{"nrhp_refnum":"73001649","name":"Corson, Alan W., Homestead","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5130 Butler Pike","address_restricted":false,"city":"Plymouth Meeting","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.11686935800003,"lon":-75.26494785199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-06-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2½-story stone gable-roof house with stucco covering, built in sections near Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with a stone smoke house on the property. The house is first recorded in a 1734 deed of transfer.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is significant for its long association with Alan Corson, who used it as one of Pennsylvania's early nurseries with an apple orchard of about 2,000 varieties and as a boarding school, the Alan Corson Seminary of Learning. It is also presented as architecturally meritorious as a relatively unaltered example of a large mid-eighteenth-century stone house in southeastern Pennsylvania.","narrative":"A stone house of two and a half stories with a gable roof and stucco finish stands near Plymouth Meeting in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is first recorded in a 1734 deed of transfer. The original three bays on the left date to before 1734, and three bays on the right were added in 1820. The house is six bays wide and two rooms deep, with walls about eighteen inches thick, raised panel doors, six-over-six and six-over-nine sash, and original window frames. Its interior retains much original woodwork, moulding, and several simple fireplaces with mantels. A stone smoke house also stands on the site. Alan Corson, a Quaker active in local meetings, used the property as one of Pennsylvania's early nurseries, with an apple orchard of some 2,000 varieties, and as a boarding school called the Alan Corson Seminary of Learning. He corresponded regularly with the botanist John Bartram. The house is valued for its unaltered state and for its role in illustrating eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rural life.","period_of_significance":"1734-1820","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in extremely fine condition both interiorly and exteriorly.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.569422-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/73001649.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001649/76f8d14ee1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001649/76f8d14ee1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Hshuvaeva","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alan_West_Corson_Homestead_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Hshuvaeva</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:Alan_West_Corson_Homestead_2.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"83002261","name":"Cold Point Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/cold-point-historic-district-83002261/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997840","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_West_Corson_Homestead","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4708029"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/corson-alan-w-homestead-73001649/"}