Purchased at Auction for $80,000, Squire Cheyney’s Estate Returning to Market for $2.199 Million

Squire Cheyney Estate in Thornbury Township has been restored to its original eighteenth-century look by its new owners in close collaboration with the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, writes Alan J. Heavens for Philly.com.

John Murphy found an auction application for the estate by accident while sitting in his doctor’s waiting room. As a history buff, he immediately knew that authentically restoring the property, which straddles the border between Chester and Delaware Counties, was something he wanted to pursue.

Interested in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Murphy then visited the property that once belonged to Thomas Cheyney, the Thornbury farmer dubbed the “Paul Revere of the Brandywine.”

Best known for crossing British lines on horseback, Cheyney dodged musket balls to alert General George Washington that the Redcoats were about to outflank his army at Brandywine Creek.

After seeing just how much work needed to be done, Murphy and his wife Vicki bought the property with a bid of $80,000 for the house and its 11.9 acre estate.

The restoration process encompassed both the main house built in 1797 and the two additions that were added in 1815 and 1850. Murphy also added another addition over 18 months bringing the total square footage to around 4,600.

“It was a great project, especially being able to mold something that we could keep as authentic and original as possible while making the interior space flow and work with the way we live nowadays,” said Downingtown architect, Brett Hand.

Murphy and his wife, whose interest was in restoring the property to its former glory, have now put the historic estate on the market for $2.199 million.  

Read more about the restoration at Philly.com here.