{"nrhp_refnum":"85000072","name":"Penn's Park General Store Complex","other_names":["Gaines Property"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2310-2324 Second St. Pike, Wrightson Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Penn's Park","county":"Bucks County","state":"PA","lat":40.26601099900006,"lon":-74.99843674999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A farmstead and general store complex at the intersection of Newtown Road and the Old Philadelphia Road in Penn's Park, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, comprising a fieldstone farmhouse, a three-story stone store, a bank barn and several outbuildings. The farmstead was begun in the late eighteenth century.","why_significant":"The complex served as the commercial and social center of Penn's Park for more than a century and a half, operating as a store, a Post Office and a meeting place. The farmhouse, store and barn are presented as good examples of local vernacular architecture, and the store interior retains mid-nineteenth century shelving, counters and drawers.","narrative":"Set at the crossing of two country roads in Penn's Park, the complex began as a late eighteenth-century farmstead. Thomas Allibone bought the site in 1775 and built a frame farmhouse and a small log store. In 1810 Simon Witherill, a local mason, replaced the house with a larger stone dwelling in the Georgian style, the largest in the village at the time. James Gaines acquired the complex and fifteen acres around it, and by 1836 he had built a two-story stone general store to meet growing trade. The store sold seeds, tools and cloth, held a village library of as many as six hundred volumes, and housed a Post Office from the Civil War era until 1971. A third floor added in the 1880s hosted trade and fraternal meetings. The store's mid-nineteenth-century shelving, counters and dovetailed drawers survive, which is why the complex is valued as a rare intact village commercial group.","period_of_significance":"1810-1837","architect_builder":"house - Simon Witherill; store - James Gaines","architectural_style":"Georgian (vernacular)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Store ceased operations in the 1970s; the barn is sound but has a leaking roof, and several outbuildings are in poor condition or near ruin.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.499065-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85000072.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000072/0ea5041aae-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000072/0ea5041aae-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shuvaev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penn%27s_Park_General_Store_01.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:Penn%27s_Park_General_Store_01.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"86000349","name":"Penns Park Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/penns-park-historic-district-86000349/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996891","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn%27s_Park_General_Store_Complex","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7163125"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/bucks-county/penns-park-general-store-complex-85000072/"}