19th-century Chester County home with a two-story wine cellar hits the market for $3.3M
Fernbank Farm features a roughly 1,500-bottle wine cellar and tasting room, a spa, and a heated saltwater pool.
A six-bedroom West Chester home with a two-story wine cellar and tasting room in a converted ice house has hit the market for $3.3 million.
Known as Fernbank Farm, the nearly 5,400-square-foot home at 1001 Country Club Rd. was built of green serpentine stone from the nearby defunct Brinton’s Quarry, said Stephen Gross, who shares the listing with Stewart Gross and Holly Gross, all of the Holly Gross Group.
“It’s a beautiful stone that’s just unique to the area,” he said.
A small portion of the home is believed to date back to the 1790s, said Stephen Gross. It was then expanded around 1846 by James Cheston Morris, a University of Pennsylvania alum and surgeon who invented “a number of surgical appliances,” according to a 1923 Inquirer obituary.
Morris used the property as a summer country estate retreat and also to reportedly experiment with architectural insulation techniques, including in an attached ice house, the Gross brothers said.
That space was converted about five years ago by its current owners into a two-story wine cellar and tasting room.
Situated off the breakfast room, the roughly 1,500-bottle wine cellar is accessed via a staircase that opens onto a room with vaulted ceilings and stone walls. The upper level has seating, a bar, and wine refrigeration, while the lower level is predominantly for wine storage.
“There’s no other space like that I’ve been to in Chester County,” said Stephen Gross, adding that it “would be a really neat space to entertain.” He estimates it can hold eight to 10 people seated or 10 to 15 for a standing cocktail party.
Old millstones have been incorporated into the space, which also has a dumbwaiter and an exterior door where blocks of ice would have once been delivered.
Elsewhere, the home has a number of original architectural details, including hardwood floors with distinctive patterns like a two-tone herringbone in the foyer and an octagonal shape in the library.
Other original details include woodwork and fireplace mantles, including the living room’s Campan rubané breccia mantle from 19th century France.
The home’s six bedrooms are spread across two upper floors, with the primary suite on the second level. It has a fireplace, built-in storage, a sitting area, and an en suite with a soaking tub.
Situated on six acres and partly surrounded by conserved land, Fernbank Farm has several seating areas outdoors, including a wraparound veranda that overlooks old and specimen trees. It also has a spa and an in-ground heated saltwater pool, which was restored in 2018.
Elsewhere on the property is a detached three-car garage in a converted 1910 carriage house.
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