Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: April 2000 Volume 38 Number 2, Pages 59–62

The Company House at Devault

Howard R. Housworth Jr.

Page 59

My father worked for the Warner Company (a stone and lime plant) and rented one of six cubical concrete houses owned by the company at Devault, where I lived for my first twenty-five years. The houses were solid, made of poured concrete, and identical in design. The same forms were likely used to make all six houses. [The use of poured concrete to construct company houses is not unique to the Warner Company at Devault. Such houses were also built in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania to house mine workers as early as 1911. See Pennsylvania Heritage, Vol XXIII, No. 3, Summer 1997.]

The house had a living room, dining room, kitchen and a small screened-in porch which was eventually closed in completely. It had three bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. Heating was provided by a hot air pipeless heater with a three-foot square outlet located in the living room floor at the base of the stairs to the second floor. Hopefully some heat would find its way upstairs to the bedrooms. Hot air came up the center of the register, and cool air returned at the corners.

With solid concrete, plastered interior, and no insulation at all, the house was cool in summer and adequate in winter -but never too warm, especially on the second floor. The furnace was fired by anthracite coal, with a bin in one corner of the basement. During the winter my father ran a hot water pipe through the fire box of the heater to increase our supply of hot water. The hot water tank (uninsulated) was in the bathroom, but the hope that it would heat the room met with only slight success.

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The best place to get dressed on a cold winter morning was over the hot air register. It was also a fine place to dry wet boots, gloves and a small laundry. Mother would never let me add coal to the furnace, as she feared my lack of expertise might release coal gas fumes. However, I did remove the ashes and carry them to the garden, where I sifted out the unburned coal which was, of course, returned to the coal bin.

The living room was small, as mentioned, and it contained a sofa and I believe three chairs. There was a table, usually full of indoor plants and flowers, as well as some on the narrow window sill. My father was not too sorrowful when a flower was accidentally knocked to the floor, as living space was crowded.

The dining room contained a table and buffet and, of course, the necessary chairs. When mother entertained, each guest had to approach the table in order as there was no room for rearranging once seated. I think she could get a maximum of ten guests around the table, which was a great accomplishment.

The kitchen was a modified "L," with cabinets and countertop opposite the sink creating a narrow passage for one person to pass. There was a larger area where the stove, refrigerator and small kitchen table were located. The first kitchen stove I remember was the usual coal or wood­fired range. I don't remember when it was replaced with a kerosene cook stove, which was eventually replaced with a modern gas (bottled) range. It was 1938 when we got our first electric refrigerator, a "Coldspot" from Sears, so I remember the ice man delivering blocks of ice. We also had bread and milk delivered regularly. When we had the ice box we also had a window cooler that fit into the open window during the winter season.

My favorite space was the basement where my father and I worked in our workshop. My father bought me a wood lathe at Montgomery Ward in West Chester that I still have, and it works well. I also had a desk where I constructed model airplanes. During the Christmas season I had a model railroad in the basement.

There were three bedrooms upstairs, two of which were on the west side of the house. My room was on the northeast corner, and the bathroom was on the southeast corner. The stairway was on the east side separating my room from the bath. My parents and I each rated a small closet in our rooms, but one room did not have a closet and therefore required a ward­robe to take care of clothes.

Page 62

The house was small but adequate. We had a nice yard with two apple trees, two maples and one sycamore. There were two large elms and a walnut tree at the side of our yard. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built [in 1950], Morehall Road was relocated which cut into our lawn and removed the walnut tree. I salvaged two small walnut logs which I sea­soned and made into a grandchild's chair.The other is still awaiting a worthy project.

There was a two-car detached garage in back of the house with a drive­way between, thus giving access to neighboring houses. The garage was narrow, so one could get out of the car parked in the garage on one side only. Behind the garage my father had a large garden and grew most everything, including popcorn.

I failed to mention earlier that the house had a flat roof with a parapet on all four sides. Because the roof began to leak, a pitched [tarred] roof was added as the easiest way to correct the problem. My parents moved from the house to Berwyn around 1968.

WARNER COMPANY CONCRETE HOUSE