Paradise Valley Historic District

Paradise Valley is a three-mile stretch of farmland along Valley Creek in the northern part of East Bradford Township, Chester County. Settled by English Quakers in the 1700s, it holds farmsteads built mostly of local fieldstone, with bank barns, springhouses and a former water-powered grist mill at the crossroads. The earliest official settlement dates from 1733, when Thomas Price bought a warrant for 256 acres. Most farms in the valley ranged from 100 to 150 acres, and many were founded between 1750 and 1780. The houses show a sequence of types, from an early log house to Georgian and Federal-period stone dwellings, and nine contributing houses have stone additions from the period of significance. The valley's road network, including a private way that once formed part of Moore's Road surveyed in 1735, reflects its colonial origins. The district is valued for keeping its farm layout and buildings largely intact, documenting how the valley moved from grain growing to dairy and stock farming in the 19th century.