{"nrhp_refnum":"84003235","name":"Bell, John, Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"463 N. Ship Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Whiteland","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.04423536400003,"lon":-75.62105301899999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-09-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A farm complex on North Ship Road in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, centered on a stone farmhouse with a Queen Anne/Elizabethan-style remodeling of 1889 and outbuildings including a tenant house and barn.","why_significant":"The house is argued to be the township's finest example of Elizabethan/Queen Anne style and a well-preserved farmhouse from the period when agriculture dominated West Whiteland's economy. Its 1889 remodeling added cross gables and a library wing to a traditional Great Valley farmhouse while keeping the original floor plan. The setting has stayed rural and the land continues to be farmed.","narrative":"Built as a plain stone farmhouse in the early 1840s on a Great Valley tract in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, the core is a two-story, five-bay, single-pile central block with a two-story service wing. John Bell, a Quaker farmer, is believed to have built it after buying 154 acres. In 1888-1889 Rebecca Colfelt, a Philadelphia-born owner, had the house remodeled with large cross gables, a two-story library wing, a porch with a central cross gable, and triple-casement windows with diamond panes. The original floor plan was kept. The house is regarded as the township's finest Elizabethan/Queen Anne example, and its design shows late nineteenth-century urban taste applied to a rural farmhouse. The complex keeps its rural setting, with a tenant house, springhouse, corn crib and a barn rebuilt in 1934. Its significance rests mainly on its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1840-1849","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Elizabethan/Queen Anne","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The surrounding land continues to be farmed and the house is a residence; the document does not state a current vacancy.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.452494-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003235.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003235/69cdbaeeff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003235/69cdbaeeff-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_Farm_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_Farm_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992522","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6221447"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/bell-john-farm-84003235/"}