Rose Valley (9/22/2019)

Sunday, September 22, 2019
We took advantage of a once a month weekend opening of the Rose Valley Museum at Thunderbird Lodge in Rose Valley, PA. Although the area was initially settled by Quakers in 1682 and later Ridley Creek powered many mills, Rose Valley was best known as an Arts & Crafts community founded by William L Price in 1901. The Rose Valley Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

A Thunderbird at Thunderbird Lodge! (KSS)

Thunderbird Lodge (1904, by Will Price), a "rambling fieldstone-and-stucco
house," has living quarters that were added to a c 1790 stone barn that
Price converted into artist studios for Charles and Alice Barber Stephens

The lower level studio was for Alice Barber Stephens, a painter and engraver
best known for her illustrations of books and in magazines such as
Harper's Weekly and The Ladies Home Journal (including covers)

A wrought-iron torchiere (1920s, by Herbert Walton,
of the Rose Valley Arts & Crafts community)

The upper studio was for Charles Stephens, a lesser
known artist and an instructor at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park (c 1920, by Charles Stephens)

The upper studio houses artifacts from the Rose Valley Arts and Crafts community.

Jacobean Morris Chair (1901-1906 at a Rose Valley
workshop, in the more expensive option of mahogany)

Ceramics (1904-1905, by William P Jervis) that mimic the colors of nature;
after one year, Jervis moved on to Craven Art Pottery in East Liverpool, OH

Products of the Rose Valley Press (1903-1907, established by Horace Traubel
in Philadelphia), which also included a monthly magazine titled The Artsman

Non-attributed works

Moylan-Rose Valley railroad station sign

North-facing windows of the upper studio

The fireplace screen was created here in Rose Valley, whereas many of the
wrought-iron works in the museum came from Arden, DE,
the first community founded by William Price

A metal gecko handle (KSS)

Thunderbird Lodge has an octagonal staircase

The living room is the gift shop, but also houses a sofa made
at Rose Valley for the actress Ann Harding to give to her daughter

Dining room at Thunderbird Lodge

A lemonade set?

The rear of Thunderbird Lodge, showing porches
added to the back of the studios (KSS)

Probably the springhouse for Thunderbird Lodge

One of several stone bridges in Rose Valley

William Price had established the town of Arden, DE as a utopian single-tax community and an art village. Rose Valley was to be an Arts & Crafts village, with buildings renovated or built by Price to house artists and crafters.
Farther along Rose Valley Road was a bobbin mill that was renovated into a guild hall by Price, where artists could rent space to work and live. Here in 1923, actor and director Jasper Deeter started Hedgerow Theatre, a resident repertory theatre. It has "become a magnet for many national theatre artists, from Richard Basehart to Edward Albee; from Ann Harding to Susan Glaspell; to - more recently - Keanu Reeves and Austin Pendleton."

Hedgerow Theatre (c 1840 as feed mill, 1847 converted into turning
mill to produce bobbins for the local textile mill)

Inside Hedgerow Theatre, the organization Keep Music Alive
hosted musical acts and an "instrument petting zoo" in the lobby
where one could try out different types of musical instruments 

Upstairs in Hedgerow Theatre was the Esherick Gallery,
featuring furniture and artwork by Wharton Esherick

The hand-carved oak table (1930s, by Wharton Esherick) was traded to
Hedgerow Theatre in exchange for acting lessons for his two daughters

A poster designed by Wharton Esherick

Next we went to the School in Rose Valley (founded 1929), a progressive school based on the practices of renowned educator, John Dewey, a proponent of hands-on learning or experiential education.

The school's main office building (1931) with a casting (c 1966)
of a wood sculpture of a horse by Wharton Esherick

The directional signs at the school
include Narnia and Antarctica

Kent apologizes to one of the sheep (named Dawn and Dusk) for
not having any food; the 1931 building is behind the sheep pen

A ship-like playground structure

The school's chicken coop, with two pools in the background

The vegetable garden with nice composting bins

A Monarch Butterfly Waystation

Even the school's 1950s library building is
part of the Rose Valley Historic District

There must be 100 buildings listed in the Rose Valley Historic District, and most are occupied by private owners.