Mansion
Township History
The first record of Edgmont Township dates from 1686, when Joseph Baker was listed as constable for Gilead, the original name for Edgmont and a part of what is now Thornbury Township. The name "Edgmont" was adopted in 1687, and derives from the Royal Manor of Edgmond on Shropshire, from which the Baker family emigrated. Early documents spell the name as “Edgemont,” “Edgmond,” or “Edgmont,” with the township officially settling on the spelling “Edgmont” in the nineteenth century. It was incorporated as a township in 1687.
Edgmont’s earliest settlers lived in close proximity to Edgmont Great Road, now Middletown Road. It is reasonable to assume they deliberately avoided the steeper, rockier land east of Ridley Creek in favor of the more easily cultivated plateau to the west. Edgmont’s popular historian, the late Jane Levis Carter, notes in her book Edgmont: The Story of a Township that Native Americans occupied parts of Pennsylvania as far back as 12,000 to 18,000 years ago.
In the early 1600s the Native Americans living in what would become Edgmont Township were known as the Lenni Lenape. One of the three Lenni Lenape tribes that occupied the Ridley and Crum Creek watersheds called themselves the Okehocking Indians. The Okehocking clan were nomadic hunters, who pursued deer, elk, and caribou. Their crest was the turtle. The Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission has identified various locations within Edgmont Township as likely Native American encampments with a high probability of significant archeological resources. Bill Kraft, son of the late Federal Judge William Kraft, discovered many arrowheads as a boy in the fields of his family’s farm, known as Brick House Farms Development. Sawmills, cotton spinning mills, and gristmills were later built along Ridley Creek to process grain and lumber for settlers.
The colonists who settled in Edgmont benefited from a network of Native American trails that enhanced travel and communication. In many parts of Pennsylvania, these trails served as early highways, connecting farmers to markets, quarries, forests, creeks and neighboring communities. Inns were constructed along these major routes, and Edgmont is home to at least three historic buildings that once served travelers: Brick House on Middletown Road, formerly the Kraft farmhouse; Gradyville Inn on Middletown Road, later the Townsend home; and Edgmont Inn on West Chester Pike, now La Locanda Restaurant. Farmers returning from early-morning milk deliveries to local creameries often stopped at the Howellville General Store, later the Gradyville General Store at the intersection of Gradyville Road and Middletown Road, for newspapers, mail, and conversation. Electricity first came to the Edgmont area in 1920.
The major roads in Edgmont were not paved until the mid 1900s, perhaps 1945. Beginning in 1848, wooden rails were installed, and the West Chester Turnpike Company began operating a horsecar line from Philadelphia, which eventually connected to West Chester.
By the end of the 1800s, trolley cars were running along the rails, transporting visitors to a 33 acre amusement park built on what was known as Castle Rock. In 1899, the rocks at Castle Rock echoed with music and laughter as people spent their summers in this cool picnic grove on the Crum Creek. Cabins, arts and craft buildings, cottages and a mess hall were constructed and used regularly by the Castle Rock Cottagers’ Association. The amusement park atmosphere continued until 1963, when the property was sold to a developer and eventually became the Castle Rock Association, a full-time residential community that remains today.
Edgmont Township developed primarily as an agricultural area, with both crops and livestock being raised. Many large farms were still in operation as late as the 1960s and 1970s, when residential development began reshaping the community. Today, more than one hundred historical buildings remain in the Ridley Creek State Park.
For more information about the history of Edgmont Township, or to learn more about the history of Delaware County, please CLICK HERE. This website is run by Keith Lockhart, a lifelong resident of Ridley Township, and features an extensive collection of maps and historical documents.