“John Langdon Wentworth owned a large tract of land located north of the railroad adjacent to the Eagle Station. In 1857 he had bought a mansion and 138 acres from the White family. Shortly afterward, he traveled to England to visit a relative, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. Upon return home, Wentworth named his newly acquired estate ‘Strafford’. When a name was needed for the new Pennsylvania Railroad station opened a third of a mile (1800 feet) to the east of Eagle Station in 1887, the name Strafford was appropriated for use. In that same year (1887), the Spread Eagle Post Office was renamed the Strafford Post Office as it moved from the ‘old Pugh store’ to the new Strafford railroad station.” [1]

November, 11 1880 Owen Seery sells 4 acres of land to the Pennsylvania Railroad along the railroad from the Delaware County boundary proceeding northwest.

March 8, 1882 Joseph Mullen, of Tredyffrin township, has sold his farm of 56 acres between the Eagle and Wayne Stations on the north side of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The property was purchased by Lewis Brookes, agent for a Philadelphia party. It is said that a new station is to be built by the railroad company within 500 yards of the property. Daily Local News, Source: Chester County Historical Society

March 31, 1882 Patrick Fizpatrick sells 1.5 acres of land to the Pennsylvania Railroad starting at the western abutment of the recently completed bridge over the public road (Old Eagle School Road) and running eastwards.

For more than sixty years the Strafford station also served as the post office for the community, being used in this dual capacity from 1887 until the Strafford Post Office was discontinued in 1948. The first postmaster was John F. Young, who was also the station master at that time.

It is a frame building, 28½ feet long and 23 feet wide, rectangular and two stories high, with a small projecting south bay. On each side there are tall, narrow arched windows. The decorative stick work of horizontal, vertical and diagonal boards applied over its vertical siding creates a number of interesting geometric patterns which give the appearance of structural function, and also reflect unusual carpentry skill. The roof is a gable roof featuring a wide overhang, with two dormers, on the north and south sides, forming decorative elements to the roof. On the north there is a trackside shelter roof, with carved bracings, extending beyond the building and overhang of the gable roof on each end.

Prior to its use as the station at Strafford, the building served as the station at Wayne. Among “A Few Devon Items” reported in the West Chester Daily Local News on August 9, 1884, it was noted “The old Wayne station was, on last Tuesday, successfully moved by rail from Wayne to Eagle, where it will, after painting and general fixing up, serve as a new passenger station.”

Strafford Station 1970, TEHS Archives

Notes and References

1. The Village Of Spread Eagle by Herb Fry, TEHS Quarterly, vol. 36, # 3 (July 1998).