The Coppock House: A Preservation Failure

Posted On July 29, 2021

By Sam Pickard

With Delaware County initiating the formal takings process to acquire what is commonly known as the “Don Guanella Woods” for use as a county park, it’s worthwhile to look back on the history of the 213-acre tract of land.[1] While this future park could easily supply half-a-dozen post topics, this post will focus on the loss of the Coppock House, which was at the time one of the oldest buildings in Marple Township.

History of the Coppock House

Bartholomew Coppock Sr. (circa 1646-1719) was born in Cheshire, England and settled in Springfield Township in 1685. In 1687, he purchased 300 acres on the southeastern edge of Marple Township from John Nixon and erected a house on the property just north of where Cardinal O’Hara High School is now located. The tract stretched from the intersection of Sproul Road (PA-320) and the Blue Route (I-476), northeast across what is now Reed Road into areas now occupied by the Marple Industrial Center and Lawrence Park.[2]

Just four months after buying the land, he deeded it to his son, Bartholomew Coppock Jr. (say 1683-circa 1761). Bartholomew Jr. would buy more land in the coming decade and in 1703 received a patent for 448 acres. Bartholomew Junior was a successful farmer and served on Pennsylvania’s provincial council. It is believed that he expanded his father’s house in about 1732, adding what was the core of the new main block. He and his father were also members of the Springfield Friends’ Meeting—their local Quaker congregation. The Coppocks opened their house to their Quaker congregation, which held meetings there until the Springfield Friends constructed their first permanent meeting house in 1738. Notably, this meeting house was erected on ground which the Coppocks had donated to the meeting.[3]

Despite this accomplished life, Bartholomew Coppock Jr. is usually remembered in Marple Township’s history simply as the man who married Phebe Taylor, the widow of Thomas Massey, in 1710. When he died in about 1761, Coppock left a 188-acre farm in Marple “which includes the homestead” to his son-in-law Seth Pancoast.[4]

The bulk of the farm, including the farmhouse, remained in the Pancoast family until April 1910 when it was sold to James A. Mullen, who in turn sold it William H. Walker in May 1913. That December, Walker sold the land to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia in May 1913.[5]

The Archdiocese purchased a number of properties in the area during the 1910s as cemetery land, though in actuality, they rented out much of the land, which continued to be farmed well into the 1960s, when the Paul family “sold eggs, poultry and vegetables in season.”[6]

In the early 1960s, the Coppock House was a large, two-and-a-half-story masonry house, stuccoed and painted white. It faced south, and from contemporary descriptions appears to have been built in three stages. The earliest portion, which some claimed dated to the 1680s, was a small, two-story, two-bay stone wing on the east side of the building. This part of the house had no windows on its east side and an interior side chimney. The remainder of the house appeared to consist of the circa 1732 portion, which was two-bays wide, and another two-bay wide addition on the west side.

Preservation Attempts and Demolition

In 1964, rumors flew that Archdiocese had decided to demolish the Coppock House and other historic farmsteads on their property due to their “poor condition” and the need to expand Saints’ Peter and Paul Cemetery. In the weeks leading up to the close of the year, Hilda Lucas, vice president of what was then the Marple-Newtown Historical Society, organized a letter-writing campaign to convince the Archdiocese to spare the buildings and adaptively reuse them. It was to no avail.[7]

A work crew began the demolition process on December 4, 1964. A bulldozer made quick work of the farm’s barn and other outbuildings though demolition of the house was contingent on a crane which would arrive on site at 1 pm. Lucas, along with other members of the recently formed umbrella group Historic Delaware County, including Mary Patterson, Josephine F. Albrecht, and Edmund Viguers mobilized to stop the destruction. They finally spoke to Monsignor Thomas E. Simons of the Archdiocese, who claimed that he was not aware of the house’s historic significance, but agreed to temporarily halt the demolition.[8] The fact that it was a Friday afternoon may have done almost as much to stop the wrecking ball.

By the time the temporary reprieve was given, a newer addition to the house had been demolished and some preservationists stood snapping final pictures of the house on the cold December day, while others—with the permission of the contractors salvaged furniture, bricks, paneling, and even floor beams from the house.[9]

While some news reports seemed to indicate that there was hope over the weekend that the house might be saved,[10] those advocating the house’s preservation understood that their operation was salvage at this point. To that end, over the weekend more photographs were taken, documenting the outside and inside of the Coppock House. The preservationists were also allowed to select old doors, a mantel, chair rail, threshold stones and joists for preservation. Additionally, they secured a promise from the Archdiocese that they could have bricks from the building after the demolition, which they hoped to use for restoration of the Thomas Massey House and other historic buildings in the county.[11]

On Monday, December 7, the crane made quick work of what was left of the Coppock House. Rubble from the site was transported to the Massey House, where it was eventually used in that house’s restoration.[12]

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After the Demolition

In January 1965, the Delaware County Daily Times ran an article titled “Progress Threatens Marple’s Historic Homes: 1 House Demolished; 2 Others in Danger.” Highlighting the recent loss of the Coppock House, the article profiled two other houses on the property that the Archdiocese wished to demolish—both were built by the Rhoads family, one in about 1702 and the other in about 1800.[13] Despite claims from local officials that there had been a “gentleman’s agreement” to preserve the circa 1800 Rhoads House, known as “Chestnut Bank,” the Archdiocese denied the existence of such an agreement and both were eventually demolished for planned expansion of the cemetery.[14]

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As residents of the area around Marple Township likely know, the cemetery was never expanded. I attempt not to editorialize much on this blog, but I think I would be far from alone in feeling that these concrete links to the township’s history were lost in vain. While it is more than understood that the Archdiocese was not in the farming business, and the restoration of the Coppock House and Rhoads Houses certainly would have cost money, it is sad that these buildings were demolished only for the farm fields around them to turn to forest over the following half-century.

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[1] Frank Kummer, “Delco initiates process to get land,” Philadelphia Inquirer [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], 24 July 2021, B1-B2.

[2] Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 585.

[3] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 585; Gilbert Cope, compiler, Genealogy of the Sharpless Family, Descended From John and Jane Sharples, Settlers Near Chester, Pennsylvania, 1682 (Philadelphia: Bi-Centennial Committee, 1887), 149; Chester County, Pennsylvania Will Book 4, 316-317.

[4] Chester County, Pennsylvania Will Book 4, 316-317; Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 585.

[5] Delaware County Deed Book I13, 554; Delaware County Deed Book 348, 598.

[6] Delaware County Deed Book 411, 274; Delaware County Deed Book 432, 211; Clarissa Smith, “Appeals Fail To Rescue Historic Coppock House; Demolition Is Completed,” 1, 32, Undated newspaper clipping in collections of Marple Historical Society [likely News of Delaware County [Upper Darby, Pennsylvania], 10 December 1964].

[7] “Demolition Of Historic Home Halted,” Delaware County Daily Times [Chester, Pennsylvania], 5 December 1964, 3; Smith, “Appeals Fail,” 32.

[8] “Demolition Of Historic Home Halted,” Delaware County Daily Times, 5 December 1964, 3; Smith, “Appeals Fail,” 32.

[9] “Demolition Of Historic Home Halted,” Delaware County Daily Times, 5 December 1964, 3; Smith, “Appeals Fail,” 32.

[10] “1683 Coppock House In Marple Twp. Saved At the Last Minute,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 December 1964, NW2.

[11] “Historic Coppock House Demolished,” County Leader [Broomall, Pennsylvania], 10 December 1964, [1?], 5; “Three Women Save Part Of 300-Year-Old House,” Evening Bulletin [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], 10 December 1964, [?], 34.

[12] “Three Women Save Part Of 300-Year-Old House,” Evening Bulletin, 10 December 1964; Erma Shaver, “Progress Threatens Marple’s Historic Homes,” Delaware County Daily Times, 2 January 1965, 3.

[13] Shaver, “Progress Threatens Marple’s Historic Homes”.

[14] Scott Hockenberry, “Archdiocese Denies It Will Spare Home,” Delaware County Daily Times, 6 May 1965, Section 2, 1.