{"nrhp_refnum":"84003319","name":"Whitford Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"145 W. Lincoln Hwy.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Whiteland","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.02759592700005,"lon":-75.63250704599994,"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":"Whitford Hall is a stone house in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the north side of the Lincoln Highway (Route 30), built about 1796 by Colonel Richard Thomas. It is a five-bay Federal-style facade on a vernacular single-pile \"I\" house plan, with a rear kitchen wing and outbuildings.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is an example of Federal style architecture, interpreted vernacularly, and that it is associated with the Thomas family, especially Colonel Richard Thomas. It belongs to a group of Thomas family principal dwellings and is linked to the Thomas mill and the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. Its builder also constructed Whitford Lodge and Ivy Cottage nearby.","narrative":"Whitford Hall is a stone house on the north side of the Lincoln Highway in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Family records place its construction around 1796 under Colonel Richard Thomas, who had built the brick mansion Whitford Lodge nearby in 1783. The five-bay front is coursed stone with a semicircular fanlight over the center entrance, set on a shallow roof with flush brick chimneys. Behind this formal face, the house follows a narrow single-pile \"I\" house plan, with a one-and-a-half-story kitchen wing that contains a cooking fireplace and a bake oven. The house is regarded as an example of Federal design with vernacular interior planning, and it is associated with the Thomas family, who ran the nearby Whitford mill. Samuel D. Thomas, the second son, was born at Whitford Lodge in 1793, and his son Templin R. Thomas was born at Whitford Hall in 1826. The property is also significant for its link to the Thomas milling business and to the turnpike that passed by the house.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799","architect_builder":"Richard Thomas","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Not in use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.286991-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003319.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003319/9889090be5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003319/9889090be5-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitford_Hall_Chesco_PA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitford_Hall_Chesco_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992724","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitford_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7996475"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/whitford-hall-84003319/"}