Thomas Newlin House
The Thomas Newlin House was built c. 1805 and sits on land part of the original 614 acres purchased by Nathaniel Newlin in 1704. Thomas Newlin was the great-grandson of the first Nathaniel Newlin and obtained 124 acres from Nathaniel III in 1766. Thomas Newlin built the present house in 1805. The Thomas Newlin House is a Georgian fieldstone farmhouse with an added Victorian crossable. A date stone was built into the third-floor peak of the house, marking the 1805 build year. The property also featured two tenant homes, a storehouse, two barns, wheelwright and blacksmith shops, and a springhouse. The farm was valued at $4,000 in the 1850 Agricultural Census. Thomas Newlin was a farmer and blacksmith by trade and operated his shop on the farm. He married Sarah Grubb, and together they had seven children. Their son John Newlin inherited the farm and was the father of prominent Concord Township Community member and local school teacher Beulah Newlin Pennington. Mrs. Pennington was a longtime supporter of the Concord Township Historical Society and gave CTHS many antique furniture, china, and photos from this home that can now be seen in our museum. This building is a private residence and is not open to the public. Concord Township Historic Resource #8
Reece Pyle House
The Reece Pyle House was built c. 1850 after John Miller sold 50 acres to Reece Pyle in 1843. The house is a stucco-over-stone farmhouse, and features two later additions built c. 1940. The house overlooks a spring and faces east. The springhouse located on the property was built much earlier, c. 1730. The land at that time was owned by Matthias Kerlin, and is associated with his ownership. Just below the springhouse on the opposite side of Featherbed Lane was a cotton factory. Reece Pyle was a farmer and merchant by trade, and is listed in 1825 as a merchant selling imported, foreign goods by the Upland Union and Delaware County Republican newspapers. Shopkeepers and merchants that sold foreign goods at this time were required to have a special license. Reece Pyle also served as the secretary of the school board in 1836, and served as part of the Concord Board of Common School Directors beginning in 1838. The house stayed within the Pyle Family until the 1890s, when Brinton J. Heyburn purchased 101 acres including the house. Brinton J. Heyburn served in the American Civil War as a private in the 124th Regiment, Company D. He served alongside many other familiar Concord family names in Harper’s Ferry, WV, and is mentioned in a collection of letters from John Palmer to his family detailing life in the army during the war. The house sold to David Mahoney in the late 1970s, who was a member of the singing pop quartet, “The Four Aces,” which was inducted int the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. Million-selling singles include “Tell Me Why,” “Three Coins in the Fountain,” “It’s No Sin,” and “Stranger in Paradise.” This house is a private residence, and not open to the public. Concord Township Historic Resource #69
John Beale – Joshua Perkins House aka “Smallbrook” or “Hillsborough”
The John Beale -Joshua Perkins House is a log and stone farmhouse built c. 1660 with later additions in 1906 and 1936. It is the oldest surviving building in Concord Township! The land (30 acres on the 200-acre Beale Grant) was purchased from the Lenni Lenape in 1652, with the papers signed with the thumbprint of the chief. Smallbrook is a 2.5-story, 3-bay single-pave log house with Swedish architectural design features. It contains a low ceiling, a corner fireplace, original hardware, glass, flooring and beams, and original enclosed winder stairs. The first map record of this property is from 1743, when the house was owned by Joshua Perkins and referred to as “Hillsborough.” Extensive restoration work was completed in 1936 by R. Brognard Okie, who was considered the dean of Pennsylvania colonial architecture and later commissioned to restore the Betsy Ross House and William Penn’s Pennsbury mansion. The house was owned by the Quigley Family from 1704 to the 1930s, then by the Sanborns, and then by the Hall Family in recent years. The Hall Family owned a Christmas tree farm on 17 acres and sold 14 of those acres to Concord Township to preserve open, green space. This house is a private residence and is not open to the public. Concord Township Historic Resource #68
No. 5 Schoolhouse
The former No. 5 Public Schoolhouse, sometimes called the McCartney School, was a one-roomed, brick school built c. 1875 along Kirk Road. The Concord Township School Board paid $530 for 1 acre of land from Samuel Myers and $2,160.50 to build the schoolhouse, according to the Concord Township School Board Minutes from 1836-1883. Lewis W. Kitzelman received the contract to build the school, and Benjamin Green built the fence along two sides of the property for $19.20. Mary Bates was the first teacher and was paid $40 a month. A local newspaper article from the 1930s detailed how the Concord Township one-roomed public schoolhouses typically served 25-40 pupils across eight grades and that the classrooms were “bright and cheerful” and had an “air of informality and hominess.” The general layout of the schools were described as having small cloakrooms upon entrance through double doors, various sizes of desks, a central stove, and a brightly painted interior. Mrs. Beaulah Newlin Pennington, a direct descendant of Nicholas Newlin and prominent member of Concord Township, was the last teacher to instruct students at the No. 5 School. She taught for close to 20 years at the No. 5 School. Mrs. Pennington noted that during the Great Depression, many of her students couldn’t afford lunches, so she made a school lunch menu for the week. She often made soup on a pot-bellied stove with donated spare goods such as potatoes, beans, and garden vegetables. The school closed in 1948, along with the other numbered schoolhouses, after the Concord School opened on Bethel Road. Mrs. Pennington was a lifelong educator and went on to teach 5th grade at the Concord School after No. 5 School’s closure, closing out 45 years as a teacher in Concord Township. The schoolhouse was converted to a private home in the 1970s. This property is a private residence, and not open to the public. Concord Township Historic Resource #51