The Business Block in Old Newtown Square

History Spotlight by Doug Humes

Downtown Newtown Square was originally the Goshen Road corner where the Square Tavern was built. Through the 18th century, several other businesses grew up nearby, but that all changed in 1789 when Delaware County was created from the eastern townships of Chester County.

We got to keep the county seat, the city of Chester. Chester County had to select a new county seat – and chose Turks Head, but changed its name from the tavern of that name to something more formal: West Chester. And the new road that was laid out from Newtown Square to that new county seat was named the West Chester turnpike.

The three buildings of the business block, circa 1920

Photo courtesy of the Newtown Square Historical Society

The new road, when completed, drew all of the traffic off the old east-west road (Goshen Road). Robert Mendenhall saw an opportunity, and in 1788, built a hotel and general store at the corner of the West Chester Pike and the old Chester Road (now Rte 252).

A later owner renamed it Beaumont’s Tavern, and years later, it was known as simply the Newtown Square Hotel. The hotel/store complex had the only tavern in town, overnight lodgings, and the general store. It also served as the local polling place, and beginning in 1828, it housed the post office. This block was the beating heart of Newtown Square for close to 200 years.

Davis Beaumont, early postmaster and proprietor of Beaumont’s Tavern

Photo courtesy of the Newtown Square Historical Society

In 1903, the ancient hotel building was replaced with a new hotel, but the bar area was maintained through construction, after which it was relocated to the new hotel.

In 1909, Edward Summeril built a two-bay brick building in between the hotel and the Lewis Brothers general store, and it housed the barber shop and Summeril’s meat and grocery store. The children flocked there for its penny candy. The 1920 photo above shows the business block at the time: the hotel with its porch and 2nd-floor patio; the Summeril store with its barber’s pole to the right of the delivery truck; the men hanging on the porch; and children playing in front of the Lewis Brothers store, with its new gas pump to serve the buyers of Henry Ford’s Model As.

The Summeril store today

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

“Progress” eventually came to the old business block. In 1969, the hotel was demolished and a small bank building replaced it. In 1971, the old Lewis Brothers general store was removed, to widen Rte 252. And the Summeril building? It’s the last survivor, still serving the community at 3703-05 West Chester Pike.

For more history on Newtown Square, Delaware County, and membership information, please visit www.NSHistory.org.