Friends of Strode's Mill
Save historic Strode's Barn
Mission: Friends of Strode’s Mill is a nonprofit organization that strives to preserve, protect, educate and advocate for the natural and historic resources in and around Strode’s Mill National Register Historic District of East Bradford Township.
A site with a wide range of purposes
Historic interpretation:
This is where British general Cornwallis paused to arrange his columns before sweeping south to the Battle of the Brandywine. His men had just marched 12 miles, forded the Brandywine in two places, and made it through a dangerously narrow defile where they could easily have been ambushed. As the landscape opened up at Strode's Mill, the 9,000 soldiers were arranged in a front a mile wide, with the center at this crossroads.
The Strode's Mill barn is also perfect for a demonstration of the early industy of Chester County. On this corner were a range of businesses, all owned by one prosperous family for hundreds of years. These included a farm, mill, school for boys, blacksmith, pork processing barn and more. Many of these buildings still stand; foundations outline others; and no modern buildings have interrupted the original plan.
Open space:
The site includes almost eight acres of watershed, which will now be preserved for wildlife and recreation.
Bike and pedestrian pathways:
We're on the proposed Brandywine Trail Corridor, which will allow pedestrians and bikes to safely travel to and from the Borough.
The Strode's Mill Barn represents a tremendous opportunity for the entire community!
These drawings show one way the site could be restored, with the newer end of the barn taken down to its colonial-period foundations.
Strode's Mill holds a prominent place on this map of the Battle of the Brandywine. Washington's soldiers acquired flour here days before the British marched right by the crossroads. Cornwallis paused here to spread his troops a mile wide before sweeping south to the battlefield.