historic sugartown

Sugartown’s early residents created a vibrant crossroads that provided goods and services to its surrounding farming community. Through the preservation efforts of Historic Sugartown, Inc., visitors are offered a window into American life in an early 19th-century rural crossroads village by experiencing how people came together to conduct business, exchange news, and shared their lives as a community. There are several interesting buildings, such as the General Store with an inventory of “dry goods, groceries, liquors, glass, china and Liverpool ware, oils, paints, drugs, iron monger, etc.”; the Sharpless Worrall House (a grand Italianate home constructed in 1860); Saddler Shop and House; the Book Bindery (which houses a world-class collection of book binding tools and equipment once owned by the late master bookbinder Fred Shihadeh and is regarded as the largest in the country in terms of signed 19th-century Philadelphia tools); William Garrett House (an excellent example of a modified “Quaker Plan” or three-room plan so prevalently used in homes among the Quaker community); Hannah Cheever House (constructed in 1835); Cheever Barn (typical of Chester County, this 19th-century Pennsylvania Bank Barn was constructed so that hay wagons could enter the upper level from a bank); Carriage Museum (Historic Sugartown partnered with Chester County Historical Society to create the Carriage Museum, which houses a collection with highlights that include a c.1800 Conestoga wagon used to haul freight from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and a hearse used by undertaker George L. Mason of Guthriesville in the 1870s).