FREE Summer Open Houses

                         Newtown Square Historical Preservation Society

                                  SUMMER OPEN HOUSES

During the summer of 1748 in the

Newtown Square

tavern, the proprietor’s 11 year old son, Benjamin West, practiced his drawing.  He developed this skill several years before when he saw a sleeping child and tried to draw what he saw with a pencil and paper.  This inspired him to continue drawing and using his school pen on any available surface he could find, he sketched birds, flowers, and whatever else caught his fancy.  Native Indians populated Pennsylvania, and in summers they would return to live in Delaware County.  They noticed the young artist and his work and showed him how to mix local materials to make the red and yellow colors with which they decorated their ornaments.  A whole new world opened to the young boy, one that eventually led him to London.  In time he became court painter to King George III, founded the Royal Academy of Arts, and went on to became one of the greatest painters of the day.  
  The Newtown Square Historical Preservation Society opens the 1742 Square Tavern at Rt. 252 and Goshen Road, and the 1828 Paper Mill House and Museum, at St. David’s Road and paper Mill Road, each July and August on Sunday’s from 1-4:00 p.m.  There is NO CHARGE for visiting and taking a tour of these beautiful historic sites.  For more information, and to verify openings on a particular date, please check our website at http://www.historicnewtownsquare.org/.