecting Pennsylvania flora and fauna and started thinking about housing it all in a museum.(14) | ||
| Benjamin's will gave Isaiah the means to fulfill his dream. It distributed 52 properties to long-time tenants, servants and friends, and gave Isaiah the rest -- 76 properties worth more than $185,000.(15) Within less than six months, Isaiah rewrote his will to set aside $40,000 for the museum and $100,000 for its endowment.(16) | ||
| West Chester property investors were aware of the museum plan and fearful that Isaiah might try to finance it by liquidating the estate all at once. Isaiah offered reassurances through his West Chester lawyer, John J. Gheen, and the Daily Local News noted "This relieves the feeling of anxiety indulged by some that there might be a sale of a large amount of real estate, thus disturbing values and unsettling some business enterprises."(17) Instead, Isaiah allowed Gheen to sell them off slowly, and was evidently pleased with the results. On December 16, 1904, he complimented Gheen on his sale of 128 E. Chestnut Street and joked that he should abandon his law practice and go into real estate.(18) He gave Gheen complete authority to dispose of the rest of the properties, and within less than a year, began asking Gheen for nothing more than an accounting of properties and their sales prices by mail.(19) | ||