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Caln School House Cache Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Gasfly: Need to take this one away. It seems that what it was hiding in got damaged. Thanks to all who found this cache. Happy Caching.

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Hidden : 9/24/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Cache in view of Caln's Hexagonal School House

Thanks to Caln Township for giving us permission to place this cache. We drive by this spot everyday and thought it would be fun to place a cache here. Please enjoy the park and be sure to take a look at the school house.

A little history about the School House:

Thanks to David Thatcher Wilson for use of the information below.

The small stone "hexagonal schoolhouse" was built by Richard Pim who was born in 1795 and died 62 years later. He had inherited a great portion of a 500 acre tract of rich farm land in Caln Township which was part of a grant by William Penn of the early 1700’s. This building was erected about 1837, built partially of brown field stone, and partially of gray stone, apparently of native origin.

Richard Pim had nine children and his daughter Lydia told the story to her own children of the days when she and her little sisters and brother and an occasional neighbor child came there to school. Later they attended a somewhat larger school across the fields toward the thorn hedge above Thorndale, a vigorous walk for small folk on a story day!

This little structure stands directly across the driveway from the spacious Quaker stone farmhouse, on the way to the barn. From the ground level one enters the main floor by way of two or three shallow stone steps. In the back of this small room is a narrow closed stairway leading to a shallow loft above, where the meats were smoked. Outside and to the left of the front door three or four shallow old worn stone steps lead down to a springhouse entrance, where drinking water and cooling facilities were located. She told of a friendly trout which the children used to entice with bits of thick cream and butter.

All these years this quaint structure has weathered the storm, used chiefly by those residing on the premises as a spring and milk house. Occasional slight acts of vandalism have occurred and a cupola, which bedecked the roof, has long since been removed, but preserved, and recently the roof has been rebuilt.

The Chester County Historical Society in West Chester, Pennsylvania, considers this structure a very rare specimen, due to its six sides, each of which measures about 90 inches in breadth.

This building is included as one of the hundred structures surveyed for the Historic American Building Survey of Chester County some years ago. The photographs and notes have been sent to the Department of the Interior, and will eventually be on file at the Library of Congress.

• • •

The above account was written by Miss Marian Edge Thatcher, daughter of the above-mentioned Lydia Pim. West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1968.

The Hexagonal School House was moved in 1968 from the Edge Farm on Bailey Road to its present location on Municipal Drive, and restored in 1971.

Please use parking cords provided and do not park on the main road. Take care to replace the cache as found. Muggle factor may be high at times and stealth is appreciated.

Enjoy the cache!

Congratulations to Budacamp for the FTF!

Additional Hints (No hints available.)