House where artist N.C. Wyeth once lived is for sale in Chadds Ford
The home, also known as the Joseph Davis House, on the land near the Brandywine Battlefield was home to the famous painter from 1908 to 1911.
Wayne Megill had a vision to make the historically significant house and grounds at 1597 Baltimore Pike into a community development engine for Chadds Ford.
Megill hoped to build as many as 46 housing units rather than the six to 12 single-family homes currently permitted on the 15-acre site. He also sought to have another portion rezoned for businesses and to preserve the 18th-century house and its immediate grounds.
He told local officials his proposal would add residential density and boost foot traffic at the adjacent Chadds Ford Barn Shops and other local retailers and restaurants.
But the township didn’t much care for his ideas, he said. So now Megill is selling the land — once owned by members of the township’s founding family, the Chads — as well as the six-bedroom house where the artist N.C. Wyeth once lived. There’s also a carriage house/studio, a swimming pool, and a pool house.
The property is listed “as is” for $3,750,000, and for $4,450,000 if a buyer is willing to hire Megill Homes to modernize the interior of more recently updated portions of the house. Wayne and his brother Scott own the company, which was founded by their father half a century ago.
“We would do a significant kitchen and family room modernization, while keeping the historic elements of the exterior and most of the historic elements of the interior,” said Megill, who lives in Chadds Ford.
“What’s most important is that the house, the studio, and the majority of the acreage around it gets preserved,” he said. “But sometimes you’ve got to develop where it’s smart to develop, in order to be able to conserve where it’s most important to conserve.”
Noelle M. Barbone, a member of the township board of supervisors, said Megill “has made his vision known to me” and added that while he “may have had some rough sketch plans … no formal plan was recommended by Chadds Ford Township Planning Commission for consideration” by the supervisors.
“I personally like the concept or idea of Wayne’s vision,” Barbone said. “However, the devil is in the details, which must be provided in order for the entire board to weigh in and vote.”
A local landmark
The house is nestled on a plateau about halfway up a steep hill along Baltimore Pike in Delaware County, just west of the site of the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Brandywine. Often referred to as the Joseph Davis House, it offers a commanding view of the Brandywine Valley’s rippling landscape.
”This is the original brick floor from 1755,” Megill said during a recent tour of the oldest section of the house.
“That could be the original heating and cooking stove from when the house was used as a tavern,” he said pointing to a black iron contraption in the corner.
From 1908 to 1911, according to local historian Jane E. Dorchester, the artist Newell Convers Wyeth, better known as N.C. Wyeth, rented 1597 Baltimore Pike. He and his family lived there, and the adjacent carriage house became his studio.
Nicole Kindbeiter, communications director of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, said the studio is where Wyeth created the illustrations for Treasure Island, the adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.
Kindbeiter said proceeds from those images enabled Wyeth to buy 18 acres in Chadds Ford, where he built his studio and a home for his family, including his son, the painter Andrew Wyeth. The house and studio are owned by the museum.
» READ MORE: She bought a painting for $4 at a thrift shop. Today, the N.C. Wyeth work sold for $191,000.
Good stewardship
Dean and Diane Camp bought 1597 Baltimore in 2003 and lived there for 20 years.
“They were wonderful stewards of the property,” said Megill, who completed his $2.4 million purchase of the house in September.
“We hope the house and carriage house will be maintained in keeping with its historic past,” the Camps, who now live in Delaware, said in an email. “We would also like to see as much of the land around it preserved as open space” as possible.
Many possibilities
Megill is willing to sell to a nonprofit land conservation organization, he said. An evaluation of 1597 Baltimore completed for the township by the nonprofit trust Natural Lands in 2020 found that “development and conservation need not be mutually exclusive.”
Its list of “development scenarios” included some residential construction, a bed-and-breakfast operation, and expansion of the boundary of the adjacent Chadds Ford business district to include some of the site.
Steven Carter is president of the North American Land Trust, a nonprofit that last year opened the 71-acre Brinton Run Preserve not far from 1597 Baltimore. He said his board is aware of the availability of that property and has had some discussions about it, noting its proximity to Brandywine Battlefield, as well as to Brinton Run.
Megill said reactions to his proposal frequently consisted of “don’t build houses here,” “don’t build houses there,” and “what about the traffic?”
Nevertheless, “I believe we need additional housing in this region,” he said. “I get that people don’t want new housing in their backyards. But we’re going to lose the vibrancy in our communities without new housing.
“I had an idea I thought was good. But we’ve made a business decision to move on.”