Comments on: Exton, PA through the ages from above

By: guernseycow

guernseycow — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:56:41 +0000

Hi Melissa — Great! Thanks for stumbling by!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:32:13 +0000

What a wonderful history of the area through photos! I hope you don’t mind but I shared a photo and about your post and site on my blog as part of a project called Sepia Saturday. You can see it at http://unboxyourphotos.blogspot.com/2011/02/sepia-saturday-2-61-saturday-12.html.

By: Rob McIlvaine

Rob McIlvaine — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:19:46 +0000

Thanks James for the information. My sister wrote to say, “you win…” haha….well, I wasn’t after a win, just a piece of my brain’s contents back from days of old, and thanks your your kind words of remembrance, I have it back.

By: James Hare

James Hare — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:15:30 +0000

Rob McIlvaine – I think I remember you – your family lived out on Rt 30 just west of Exton,if I remember. I went to the Exton (Elementary) School from 1959 through 1965, then North Jr High then Henderson – you may have gone through the Downingtown system, as I believe the dividing line was just a few miles west of the crossroads. I remember running around the Sand Mine with my buddies, Steve Ashbridge, Ted Rogers, and some other kids. There weren’t too many of us. Are you thinking of Buena Vista as the development along Schoen Road?
My dad built our house from land he brought from my grandfather, along the ridge on Route 100. We lived up on top of the hill, next to the Church Farm property.Out my bedroom window I could see all across the valley, from Immaculata at the east, to where Whitford Road cut through it behind the dairy farms. Behind us were the woods for about a mile, then some fields along where Ship Road came down to Rt 100, across from “Marchwood”. We lived on the hill above what is now Wicks Ski Shop, it used to be a State Police barracks for a few years, and before that, the Lindekes lived there – I knew Jeff Lindeke when we were in Elementary and Jr High.
I remember Willie very well – we used to see him all the time riding his bike along 30 and also 100 – remember Max’s Farm Market?
I remember ‘the Cow’ very well – we got ice cream and caramels from there all the time. I even remember throwing up there one time when I pigged out on a bunch of shrimp at my friend Steve’s house and then had a bunch of ice cream. They didn’t mix well.
My website has some pictures of the area – http://www.jmhare.com/total_recoil/gallery.htm
Exton sure has changed – I hadn’t been there for about 15 or so years, but in 2006 I had some work done by an artist north of Eagle, and we made a few trips through the old township. My parents house and all are totally gone, replaced by a condo/townhouse development, and the Church Farm pasture is now just houses….

By: Rob McIlvaine

Rob McIlvaine — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:12:06 +0000

I grew up going to the Cow for ice cream all the time. I remember Willie who made it to the 4th grade with my father and then Larry Polite hired him as a handy man some years later. He always had a great smile and quite a bike that he rode up and down Lincoln Hwy. Does anyone remember what the residential neighborhood at Shoen Road between the Sand Mine and Whitford Road was called in the 50s? I knew a lot of people who lived there and went to Exton School with them. My sister, Barbara McIlvaine Smith, now the PA Legislature from Dist. 156 in West Chester, were arguing..she thinking it didn’t have a name and I remembering it did. Thanks.