{"nrhp_refnum":"79002301","name":"Rowland House","other_names":["Shovel Shop"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"300 Ashbourne Rd","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cheltenham","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.05956189300008,"lon":-75.09611487599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-10-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The \"Shovel Shop\" at 300 Ashbourne Road in Cheltenham, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a stone and stucco house reportedly built about 1774 and later enlarged around 1810 to 1820, known in the nomination as the Rowland House.","why_significant":"The nomination ties the house to the Rowland family's shovel and spade works in the Milltown section of Cheltenham, which it describes as a major early American shovel producer. It also links the property to early mill sites on Tookany Creek, to the founding of Cheltenham's first school and post office, and to the surviving structure being one of two buildings left from the mill complex.","narrative":"Built reportedly in 1774 in Cheltenham Township and enlarged around 1810 to 1820, this stone house with white stucco on Ashbourne Road was once the Rowland Mansion and is locally called the Shovel Shop. The Rowland family owned it from 1796 until 1901, when it was sold to the Ames Shovel and Tool Company. Benjamin Rowland Jr. began making bed screws and then spades nearby around 1796, and the family's works grew into one of the largest shovel producers in the country, powered by Tookany Creek. The nomination states that the house may have been associated with a saw-making building along Ashbourne Road and that an archaeological dig in 1975 suggested a mill race ran beneath it. Family members also gave land for Cheltenham's first school, a Methodist church site, and the township's first post office, where Thomas Rowland served as postmaster from 1855. The Township acquired the building in 1934 and planned to open a museum on the shovel industry.","period_of_significance":"1774-1928","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Typical American colonial architecture of the period (original section); early 1800s addition","criteria":[],"status_note":"Interior of the 1774 section was damaged by fire; exterior described as intact; township acquired the property in 1934 and a historical commission was overseeing restoration with plans for a museum.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:29.564812-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79002301.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002301/711bdf8b9f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002301/711bdf8b9f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shuvaev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rowland_House,_Cheltenham_PA_04.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Shuvaev</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:Rowland_House,_Cheltenham_PA_04.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995009","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowland_House_(Cheltenham,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15273436"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/rowland-house-79002301/"}