La Grange

Dr. Samuel Henry Black bought 225 acres in the old Welsh Tract (see PR7) in 1799 and built this Federal-style brick dwelling, notable for its attractive front facade of big sash windows, nine in all with a total of nearly 200 panes. A medical doctor trained at the University of Pennsylvania, Black named the place for the Marquis de Lafayette's estate in France. Black practiced scientific farming, wrote on medicine and agriculture, and made a public demonstration of the smallpox vaccine on his own son. A drawing of the house in 1817 shows it before the addition of the pleasing Greek Revival portico around the door. The Steven B. Barczewski family bought the deteriorated place in 1942 and undertook restoration, doing the work themselves, as labor was unavailable in wartime. They whitewashed the gray-painted house, added shutters, rebuilt the kitchen, and installed bathrooms. As suburban development later choked the DE 40 corridor, La Grange survived intact. When efforts failed to have the property incorporated into a new Glasgow Regional Park (2003–2005, Wallace, Roberts and Todd, landscape architects), it became apparent that the historic and beautiful house would be sold to developers.