{"nrhp_refnum":"85002354","name":"Hance House and Barn","other_names":["Site #51-1"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Rt. 842","address_restricted":false,"city":"E. Bradford Twp.","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.927565568000034,"lon":-75.65288561399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story stone house with a full basement and attic, and a banked double-decker stone barn, on a hillside above the Forks of the Brandywine River in East Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The house bears a datestone of 1795.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a well-preserved example of late English Colonial style in Chester County, notable for its 1795 date combined with colonial features such as a double pile hall/parlor plan and transom. It also argues the house and barn are associated with an early Buffington-descended family and with both the 18th-century ford and the 19th-century Shaw's Bridge across the Brandywine, which the document describes as unique among landmarks in the Scenic River Corridor.","narrative":"Built of fieldstone above the Forks of the Brandywine in East Bradford Township, the Hance House bears a datestone of 1795 and was built by Joseph Hance, who had purchased the land with his cousin George Seed in 1792. The house is three bays wide with a gable roof, two end chimneys, and a double pile hall/parlor plan. Its interior keeps an original walk-in kitchen fireplace, arched basement supports for the corner fireplaces, a large cooking fireplace vault, and original summer beam and mortise-and-tenon framing. A stone barn, banked into the hillside with a stone-walled stockyard, stands nearby. The property is significant as a well-preserved example of late English Colonial architecture in Chester County, and for its ties to the Buffington family, who owned it for generations. It is also linked to the Buffington's Ford crossing and to Shaw's Bridge, named for the Shaw family who owned the farm.","period_of_significance":"1751-1799","architect_builder":"Joseph Hance (builder of the house)","architectural_style":"Late English Colonial","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.354605-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85002354.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002354/602f6a76b8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002354/602f6a76b8-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hance_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hance_House.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"95000523","name":"Worth-Jefferis Rural Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/worth-jefferis-rural-historic-district-95000523/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992700","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hance_House_and_Barn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5646986"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/hance-house-and-barn-85002354/"}