{"nrhp_refnum":"12000606","name":"Wiley-Cloud House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"107 Ironstone Ln. (Kennett Township)","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kennett Square","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.832640975500055,"lon":-75.66741703191093,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1.5-story, three-bay Colonial plank house on the former Cloud Farmstead at the east end of Ironstone Lane in Kennett Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, with a 1-story north wing and outbuildings (smoke house and stable) regarded as noncontributing. It is dated to about 1765 and attributed to William Wiley.","why_significant":"The house is argued to be an early and unusually large example of plank construction in southeastern Pennsylvania, with horizontal planks pegged into vertical corner posts. Its interior angled trusses support the second floor from above, a feature the nomination links to public buildings such as Friends meeting houses rather than ordinary residences. It also retains many original interior details, including an intact basement cooking fireplace and a four-room plan.","narrative":"Built about 1765 in Kennett Township, Chester County, the house is a 1.5-story, three-bay building framed in semi-dressed planks about five inches thick. Its horizontal planks are pegged into vertical corner posts and center posts, a method that allowed a larger structure than most plank houses of the region, which measures 35 by 32 feet. Three diagonal interior trusses hang from the purlins and carry a central summer beam, so the upper floor rests without load-bearing walls below. The house has a four-room plan, a stacked pair of kitchen hearths in the basement and first floor, and a pent skirt that shelters the plank walls on three sides. Its interior trusses are compared with those in 18th-century Kennett Friends meeting houses, and the house is regarded as one of the older surviving plank houses in Chester County. The property was held by the Prew and Wiley families from 1726 until 1839, and Bernard Wiley is credited with developing a steel plow there in the 1830s.","period_of_significance":"C. 1765","architect_builder":"Wiley, William (builder)","architectural_style":"Colonial","criteria":["C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.597305-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/12000606.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000606/649ef8270d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000606/649ef8270d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WILEY-CLOUD_HOUSE.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ MD</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WILEY-CLOUD_HOUSE.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996016","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley-Cloud_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119571460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/wiley-cloud-house-12000606/"}