{"nrhp_refnum":"95000127","name":"Zook, Jacob, House","other_names":["Rodney House--Store"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"290 E. Lincoln Hwy., West Whiteland Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Exton","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.02908449100005,"lon":-75.62384742299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-02-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stone, T-shaped, 2-1/2 story Federal-style house on the south side of Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) at Exton in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is datestoned 1820, with the kitchen ell datestoned 1850.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a fine and largely unaltered example of Federal rural side-hall architecture in early rural Chester County, and that it fills a gap between earlier vernacular buildings and later ornamented homes. It is also tied to the development of the Philadelphia to Lancaster road and the shift from farming to roadside commerce.","narrative":"Built of fieldstone in 1820 on the south side of Route 30 at Exton, the T-shaped house was enlarged with a two-and-a-half-story kitchen ell in 1850. Jacob Zook built the original house on land he received from his father's farm, and the Zook family owned it for 149 years. The interior retains a side-hall Georgian plan, an open stair with a cherry newel post, and two parlors with marble mantels carved with Ionic columns and bull's-eye corner motifs. The kitchen keeps its brick fireplace, crane and bake oven. The house is regarded as a well-preserved example of Federal rural architecture in West Whiteland Township. Its later history reflects the growth of commercial roadside trade along the highway, with a produce market and grocery operated by the Rodney family from the 1930s onward. The exterior store front, added in the 1960s, is a reversible change.","period_of_significance":"1820-1850","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"A 1970s store front replaced the original porch; the house was converted to three apartments in 1983.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.125631-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/95000127.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000127/dbf3176aa0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000127/dbf3176aa0-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Zook_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Zook_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995567","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Zook_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6119493"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/zook-jacob-house-95000127/"}