Description: From September 18 to 20, 1777, during the British occupation of the Great Valley which led to the Battle of Paoli on the night of September 20, 1777, the British commander General Sir William Howe occupied this farm house owned by Samuel Richards at what is today 582 Old State Road in Tredyffrin Township – across from Teegarden Park. Three months later, in December 1777, American Brigadier General Charles Scott had his quarters in this house for the duration of the Continental Army’s encampment at nearby Valley Forge. Sixteen years after Lucy Sampson took this image, the house was substantially destroyed in a fire in 1920, and the rebuild as it stands today is substantially changed in appearance from the original. Old State Road originally passed up the south hill to Berwyn, but when the PRR’s 48 mile Trenton Cutoff was opened in 1892, the road was closed. - Herb Fry and Roger Thorne
Photographer/artist: Lucy Sampson
Date taken: ~ 1904
Photo location:
Type: photo
Subject: House
Township: Tredyffrin
Source: Herb and Barbara Fry Collection
Also in Valley Forge: A Chronicle of American Heroism by Frank Taylor (1905). Available online at Hathitrust.org
References: The Generals' Quarters in the 18th Century Tredyffrin section of the web site.
