Caleb Pusey House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Caleb Pusey House
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Viewed from the SE in Aug 2023
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 Location in Pennsylvania
Location in the United States
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| Location | 15 Race St., Upland, Pennsylvania |
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| Built | 1683 |
| Architectural style | Vernacular Jacobethan |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000706 |
| Added to NRHP | March 11, 1971 |
The Caleb Pusey House, built in 1683 in Upland, Pennsylvania, is a very old and special house. It's known as the oldest English-built house in Pennsylvania. This house is also famous because it's the only one still standing that William Penn, who started Pennsylvania, is known to have visited!
Caleb Pusey was a good friend and business partner of William Penn. They both traveled to Pennsylvania in 1682. They even brought parts for mills to grind flour and cut wood. Caleb Pusey managed these mills until he retired in 1717.
Since around 1960, a group called the Friends of the Caleb Pusey House, Inc. has owned the property. The house was in bad shape, but they fixed it up. Now, it's a historic house museum where people can visit and learn about its past.
Contents
Meet Caleb Pusey
Caleb Pusey was a Quaker who made wooden molds for shoes. He was a close friend and business partner of William Penn, who founded the Province of Pennsylvania. Caleb came from England to Pennsylvania in 1682 with his wife, Anne Worley, and her two sons.
They sailed on a ship called The Welcome. Many passengers on the ship were Quakers, like Caleb, who were leaving England to escape religious unfairness. Sadly, smallpox was on board, and 30 out of 100 passengers died during the trip.
Caleb Pusey bought 250 acres of land from William Penn. About 100 acres were next to Chester Creek, where they planned to build the mills. This land was called the Landingford Plantation.
Caleb Pusey held many important jobs. He was the Sheriff of Chester County and served in the Pennsylvania assembly. He was also a tax collector and even a judge on the provincial supreme court. Caleb was very involved in his local Quaker community. He also wrote many pamphlets, some of which defended William Penn.
Caleb retired in 1717. His family then moved to Marlborough Township, which is near where Longwood Gardens is today. He passed away in 1727. The name Pusey actually comes from a village in England. It was common for people to use their family's village name as their last name back then.
The Caleb Pusey House Story
When Caleb Pusey and his family first arrived in 1682, winter was coming fast. They quickly built a "pit-house" to live in. This was a simple home, half underground and half above. People often called these homes "caves" back then. Caleb's pit-house had a fireplace, a wooden floor, and a few small windows.
In 1683, they built the main house using local stone. It was attached to the pit-house, which then became the east wing and was used as a workshop. The first part of the main house was just one room. It had a big attic or loft for storage and sleeping. There was a large brick baking oven inside the fireplace on the western wall.
Later, another room was added, sharing the western wall. This meant the chimney was now in the middle of the house. The new room is called the west room, and the first above-ground room is the east room. The pit-house is known as the east wing.
The west room has a well inside it, which used to be outside. It also has a large iron basin called a stand-kettle. This kettle is on the back of the east room's fireplace and can be heated from below. It was used for things like heating water or preparing poultry. There's a small door on the front of the house to access the fire under the kettle.
Records from a Quaker meeting held at the house in 1696 suggest the west room was already built by then. This is because men and women met in separate rooms. The house was privately owned and lived in until about 1950.
Around 1752, the roof of the east room was changed. It went from a pointed "gable roof" to a "gambrel roof" (which has two slopes on each side). This change gave them more space in the attic for storage and sleeping.
You can still see a line in the brickwork on the east wall where the old roof used to be. The main house's chimney was destroyed in a fire at some point. It was rebuilt at the back of the house, with two corner fireplaces. At this time, the house was divided for two families. The baking oven was even moved outside because it was a fire risk. During the restoration in the 1960s, the chimney and fireplace were put back in their original central spots.
Today, the Caleb Pusey House is at 15 Race Street in Upland, Pennsylvania. It's one of the oldest houses in the state. If you look at it from Race Street, the original east room is on the right, and the west room is on the left. The partially underground east wing would have been to the right of the east room, but it was not restored.
Digging Up History: Excavations
Between 1962 and 1970, archaeologists dug up parts of the Caleb Pusey House property. They found out that there used to be a cellar under the east room that had been filled in and forgotten. This was lucky for them! The cellar was filled with old trash, which was like a treasure chest of artifacts. They found coins, broken pottery, and many other interesting items.
It's thought that the cellar was filled in because the back wall was starting to push inwards. The owners probably hoped filling it would stop the problem. The cellar was completely dug out and is now empty except for a pump. You can go down to it using a spiral staircase, which has original stone steps at the bottom.
Another big discovery was the buried remains of the pit-house (or east wing). It was just to the east of the east room. It had its own entrance with steps leading down to its underground floor. This room was used as a workshop after the main house was built. Eventually, it was destroyed by a fire, and its chimney fell down. After that, the pit was filled in and forgotten.
Archaeologists found a coin from 1723, which suggests the fire happened after that date. Caleb Pusey wasn't living there anymore then. They also found glass window panes lined with lead. Since lead was collected for bullets during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), this means the fire likely happened between 1723 and 1776. It's thought that a small copper still (used to make alcohol) might have caused the fire, as parts of one were found under the collapsed chimney. The pit-house was not rebuilt, but its outline is marked by a low stone wall, sometimes used as a garden.
A filled-in well was found inside the west room. After carefully removing the dirt, they found a newly made coin from 1699 at the bottom. It's possible William Penn himself dropped it in when he visited Pusey in December of that year!
They also found a "cooling cellar" in front of the west end of the house. It was abandoned and filled in sometime in the 1700s.
Many artifacts were found from all the years the house was lived in. These included parts of dolls, toy dishes, lead toys, handmade dominoes, marbles, pottery, coins, and many pipe pieces.
Bringing the House Back to Life: Restoration
By 1960, the Caleb Pusey House was in very bad condition and might have fallen down. People raised money, including private donations and government funds, to fully restore it. The Friends of the Caleb Pusey House, Inc. bought the property, which also included the Crozer Schoolhouse next door.
The restoration happened in the 1960s, right after the archaeological digs. Workers made the walls stronger, rebuilt the chimney, fireplace, and oven in their original central spots, and replaced the roof. The restored house is said to be 85% original! Old English furniture and other items were placed inside to show what the house might have looked like when Caleb Pusey and his family lived there. A special corner cupboard that belonged to Caleb Pusey was put in the west room. It even has "Caleb Pusey, C(heart)A, 1717" carved into it.
The loft now has a door on the east end that you can only reach by a ladder from outside, as there isn't an inside staircase anymore. In 1971, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's a very important historic site.
The Chester Mills
The mills that Caleb Pusey managed were built in 1683 on Chester Creek. They were the first official grist mill (for grinding grain) and sawmill (for cutting lumber) in the new province. They were about a quarter-mile upstream from the house.
These mills worked well until a big flood in 1687 washed them and their dam away. They were rebuilt quickly, probably by 1689, a little further upstream. But another flood damaged the new dam. So, they decided to build a new dam about a mile upstream and send the water to the mills through a special channel called a "mill race" or canal.
This new dam became part of the Kings Highway, so many travelers passed by the Pusey house and often stopped to visit. This setup worked for a while, but by 1693, the mills were in bad shape. Caleb Pusey then gave 5 acres of his land to build a new mill even closer to his house. This new mill site was a bit downstream from his house, and the mill race was extended to reach it.
The mills operated at this third location for many years. In 1708, a fulling and dyeing mill (for processing wool) was added. Sadly, all the mills burned down in 1858.
A Special Weather Vane
A famous old weather vane once sat on top of the Chester Mills. It had the initials of the three men who owned and ran the mills in 1699: W. P. for William Penn, S. C. for Samuel Carpenter, and C. P. for Caleb Pusey, along with the date 1699.
Later, when a man named Richard Flower owned the property, the weather vane was on his house. But it squeaked and groaned so much in the wind that he took it down. In 1870, his relative gave it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where it is now a historic artifact.
The Crozer Schoolhouse
Also on the property, right next to the Pusey House, is the Crozer Schoolhouse. It was built in 1849 by John Price Crozer for the children of workers at his factory. The upstairs of the schoolhouse later became a storage place for thousands of artifacts found during the archaeological digs. The downstairs is now set up like an old school room and has some of the artifacts on display. John Price Crozer also built the Upland Baptist Church and homes for millworkers in the area.
Pennock Log House (No Longer Standing)
The Pennock Log House was built in 1790 by one of Caleb Pusey's descendants. It was originally in Springfield Township. In 1965, it was taken apart and moved across the street from the Caleb Pusey House by the Friends of The Caleb Pusey House. Unfortunately, it had serious problems, and one of its walls collapsed. It had to be taken down and removed around 2021.
Gallery
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Front view of house looking north, 2023
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View of house from SW showing central location of chimney and transition in roof style from gable to gambrel, 2023
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Sketch made before 1827, shows chimney at back of the house, loft access door, dormer window, and no sign of the buried east wing.
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Architect's drawing of the plan for restoring the fireplace and the east room
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Loft above the east room looking east, the window shown was converted back to a door during restoration
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Loft above the west room looking east, shows interior doorways and window in the east room (prior to restoration)
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Rear of the baking oven viewed from the west room, 2023
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Stand-kettle, located in the west room to the right of the rear of the oven. It can be heated from below.
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Cabinet at the Crozer Schoolhouse displaying artifacts from the Caleb Pusey House
See also
- South Brook Farm
- List of the oldest buildings in Pennsylvania
