History Spotlight
The Rhoads of Ashley Farm by Doug Humes Photos courtesy of Newtown Square Historical Society
The Rhoads family in Marple is well known for starting and operating the oldest business enterprise in the country — a tannery — for close to 300 years. A branch of the family sprouted in Newtown in 1790 when Joseph Rhoads bought a 192-acre parcel and built a house for his family. His son William Rhoads Sr. married Anna Pancoast Levis in 1822, and he began building her a beautiful new home on the site, using timber harvested on the farm property. In 1825, they moved in to a three-story home with three chimneys, four 3rd-floor gables and a large front porch, descending to a circular driveway leading to the West Chester Road. A large home, it had to be to accommodate the two sons and five daughters born there. It is said that each time a daughter was born, the parents planted an ash tree. The ash trees then multiplied on the property, leading them to call it the Ashley farm.
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Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors
June 2022
The beautiful Rhoad farmhouse, named “Ashley”
Like many local farmers, William Rhoads’ trip to the Philadelphia markets had to pass along the unpaved West Chester Road. Travel in that day was dusty and dirty William Rhoads, Sr., who built the Ashley home
