{"nrhp_refnum":"86001780","name":"Melrose","other_names":["President's House","Cheyney State University"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Hill Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cheyney","county":"Delaware County","state":"PA","lat":39.931416037000076,"lon":-75.52763726399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Education","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Melrose is a 21-story stone vernacular farmhouse at Cheyney, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, built in three sections (c. 1785, 1807, and c. 1850) and used as the residence of Cheyney's presidents from 1903 to 1968. It sits on a knoll above the East Branch of Chester Creek at the southern edge of Cheyney State University's quadrangle.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant for its association with Mary H. Cheyney, a pioneering local woman doctor, and for its association with Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, who led the Institute for Colored Youth (later Cheyney State University) from 1913 to 1951 and was a national leader in education, race relations, and social reform. Hill's work from the house, including his speeches, writings and correspondence, is presented as central to the house's importance.","narrative":"Melrose is a stone farmhouse at Cheyney, Pennsylvania, built in three sections: a central two-bay section of irregularly coursed fieldstone probably standing before 1785, an eastern three-bay granite ashlar section added in 1807, and a western two-bay addition of c. 1850. The house occupies a knoll above the East Branch of Chester Creek and anchors the southern edge of what is now Cheyney State University's quadrangle. It was the home of Mary H. Cheyney, a physician who practiced in West Chester in the later nineteenth century, and from 1903 to 1968 it housed the presidents of the Institute for Colored Youth, later Cheyney State University. Its greatest associations are with Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, president from 1913 to 1951, whose reforms turned a small training institute into a respected liberal arts college. Hill wrote, received visitors and prepared his speeches and correspondence in the second-floor study, and the house is regarded as the base of his national work in education and race relations. The building has been vacant since it was used as the infirmary.","period_of_significance":"c.1785-1951","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Stone vernacular farmhouse","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Currently vacant","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:28.416526-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86001780.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001780/cdd1690694-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001780/cdd1690694-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melrose_PA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones at English Wikipedia</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melrose_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998352","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_(Cheyney,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6813633"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/delaware-county/melrose-86001780/"}