Hopewell Historic District

Hopewell is a cluster of 19th century buildings in a valley about two miles west of Oxford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, set around the crossroads of Hopewell and Lower Hopewell Roads. The former borough was shaped by the Dickey family, whose mills, farms and schools drew workers and tenants to the valley. Its most prominent buildings include the Georgian Col. David Dickey house, known as Hopewell Academy, and the 1832 Samuel Dickey house, built of stone. Workers' housing, a stone store and post office dating from about 1810, and an 1888 schoolhouse and lyceum stand near the creeks that once powered the mills. Remnants of millraces, a water ram, a dam breastwall and a railroad platform survive in the landscape. The district is valued for keeping its mid-nineteenth century rural setting largely intact, with few modern intrusions and buildings sited according to the valley's slopes and streams.