Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: April 1989 Volume 27 Number 2, Page 77

Two Property Sales in 1833

Barbara Fry

Page 77

In 1833 two properties in Easttown township were sold at public sale. The two tracts of land contained much of what is now Berwyn.

The first was the "Gamble" property, some 26 acres, the property of the late James Gamble, deceased. The property was broken down into three tracts, and sold on March 12, 1833 at a sheriff's sale "By virtue of a writ of Venditione Exponas". A notice of the sale, published in the American Republican on February 19th, is reproduced on the adjoining page. Tract No. 1 was later purchased by a Samuel White and, upon his death, was subsequently bought by Thomas Jefferson Aiken in 1870. This ten-acre section extended from Waterloo Avenue to the present Bridge Street, on the south side of the Lancaster Turnpike.

The other property, "well-known by the name of the Spring House Inn" (and sometimes called the "Peggy Dane" property) was sold at public sale seven months later, on November 29, 1833. A notice of this sale, from the November 5th issue of the American Republican, with a description of the 9.7 3/4-acre property and its appurtenances, is also reproduced, somewhat reduced in size. It was located on the north side of the Turnpike, at the eastern end of the present Berwyn. It later was a part of the holdings of the Reverend James McLeod, who also purchased land on the south side of the Turnpike. As noted in the April issue of the Quarterly last year [Vol. XXVI, No.2], McLeod's property eventually extended both along the north side of the Turnpike and on the south side, from the present Lakeside Avenue to Waterloo Avenue. He later laid out both Church [now Main] Avenue and Berwyn Avenue through his land.