The Joseph Walter House sits on present-day Tory Hill Farm in the Ivy Mills Historic Village, and was constructed c.1840 for Quaker farmer Joseph Walter (1813-1894). The house was built on a land grant of 300 acres that was deeded to George Stroud in 1683, after which Godwin Walter purchased 100 acres in 1686 and built a small home on the western portion of the land. Joseph Walter was Godwin’s great-grandson, and purchased 50 acres of land from his father, Nathaniel, on the eastern side of the tract in 1822. A frame wing rear addition to the farm house was added in 1860.
Mr. Walter lived in the farmhouse with his wife, Jane Hannum Walter (1817-1884), after their marriage in 1839. They had four children: Emma Jane, Anna Ellen, William, and Henry Clay (who married Mary Trimble Sharpless in 1869 in a ceremony performed by the Philadelphia mayor!). The Walter House also housed Joseph’s mother, Susanna Walter, and two boarders: Thomas Broomall and Rachel Cotton, who were both 17 year-old indentured laborers.
The property was an active farm known as “Idro Farm,” and had 35 out of 50 acres under cultivation in 1850. Crops such as hay, corn oats, wheat, and potatoes were grown, with livestock such as horses, oxen , swine, cattle, and dairy cows raised.
The property remained in the Walter family until 1979, when it was purchased by the Mark Willcox Family. Today, Dugan Equine operates a riding school on the farm.
Historic Resource #138
