{"nrhp_refnum":"01000953","name":"Welkinweir","other_names":["Rodebaugh, Grace and Everett, Estate"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1368 Prizer Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"East Nantmeal Township","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.15686555400006,"lon":-75.67780008413504,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-09-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Conservation","Other"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Welkinweir is a 162-acre preserve in East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, containing a Colonial Revival mansion built in 1940 onto an earlier stone farmhouse, a springhouse, a utility barn, gardens, and a series of ponds. The mansion was designed by Philadelphia architect Fridtjof Tobiessen for Grace and Everett Rodebaugh.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is locally significant as a 20th-century gentleman's estate with a horticultural landscape of native plants, water, and planted specimens, and as a 1940 remodeling and addition that gives an earlier farmhouse a Colonial Revival character. It states that no other local estate of the period attempted a comparably horticultural landscape. It also notes the later use of the property for environmental and watershed conservation.","narrative":"Welkinweir is a 162-acre preserve in East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, built around a stone Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1940 and attached to an 18th- and 19th-century farmhouse. Architect Fridtjof Tobiessen designed the addition for Grace and Everett Rodebaugh, who bought the farm in 1935. Roughly 55 acres form an arboretum laid out by the Rodebaughs around eight man-made ponds, with azalea lane, sunken garden, crabapple driveway, and a Pinetum donated by horticulturist Philip A. Livingston in 1951. The nomination regards the estate as locally significant for its horticultural landscape, which it says no other nearby estate of the period matched, and for the 1940 remodeling that blends a farmhouse with Philadelphia-style interiors. The property passed to West Chester State College, then to Natural Lands Trust, and is now headquarters for the Green Valley Association, which protects watershed resources.","period_of_significance":"1935-1951","architect_builder":"Fridtjof Tobiessen (architect)","architectural_style":"20th century Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Headquarters for Green Valley Association, used for controlled public visitation, seminars and conferences","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:38.078933-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/01000953.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000953/ea1d16e5e7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000953/ea1d16e5e7-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Welkinweir.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Welkinweir.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995349","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welkinweir","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7981039"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/welkinweir-01000953/"}