{"nrhp_refnum":"72001110","name":"Collins Mansion","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"633 Goshen Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Chester","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.97513524900006,"lon":-75.60344962799996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-11-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stone house at Goshen Road in West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania, built in 1727 for Quakers Joseph and Mary Collins. It sits back from the road on a landscaped three and one-half acre property.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is the oldest in the borough of West Chester and one of the earliest country residences in southeastern Pennsylvania. It is one of the first in the area to use locally quarried serpentine stone, and it is significant for its well-preserved state, substantially unchanged since renovations in 1760. Its rural setting makes its Philadelphia-style sophistication notable.","narrative":"Built in 1727 for Quakers Joseph and Mary Collins, the Collins Mansion stands on the Goshen Road, one of the main routes west from Philadelphia, in what is now West Chester, Pennsylvania. Its facade is dressed serpentine stone quarried locally, with fieldstone side walls, and its balanced door, datestone, hood and pedimented gables follow the Philadelphia house tradition of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Between 1758 and 1760 a one and one-half story fieldstone kitchen wing was added on the north side, and the interior was remodeled, including new plaster partitions and a paneled stairway. A 1940 restoration used plans by Philadelphia architect Walter Durham, and the 1946 work recreated the original red, gray and blue paint. The house is regarded as the oldest in West Chester and one of the earliest country residences in southeastern Pennsylvania, and it is valued for how little it has changed since 1760.","period_of_significance":"1727","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Philadelphia Style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored to appear as it did in 1760, including 1727 elements not changed at that time.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.103222-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/72001110.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001110/02965073c3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001110/02965073c3-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Ned Goode, HABS photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collins132419pu.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ned Goode, HABS photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collins132419pu.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998638","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_Mansion","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5147391"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/collins-mansion-72001110/"}