A historic home in Berwyn that was once the old Blue Ball Inn and residence of poet W.H. Auden is now owned by West Chester University historian John Rosso, writes J.F. Pirro for Main Line Today.

In the 1940s, Auden lived there while teaching at Swarthmore College. Rosso, a Paoli native who is currently celebrating 50 years as the one-man classics department at WCU, has filled the room with Auden memorabilia.

The old Blue Ball Inn dates back to 1710 and was the first inn along the earliest road from Lancaster to Philadelphia. It would hang a blue ball outside to indicate food and lodging were available.

Rosso’s first association with the property was six decades ago. Then, he was the “bookish lad” to Caroline Newton, the Sigmund Freud-trained psychoanalyst and literary patron who bought the place in the early 1900s.

The inn was left to Princeton University in 1977, and Rosso bought it for $345,000 in 1989.

“There’s much here worthy of remembering,” he said.

Read more about the historic home in Main Line Today here.

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