About Us
Who We Are
The Painter’s Folly Preservation Alliance is a grassroots community advocacy group dedicated to the preservation of Painter’s Folly, a National Register of Historic Places property and principal Chadds Ford landmark, located at 1421 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania 19317.
Mission
The Painter’s Folly Preservation Alliance’s mission is to encourage the preservation and maintenance of Painter’s Folly as a local and nationally significant landmark, and to promote the architectural and cultural significance of the house and property to the public through research and documentation, community outreach, media relations, and professional partnerships.
Vision
Painter’s Folly's historical, architectural, and artistic significance endures through a partnership that stewards the site as a public resource.
About Painter's Folly
Painter’s Folly is a c. 1856-1857 Italianate house located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Painter’s Folly is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is situated in the Chadds Ford Historic District and the Brandywine Battlefield Historic District.
Painter’s Folly is significant for its connection to American art and the artistic interpretation of the Battle of the Brandywine.
Famed American illustrator Howard Pyle operated a summer art school from 1898 to 1903 while residing at Painter’s Folly. Students of Pyle’s Chadd’s Ford art program included John V. Betts, Ethel Franklin Betts, Bertha Corson Day, Clyde O. DeLand, Harvey Dunn, Charlotte Harding, Winfield S. Lukens, Emlen McConnell, Maxfield Parish, Frank C. Schoonover, Jessie Willcox Smith, Sarah Stilwell Weber, and, famously, Newell Convers Wyeth.
Beginning in 1989, Painter’s Folly was used as an art studio and refuge by Andrew Wyeth, and was the subject of multiple titled and untitled works by Wyeth over the course of twenty years.
The property, purchased by Chadds Ford Township in 2018 using Open Space funds, is closed to the public and at risk of being sold in a public auction.
