The Joseph Cloud House is a c. 1808 stone farmhouse off of Baltimore Pike. Joseph Cloud owned 92 acres of land, and was one of the five original school directors for the Concord Township public school system. Joseph willed the house and property to his son James Cloud in 1838 who lived there through 1850. James farmed 82 acres of the land, and the farm was valued at $10,000 in 1850.
The property passed to the Styer family in the 1870s. The Styers are noted for introducing mushroom culture in the U.S., and are renowned for their nursery business. The Styers are also credited with the popularization of peonies in the area. Jacob Styer established a nursery in 1890. His son, Dr. J. Franklin Styer, took over the business in 1924 after the death of his father. J. Franklin Styer received a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in mycology and mushroom culture. He went on to work with Wyeth Laboratories on their penicillin production in the 1940s, served as president of the Pennsylvania Nurserymen’s Association, was a founding member of the American Horticulture Society, the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, and the National Landscape Nursery Association. Dr. J. Franklin Styer was also the founder of the Concord Business and Professional Organization and a founding member of the Delaware County Conservation Board. He was a professor at the Pennsylvania State University, and dedicated a scholarship program to peony research.
This property is now part of the Terrain nursery and restaurant, and is open to the public.
Concord Township Historic Resource #157
